The Hindu Business Line : From Yale to a country `exploding with opportunity'

New experience
The `International Experience' component is mandatory in the school's new MBA curriculum that was launched in September this year, and the tour experience is expected to come handy in the semester following the trip.

Chennai , Dec. 20

Sample this schedule: Meeting the Union Commerce Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, for a discussion on India's economic development. Then a visit to ChrysCapital and Thomas Weisel India Opportunity Fund to learn how private equity firms view India.

Also interaction with: Procter & Gamble, to study how the global consumer goods major operates here; Target Corporation, to know about cross-border joint ventures; and Lea Consulting, for an examination of transportation bottleneck issues.

Plus, a visit to `Taj Mahal, and an English-speaking elementary school,' apart from interfacing with Mumbai's film industry.

Whose schedule is this? Of the first-year MBA students from the Yale School of Management, US, when they visit India during the first two weeks of January 2007, as part of `the school's first International Experience'.

Why India? "The perfect place to illustrate to students how to see and take advantage of business opportunities," says Mr Paul Bracken, Professor of Management and Political Science, in a release from www.mba.yale.edu.

"This is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The country is exploding with opportunity."

Mr Bracken, who is to lead the India trip, reasons that as a manager, you can't only focus on fixing a problem that's in front of you; you must also be able to identify opportunities.

His colleagues will be leading other groups of students — to seven other destinations, viz. "Argentina, China, Costa Rica, Japan, Singapore, a combined trip to England and Poland, and another combined trip to South Africa and Tanzania."

The `International Experience' component is mandatory in the school's new MBA curriculum that was launched in September this year, and the tour experience is expected to come handy in the semester following the trip.

How would it help? Mr Joel M. Podolny, the school's Dean offers an example in Yale's communiqué: "When the sourcing and managing funds class is learning about raising capital and a student is able to offer anecdotes from the conversation she had over dinner with the leaders of a major private equity firm in India, it elevates the discussion and class experience to a new level."

Interestingly, "the students have initiated a campaign to purchase a portfolio of certified emissions reductions."

Why? Because the School of Management's mission speaks of linking business and society, and the students want `to offset the carbon emissions that their international travel will create'!