International Residency Scouting Trip

EMBA Directors Travel To Consider Future Residencies, Share Ideas

One of the most costly but invaluable pieces of an EMBA program is the international residency, wherein students travel abroad for business immersion in the context of political, historical, and cultural differences. Planning these trips generally requires experience in the market (or a travel partner with that experience, or both) and a solid alumni base to create worthwhile company visits that help MBAs understand both the obvious complexities and subtleties of running global businesses.

To that end and specifically to consider the viability –amid recent bad press--of the UAE and India as international residency destinations, our travel partner Accent Travel/TravelMBA/Worldstrides put together an amazing scouting trip for directors from various US-based EMBA and PMBA programs. Pictured at the Taj Mahal clockwise—me from Vanderbilt (in the white sweater) and colleagues from Thunderbird, University of Arizona, Rice, Duke, Jake at Accent Travel, Uof L, UGA, UNC, Northwestern, Earl (the ring leader from Accent Travel—THANKS!!!), Auburn, UVA, Yale, George Mason, Wharton, and Lauren from Accent Travel.

This extraordinary experience took us on a tour in the United Arab Emirates and India. How can I explain differences between these two worlds?

In Dubai and Abu Dhabi,

• Everything is new since the 1970s—wealth creation via oil, aluminum, and tourism. History in the UAE is written anew almost daily, with a new “first, biggest, best.” Abundance is the word for everything. One sees the tallest building in the world (called Burj Dubai until opening day in January so the signs are already yesterday’s news!), the latest model cars almost exclusively, the most famous horses, the greenest golf course (yes, in a desert, requiring 2 million gallons of desalinized water daily!), the most unique resort properties like the Palm and the Burj Al Arab (pictured), the largest shopping mall with 1200 stores and an indoor snow skiing facility, and the list goes on.


• In Dubai 8O% of people are expats. Everyone speaks several languages flawlessly, and the people are all beautiful. If you want an international career—and speak several languages--this is the place to start. It is a unique global hub that is 40% business (with incredible infrastructure) and 60% tourism. It is known for tolerance. Looking a little closer, this place that defaulted on $6B still boasts zero unemployment; this is kept in check by the requirement for expats to find work within 30 days or leave. And still they come. Yes, there is still plenty going on for this to be a worthy business study.

Then we turned to India. My second trip to this incredible country was made more dramatic by its contrasts to the UAE.

• Few places can compete with the history and mystery of India.


• The faces of poverty are many—but often beautiful. Those that are not are faces of people struggling in the streets in such mass that most Westerners cannot fathom. Real problems associated with managing society and infrastructure provide the most challenging business opportunity for solving the most basic needs—clean water, access to medical care, roadways, housing, etc.


• But the desire to live honorably (in whatever conditions), and the desire to work hard are the rules of this society. No one is idle. Everyone is an entrepreneur on the scale of one's imagination, ability or as dictated by the need for survival. It’s no surprise that some of the best technical minds come out of this place including 400,000 engineering graduates a year.
  
• I had the pleasure of catching up with Alban Cambournac EMBA 07 and his wife, Elise (pictured right) who are French citizens recently moved from Nashville to Bangalore with Schneider and Cognizant, respectively. Their very globally minded children are immersed in a private Indian primary school.


• The Taj really should be on everyone’s bucket list. I will not even attempt to describe it but will say that you have to go; the pictures cannot do it justice. A Wonder of the World, indeed.

I want to publicly and enthusiastically thank all the contributors of time, money, and hospitality in making this trip a possibility for our 14 schools: Accent Travel/TravelMBA/WorldStrides and their on the ground partners Eastbound and Arabian Adventures, Jumeirah Group, Emirates Airlines, Emirates Towers, The Taj, The Oberoi Group, The Sheraton Dubai Creek, Infosys, and Wipro. I have now stayed in the finest hotels, eaten the most amazing food, had my most comfortable air travel experience ever imaginable, and even rode a camel. (He looked a lot more ambivalent than I felt about it.)

In fact, the camels provided the only lukewarm reception to our visit. Although this spring my EMBAs will be in Brazil, yes I will come back to the UAE and India with students.