Some enterprising students, equipped with scholarships, business contacts and a faculty-inspired challenge, orchestrated the Marriott School of Management's first foreign business excursion to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The idea originated with Lee Radebaugh, executive director of Brigham Young University's Kay and Yvonne Whitmore Global Management Center. He recommended it to Aaron Burt and Christian Hsieh, two recipients of the prestigious Eccles Scholarship that provides funding for foreign business experiences. What the students came up with was a whirlwind tour of Dubai's economic hot spots this summer, including meeting with executives of eight major corporations in five days. It was so successful that the trip will be used as a model for future excursions.
"We're trying to identify different experiences for students to enhance their international understanding," Radebaugh says. "Foreign business excursions will be a unique option for MBA students in addition to our regular menu of international opportunities."
Burt, a first-year MBA student from Sandy, Utah, contributed his Arabic language skill and Middle Eastern experience to the planning process. Hsieh, a first-year MBA student from Taipei, Taiwan, tapped his business and personal contacts in the region. With a slumping U.S. economy turning investors' attention to emerging markets, Dubai's booming tourism, financial services, and real estate markets attracted a delegation of six first-year MBA students, three MBA graduates, two BYU undergraduates and two advisers.
The students reported that Dubai is an ideal place for Marriott School students to start careers because of the tremendous growth opportunities and the culture's support of values similar to those in the BYU Honor Code, such as refraining from smoking and drinking.
"The top business schools in the world are sending students to the Middle East," says Kim Smith, managing director of the H. Taylor Peery Institute of Financial Services and one of the trip's facilitators. "The trip was a way to broaden the international exposure of students, and it helped the executives in the region to think favorably about Marriott School students when compared to those from other top programs."
In fact, after the group visited Barclays - the largest bank in the United Kingdom and biggest mortgage lender in Dubai - the bank's representative was so impressed that despite having no current openings in Dubai he offered Burt an internship in Moscow. It's a perfect fit for Burt who served a mission in Russia and majored in Russian before earning his MBA.
In addition to networking and representing the Marriott School, the students also expanded their understanding of international business practices, including the significant impact of cultural nuances. For example, families tend to be bigger in Dubai than in the United States, which combined with relatively cheap gas prices helps explain the popularity of SUV's among locals.
"It helped us learn to think outside the box and see how things are done differently in other countries," says Hsieh, the trip's principal organizer. "It taught us a new way of thinking - giving us an international mentality."
The group met with executives from several local companies thriving on Dubai's growth, including the Masdar Institute, a state-sponsored alternative energy company; the Dubai Group, an investment holding company; and Nakheel, one of the largest real estate developers there and creator of the iconic Palm Islands resort community. They also met with executives from foreign-based companies making strides in Dubai, including General Motors, Credit Suisse and Dow Chemical.
The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school's mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School's graduate and undergraduate programs.
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Writer: Arie Dekker