So What Are You Learning?

In a recent phone conversation with my mother, she expressed how much she enjoyed reading about my travels. She half jokingly mentioned though that I should probably write about what I'm studying as people back home won't actually believe I go to class. The good news is, I really do attend class, and am taking some interesting courses.

The courses offered were of no specific importance; they weren't even all business courses. They were simply a collection of courses that happened to be taught in English. They said, “Here is what we have, choose what you want.” The only requirement is that our course load equaled 30 points, which is at least 5 classes, which is comparable to a full-time student back home.

Sooooo, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to branch out and take some interesting courses. I finally settled on two retailing courses, an economics course, and two political science courses. I ensured all 5 were scheduled between Mon-Wed, allowing me time to travel on weekends, and learn outside of the classroom. Of the 5 classes, my final grade for four of them comes down to the final. For the other, I have to complete a paper and presentation.

In my Retail Marketing class, we have focused so far on consumer behavior, complaint behavior and management (very applicable to my job back home), merchandise management, and pricing. The professor is German, but earned his doctorate in the US, so he speaks very good English and often uses American companies in his examples. He also uses case studies throughout the course, which is very similar to how we are taught at Carlson. I find it makes class a little more interesting and engaging.

In my Strategic Management in Retailing course, we have assessed the international retail market, which is comprised primarily of American companies, all of which I'm familiar with thus this part of the class was a bit of a review for me. We have also looked at defining a retail strategy, segmenting targeting and positioning (STP), and branding. This course is taught by the same professor, so again case studies are used often, and I find it easy to follow along.

My economics course, Economic Expansion in 19th Century Germany and Europe, is a hybrid of a history course and an economics course. It's taught by a young Porche driving German professor, who the Eastern European women seem to fancy. He told us he teaches the class as a favor to the school. Apparently he runs his own business and teaches at a private university, so I'll have to agree with him. I love this course because the professor speaks like an American. He is very aggressive, forward, and direct. When you leave the room you feel like he knows everything in the world, and maybe he likes that. He goes off on all types of tangents, and uses interesting analogies and examples to get his points across.

You may ask how beneficial a history course is to an MBA, but I'm finding it to be highly beneficial. As you can tell from my blog, I have a soft spot for learning about history so my perception may be jaded. That said, the 19th century is the century in which Germany became rich as a country and among the world powers. We have discussed common themes which are present in economics and business today including: outsourcing, technology, free trade, population & labor needs.

I particularly find interesting the phenomenon of outsourcing, which we mistakenly think of as a recent trend. For example, we have discussed how the states became an outsourcing destination for grain during the 19th century. Germany went from the leading exporter of grain to importing it from the US due to the fact that the US could produce it cheaper. As you can see, an understanding of yesterday helps you understand the phenomenon of tomorrow. They are just packaged a little differently.

My first political science course, The Evolution of the EU, discusses the collaboration between the separate nation states beginning after WWII, and the ultimate development of the EU. So far, we have focused on the Lisbon treaty, the role of the European Council, and the role of the EU presidency. The class is taught by the chair of the dept, who is an older witty professor that speaks with a stereotypical German accent.

The second political science course, Governance and Policy Making in the EU, focuses on the EU's role in Europe, and the EU's foreign policy. We've discussed whether the EU is a strong political actor. We've also discussed the role of the EU and military presence. As you can imagine, the US is discussed frequently throughout the seminar, and I find that the course often focuses too much on military conflicts in the world.

We are done meeting as a group for that class, but have to prepare a final presentation, and write a 5000 word paper on a topic of our choice. Due to the recent natural disasters affecting China and Burma, and the rising price of food in third world countries, I selected my topic to be the EU as a humanitarian player. I plan to look at it from a reputation and business aspect and have found a wealth of information on the topic so far. A couple students in the class selected the EU's role in Iran & Iraq. Good luck with that one!

Besides class, I have also done some additional reading. I have re-read one of my favorite books, "The World is Flat". It was published a few years ago, and looks at the role of globalization in our world. It's 600 pages, and is a bit redundant at times, but is a recommended read for everyone, particularly young adults. I'm almost finished with a book titled "In Europe". It's about a Dutch journalist that spent one year traveling through Europe at the end of the 20th century. He recaps the history of Europe beginning in 1900 and ending in 1999. It’s another epic novel, at just over 800 pages, but a pretty good read so far. It's particularly interesting to me as a lot of the places he visits and discusses are places I have visited and experienced over the past seven years.

Besides the classroom and the books though, the ultimate learning experience has been the "field" work I have been conducting. I don't look at it as much as tourism as I do a learning experience. I have yet to take a vacation where all I do is sit on a beach (although that doesn't sound too bad). Instead, I have focused my travels to places that have shaped the way people live their lives.

For example, a walk through Normandy shows you how nationalism and unilateralism can negatively affect nations, people, and businesses. Staring at communist statues in Budapest demonstrates how stifling personal freedoms and creativity and closing your borders to the outside world slows down development and advancement. Both of which produce jobs and ultimately happy people and lives. Walking from a broken down street into an Indian office building shows you the positives of collaboration.

As I move about, I constantly look at what went right, and what went wrong so as to build on and learn from mistakes, and capitalize on the positives. Seeing where people come from helps you understand why things develop the way they do. I travel to learn and understand. I've found that there is plenty out there, and that the journey is long and exciting.