From March 2-6, EGADE Business School Santa Fe hosted the fifth Global Network Week, an intensive, weeklong program for MBA students from the 27 business schools that are members of the Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM), of which EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey is a founding partner. This time, Global Network Week was held simultaneously in 18 international business schools in 19 countries on five continents, with a total of 634 students participating.
Global Network Week is one of GNAM’s main initiatives, whose goal it is to prepare leaders who are capable of understanding the diversity and complexity of business in an interconnected world from a global–regional–local perspective, of identifying new opportunities for growth, and of mobilizing resources globally to help organizations be successful and sustainable.
With this goal in mind, Global Network Week offers a unique international experience of immersion and time spent with international students and professors, taking advantage of different academic focuses, programs, and expert knowledge of professors from each of the participating schools.
This time, a group of 22 students from EGADE Business School, Yale School of Management (United States), FGV Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), Hitotsubashi University (Japan), Pontificia Universidad Católica of the Chile School of Business (Chile), and the INCAE Business School (Costa Rica) took the course “Roadmap for Business Management in Latin America,” where some of the topics covered included entrepreneurship and innovation in Mexico, global leadership in Latin America, internationalization strategies in Latin American businesses, the logic of services in the region, and the development of cultural intelligence to do business in Lain American countries. The students were from twelve different countries: Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, 15 EGADE Business School students visited other business schools that are members of GNAM to immerse themselves in courses on local business environments in their global context, including HEC Paris (France); Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School (China); IE Business School (Spain); Pontificia Universidad Católica of the Chile School of Business (Chile); Renmin University of the China School of Business (China); Sauder School of Business of the University of British Columbia (Canada), and Yale School of Management (United States).
Dr. Fernando Moya, director of the Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) at EGADE Business School Mexico City, explained that Global Network Week gave MBA students the opportunity to carry out intensive studies and to have a very valuable experience in another school from the GNAM network. “These concentrated courses take advantage of the viewpoints, the programs, and the expert knowledge of the business schools where they are given. Together with their peers from other schools, the students take classes, visit companies in the region, and meet experts focused on the business problems of today.”
The interaction and exchange of practices and knowledge between business schools from different regions, countries, cultures, and economies at different levels of development favor a holistic understanding that is essential to the development of global leaders, said Dr. Eric Porras, director of the Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) at EGADE Business School Santa Fe. “We are attempting to make an impact and leave a mark on the students so that they can be true global leaders and not just regional leaders, because in a globalized world, it is important for students to understand different contexts, regions, and how companies interact with their counterparts in other parts of the world… Global Network Week is part of the students’ education and of their MBA, because learning about a different context from the one where they study is fundamental for the formation of a complete MBA,” he added.
Rebecca Gong, a student from the Yale School of Management, stated that Global Network Week surpassed her expectations. “There were two things that stood out for my MBA. The first is that it is not simply an exchange program, but is truly a global network with many nationalities represented, which livens the debate about business cases through several viewpoints. I think that this wide range of ideas has made it very special, different from any other exchange program. The second thing is that EGADE Business School has given me the opportunity to understand how different policies and opportunities for economic development and different business practices work on the Latin American continent, not just in Mexico.”
Fernanda Sabazzi, a student from the FGV Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), also shared the benefits of her experience at EGADE Business School. “I applied for this experience in Mexico to learn about what is happening in Latin America, because I work in Brazil and I deal a lot with Latin American customers. It has been a great experience. Meeting excellent professors and students from all over the world has been very exciting. If you get the change to come, you should.”
Meanwhile, student Donna Lecky, also from the Yale School of Management, stated that, “Global Network Week has been a phenomenal experience, because the professors have taught us everything from strategy and implementation to leadership and business in Mexico. It has been a very wide-ranging experience and I have also learned a lot about how important culture is when doing business.”