Bettina Suanno, International MBA Candidate 2011, writes about her experience during the Short Exchange in Singapore.
As part of my MBA electives I took a class that simply changed the way I think about South East Asia. The course was named “Doing business in South East Asia”, but it was really a lot more than that.
The whole experience was incredible, beginning with the fact that it took place in Singapore, along with other 27 students who traveled to that amazing place and stayed there for one week. The first day we did a city tour and visited different locations including the Marina Barrage, an impressive dam constructed to provide water to the city and to control floods. We also went to the Flyer and the Asian Civilisations Museum who was really fascinating.
After the touristic view of the city we received remarkable lectures in the astonishing Nanyang Technological University of Singapore during the week. We had excellent professors from Nanyang giving us all the information about the historical and political overview of South East Asia, religion & culture of the region, Asian business environment, leadership, management and working styles in Asia. We had a final lecture about Asian Business communication and Negotiation styles.
In order to have a better scope of the business environment, we also visited companies located in Singapore such as DHL, Cysco System and the Jay Gee Melwani Group (retail sector). I have to admit that DHL was my favorite; it was simply amazing to see one of the hubs of this company operating.
I am from Latin America; I really wanted to visit and get to know Asia because of its emerging giant economies. I had the opportunity not only to see it in a business perspective, but also to live it and understand it through incredible lectures and experiences as part of my MBA program. I have a passion for traveling, but this experience was beyond traveling; it was about really understanding how and why South East Asia is leading the world.
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