Back to Shanghai for Doing Business in China Course
May 20th, 2006After spending a month in the U.S. I returned to China yesterday.
I flew from Baltimore to Chicago and then on to Shanghai where I’ll be all next week for the second annual iteration my MBA-level Doing Business in China course.
Twenty-two students are participating this year (we limit the class size partly because too big a group makes it unwieldy to visit some places). The class includes students originally from Africa, Russia, China and the US. All of them are currently enrolled in US-based MBA programs of the University of Maryland (most of them in the part-time program, so they work demanding professional jobs in addition to being graduate students).
The class met twice already in the US. I gave them a crash, half-day course on Chinese culture then a full-day lecture on Chinese history and some contemporary business issues.
Besides the pre-departure lectures, I’ve been emailing them news clippings about China for several months. Also, each student will have read at least one book on China (selected from a list I complied) before arrival. They have, I hope, some basis for appreciating a lot of what they will see.
It seems like a great group and I’m looking forward to exploring Shanghai with them this week. I imagine they will be as enthralled as I was on my first trip (and remain these many years later).
We’ll visit a number of leading firms, including a multinational corporate law firm, investment bank, architectural firm, consulting firm and several interesting and important companies that make products here.
The students will produce a course blog, hosted here.