China Blog#1: Pre-Departure (Shalanna, Jeffrey, and Vahid)

In less than ten days, our Global Partners cohort will embark on a journey to one of the world’s oldest civilizations with 4000 years of continuous history – China.  Specifically, we’ll visit three major cities including the most populous city with over 19 million residents, Shanghai, one of the main industrial centers, Qingdao, and the capital city, Beijing.  According to the schedule, we’ll visit 15+ different companies.  In addition, we’ll attend several cultural sites such as The Greet Wall, and The Summer Palace.  Furthermore, we’ll meet students at Peking University from Guanghua School of Management.

During our visits, our three-member group, Shalanna Hill, Jeffrey Royal, and I (Vahid R. Ghabel), will be updating you with our own experiences and reflections based on our daily business and cultural visits.  We’ll have these updates posted after each visit.  One of our primary objectives is to predict the future of China whether if it will “lead the world or falter by the wayside”.

Our group is extremely excited about this intensive two-week field experience as it allows us to not only learn about the Chinese dynamic business environment, but also its cultural impacts on both local and global scale.  One of the main challenges that we as a group will be faced with is the language barrier especially in Qingdao.  Jeffrey has already been to China in recent years; however, Shalanna and I will be visiting China for the first time.  It’s difficult to predict the future, but we feel confident that our unique personal and professional background will help us to bring you a panoramic version of this experience.

What to expect on our next blog: Further information regarding our group members’ perspectives/expectations/interests prior to our departure (April 8^th).

Please feel free to share us with your comments, suggestions, recommendations, and feedbacks.

Classes and beaches and mountains and more!

“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” – Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho

Bus 1 (the ladies) plus our wonderful bus driver Flavio

After spending over a month in Rio, it began to feel like home. The warm weather, nearby beaches, and laid-back attitude were all very easy to embrace. We had a wide variety of interesting courses (including organizational behavior, international finance, IT and logistics) as well as really fascinating corporate visits.

We had on-site corporate visits at: Nova America Shopping, part of a large (top); one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, Globo Studios (bottom left); and Bio-Rio, an incubator for new biological sciences companies (bottom right).

As the BRIC concept turns 10 years old this year, I think it important to reflect on this idea and what it means to both the US and the overall global economy. Seeing the lucrative, technologically advanced companies in Brazil reinforced thoughts that Brazil truly is growing into a major world economic power. Life in Ipanema Beach did not feel like living in an “emerging market” or a “third-world country”. We had the luxuries of internet, TV, and many nearby shops and restaurants that catered to local Brazilian consumers as much or more than tourists. Rather, as I mentioned already, Ipanema felt much like home. Clearly, Brazil still has more development to go and social obstacles to face, but as my first visit to a BRIC country, I am hopeful and optimistic about the future.

In fact, I close with a recommendation to read this recent column from Goldman Sach’s Jim O’Neil about future implications for the US and the BRIC countries: http://www.investmentweek.co.uk/investment-week/opinion/1938970/brics