International

Beijing - Executive MBA

California State University - Hayward

The Beijing Executive MBA Program enrolled top-level managers of China’s leading corporations and a number of multinational corporations. The program was established in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Dr. Nancy Mangold was instrumental in developing this EMBA since she is Chinese-American.

In the EMBA - Beijing, I taught the first class in the program and had to do some major unplanned resets. These resets are mentioned here to let a reader understand better the caveats of creating foreign programs.

The first reset was to deal with mass cheating on the exam given at the beginning of face to face lectures. We gave them an exam right before the first class to ensure they had read specific materials to ensure a rapid start during the concentrated two week class. This was not the student's fault. Our experiences in former colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore had students already familiar with Western values. I also had the ombudsman for the class explain to students about Western approaches to learning and cheating. A rewritten exam was given to the class the next day.

The second reset was I had to fire the local management team for taping the lectures via a see through mirror. I was able to work with Dean Tontz and Dr. Nancy Mangold to replace the management team with minimal damage to the program.

Transnational - Executive MBA

California State University - Hayward

The Transnational Executive MBA (TEMBA) was delivered partly in the United States and partly in international locations. TEMBA was built around bottom line projects the students would do that would more than recover the cost of the program to their company. I worked with Dr. Shyam Kamath, one of the most driven professors I have worked with as he demanded excellence in everyone from staff to the students. The admissions process we put the students through was the most rigorous of any I had and would be a part of in the future. I learned a lot from Dr. Kamath.

Singapore - Executive MBA

California State University - Hayward

The Singapore - Executive MBA was developed in collaboration with the Hartford Management Centre in Singapore. The program is targeted at mid-career and senior-level managers in the region. I particularly loved this program as the students were top notch, the facilities impeccable, and Singapore was a marvelous place to unwind in after a class.

Hong Kong - MBA

California State University - Hayward

The Hong Kong - MBA was established in collaboration with the United Institute of International Education in Hong Kong, although we learned very quickly that students preferred American professors, so staffing was almost 100% United States faculty. We were one of the first MBA programs in Hong Kong, which is now saturated with such programs. Graduates occupied high-level management positions in many multinational and regional companies. The MBA - Hong Kong was one of the easiest to establish because we had more students apply than in any other program. We also had a very good management team working for us in Hong Kong.

South Korea - LG Corporation

Roadmaps Institute

LG Corporation, formerly Lucky-Goldstar from 1983 to 1995, is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation. It is the fourth-largest chaebol in South Korea. I had presented a few years earlier at a Korean Management Association event, and that in part led to an development of a one week program where I went over as many World-Class Management Step Charts as possible with managers of LG Corporations supply chains.

Language barriers were a bit more difficult than with Chinese, Japanese, and Singapore managers. The issue was resolved with a change of interpreter. But, coverage was reduced to account for the pauses.

Australia - Raytheon SCM Seminars

Roadmaps Institute

I was invited by Mick Lavers of Raytheon to deliver seminars in Canberra and one in Melbourne. Dr. Starling added on some other seminars and meetings in Sydney, taking full advantage of the time in Australia.

Sidenote: I gave an additional presentation to Australian Department of Defense personnel andsupplliers at The National Library auditorium. Upon ending the presentation, men in suits with guns showed up and asked us to clear out of the auditorium as soon as we could. As I left, the King of Sweden came in to present!

Shanghai - SCM Seminars

Roadmaps Institute

I worked with an excellent management team called Biz Engines in Shaghai to set up this series of seminars covering many of the World-Class Management Step Charts provided by the Roadmaps Institute. An irony is almost all managers in attendance were from Japan running Japanese factories in the Shanghai Area.