Executives travel around the globe
Sergio Sanz.
Madrid
Nearly 40 executives, ten of which are Spanish, are participating in the star programme organized jointly by ESADE and Georgetown in seven cities across three continents.
ESADE didn’t need 80 days to organise its particular journey around the world in which 37 executives from 15 different countries are taking part. In 66 days total –spread out over six 11-day modules in the span of one year– the executives enrolled in the first edition of the Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) organised jointly by the Spanish school and Georgetown University in the US, will travel to seven cities in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
The first stop, which will last until the end of June, is Washington where participants are establishing contacts with the country’s political community, with visits to the State Department and the Secretary of Commerce as a practical complement to the thematic blocks taught in class. GEMBA’s Academic Director, Pedro Parada, explains that, in addition to the basic classes (marketing, finance, etc.), the programme organises other “activities linked to the local place.” In Barcelona, the subject matter is industrial globalisation; in Moscow, the energy sector; in New York, financial markets; in Bangalore, India’s technological strength; and in Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, the programme will focus on the potential of the emergent markets in the two Latin American countries.
Jaime Santamaría, Director of Human Resources and Services for Unión Fenosa Gas, declares that he chose to participate in this programme because of “the opportunity to go to places where things are happening and see what’s being talked about in class.”
international relations
For Juan Ramos, Packaging Innovation Purchase Manager in Switzerland for the multinational Procter & Gamble, GEMBA not only offers him the possibility to refresh what he learned about economics twelve years ago at university; he will also be “exploring international political problems in-depth” and their influence on the economy since the programme is endorsed by the world’s most prestigious school of international relations ascribed to Georgetown.
Both SantamarÍa and Ramos also value the possibility of being in contact with executives from different industries and countries. Programme participants include a member of the United States Marine Corps and a Russian businessman. However, GEMBA's protagonists are executives with an average of 15 years’ professional experience in companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, Banco Santander and Gas Natural. In some cases, their companies have financed the programme while others, such as Juan Ramos, have had to pay the more than €80,000 on their own (not including travel expenses). However, Procter & Gamble is collaborating by allowing him to attend classes without having to use up his holiday time.
Schedule
- June 2008: Washington DC (United States).
- August and September 2008: Barcelona (Spain).
- November 2008: Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Sao Paulo (Brazil).
- February 2009: Bangalore (India).
- May 2009: Moscow (Russia) and Barcelona (Spain).
- August 2009: New York and Washington DC (United States).
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