Making Business Global: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Flores MBA Program’s Global Immersion Experiences

After a long-awaited hiatus, the LSU Flores MBA Program recently reinstated international travel into its curriculum. Our Full-Time and Online students were excited to travel to Barcelona and Lisbon in March, while our Executive MBA Flex students eagerly set out on their trek to Singapore and Vietnam. On each trip, students enjoyed a dynamic variety of cultural and business visits, giving them a holistic travel experience in each of their trips’ destinations.

To provide a unique, behind-the-scenes perspective of our global immersion trips, we talked with Krista Raney, Flores Executive MBA Flex Student and LSU Foundation Senior Vice President of Development, and W. Chandler Black, Flores MBA One-Year Student, to learn some of the ways that their global immersion experiences helped them to grow into more well-rounded business professionals.

Talk about some of the cultural aspects of your trip that stood out to you.

Krista Raney: Singapore is a place that people should just see. I've never seen a place so carefully curated, and what really struck me, for example, was the Raffles MRT Subway stop. When you come up out of that area, the soul of Singapore is right there. You have beautiful stained glass on the side of one skyscraper, a map of the globe made of greenery- it’s just very carefully curated. You could see why a company would want to do business there and why it's a global business community. This is a place that has almost completely postured itself to say, “Come here. Do business. It will be easy, and it will be seamless.”

Vietnam was a cultural immersion in a completely different way. There are so many cultural elements that were very different, which produced a different energy. So many people travel on mopeds here! When I'm driving on I-10 I don't necessarily feel the energy; I feel more of the frustration. In Vietnam, it's a constant pulse because you have all these people moving in a very different mode of transportation.

Chandler Black: Other than the superb culinary immersion, I was fascinated and comforted by the care that both Barcelona and Lisbon showed toward people. There’s a deep seeded level of appreciation for enjoying the company of others that’s built into everyday life. It was highlighted with elongated lunches and late dinners centered on relishing the present moment and fostering relationships. This same essence was continued in everyday interactions I had with locals and even with the attitude they had toward work. I was refreshed to experience the promotion of people as the core of living a good life.

 

What was the most interesting business practice you learned while abroad? 

Krista Raney: In Singapore, we met with an entrepreneur, Kris Chew, and it quickly struck me that it’s very easy to start a business here. He talked about the fact that you can go online and within 15 minutes you can start a business. The Singapore government has done a great job digitizing everything you need to get up and running. I thought that was incredible to see that kind of cooperation.

Here in America, if you pay your mortgage, in 30 years you own your house, but in Vietnam, it doesn’t work that way. The government owns all the land, so it's almost like you have these like long-term leases. We had a lot of questions about how that works, especially if you're a company considering a foreign direct investment. What's the game plan there?

Chandler Black: The right to disconnect stood out to me. The notion is simple: employers can’t contact their employees outside their normal work hours. The sentiment around this, from both employers and employees, was overwhelmingly positive. Workers get to focus on life outside of work and are more motivated to do their jobs, and sub-sequentially, employers get more output and less burnout from their staff.

 

How did the trip add to your MBA experience and help you grow as a professional?

Krista Raney: By this point, we've completed most of our core classes, and we were able to actively participate in business conversations abroad. It’s very solidifying in a real-world way.

It was also incredible to think, in both of our destinations, about international cooperation and investment. There are companies that we work with at LSU that have a global presence in both of those places, and now I can participate in the conversation having been on the ground. It was such an instructive experience.

Lastly, with what I do as a fundraiser, I raise money for students to study abroad all the time, but I never did because I didn’t have the financial means to do so as an undergrad. It was an incredible experience to get to travel under the brand of LSU Flores MBA Program and to experience an increased level of access to these places.

Chandler Black: This experience furthered the communication and relationship-building aspect that the Flores MBA Program has provided me with thus far. It displayed that these skill sets don’t just apply domestically, but globally. Filiz Akdede, the general manager of Large Format Printing at HP in Western Europe, was one of our standout business speakers. She put into perspective the value of trusting a team to accomplish large-scale projects. I will carry and apply these tactics for the rest of my career.

I’ve also been inspired to seek out more experiences that will challenge my existing perspective of not only business but also life. New perspectives lead to growth, which I believe is something all leaders should constantly strive for in their professional careers.

 

About the Flores MBA Program

The mission of the LSU Flores MBA Program is to remain competitive in the national and regional markets while fostering learning, leadership, and networking in a global business environment. Full-time, executive, and online tracks are offered and provide schedule flexibility for those wishing to pursue their MBA from a nationally recognized program. For more information, visit lsu.edu/business/mba or call 225-578-8867.