Global Business Administration Inside Harvard Business School FIELD Global Immersion Program
- 글로벌경영학과
- Hit523
- 2022-06-27
35 students from the Department of Global Business Administration met with Harvard University Business School students at the Novotel Ambassador Hotel in Dongdaemun and RYSE Hotel in Hongdae on Thursday, May 16th. The graduate students were discussing and evaluating business strategies of some Korean companies.
As part of the 'FIELD Global Immersion' program, a total of 108 graduate students from the Harvard Business School visited South Korea. The students were divided into groups, and each visited one of a total 18 South Korean companies. These included firms such as KT Corporation and LG Household & Health Care, as well as Big Hit Entertainment, the agency managing BTS. With this unique chance, the students from Harvard Business School were able to experience and learn strategies and corporate cultures proprietary to South Korean companies.
Harvard Business School students oversaw analyzing business cases by considering the point of view of local consumers. Employees from Korean companies and Harvard students had to work together by providing mutual feedback and suggesting directions.
To participate in this event, students from the Department of Global Business Administration had to develop and prepare their business communication skills. The preparation was possible in part due to the Global Business Administration Networking Event, conducted by Professor Josephs Kim.
"I was impressed with the corporate culture where employees work hard and push each other by saying 'let's do our best!'" (Jordan Lebovic, 28).
“It was a really new and memorable experience to go to a karaoke with my co-workers for a dinner, which strengthened our team’s cohesion.” (Rebecca Dausha, 29)
Students had co-worker dinners with their Korean company employees and experienced the Korean karaoke culture. Professor Juan Alcasa, who led the group, was quoted saying "this was an opportunity to experience first-hand the IT industry’s level of development, with technologies such as 5G connectivity, as well as Korea's corporate culture devoted around individual work.”
This visit to Korea is part of the 'FIELD Global Immersion' program, an exploratory endeavor ran by Harvard Business School which started in 2011. After the program’s launch, Harvard Business School has been sending first-year graduate students to locations around the world to broaden their global experiences. Additionally, they have been helping their collaborators by providing advice and solutions to challenges noticed by the students. Harvard University selected 13 cities as candidates this year, including Seoul, New Delhi in India, Helsinki in Finland, and Bogota in Colombia. This year is the first time Seoul has been nominated in this list.
Of the Harvard Business School students, 929 had applied to participate in one of the global trips, and about 250 individuals, or one in four, applied to Seoul. The initial upper limit per city was set at 80 students per city, but due to the high number of applications for Seoul, 108 graduates were ultimately granted permission. Adam Croft, a 30-year-old graduate student said: "I went with Seoul because of the huge popularity of K-pop. I have also been interested in Korea, which is a global leader in the IT and beauty industries."
As mentioned before, the students were divided into 18 teams of 6 students each. These groups visited their corresponding companies and received various assignments from their employers. A cable TV company gave graduate students an assignment about “finding a solution in a system where a high number of elderly customers (who struggle to operate remote controls and set-top boxes) keep calling expert technicians for relatively minor problems.”
Jordan Lebovic, who was assigned to this team, said: "we recommended the company to introduce a video call repair service that helps customers solve their problems remotely, eliminating the need to have a technician physically go to the customer’s location."
"It was sometimes uneasy and awkward for the company's management to point out how employees should dress or style their hair," said Oliver Cassin, a 31-year-old who worked in a restaurant franchise. Croft also remarked: "even though the company I worked with was a relatively young company, it seemed to be very strict with procedures and formalities. I got the impression that it was a bit rigid."
During their visit to South Korea, graduate students met students from Sungkyunkwan University’s Department of Global Business Administration on the 16th and toured the DMZ on the 18th. In their spare time, they also toured around Gyeongbokgung Palace, Gwangjang Market, Noryangjin Fish Market, and Hongik University.
Professor Alcasa said, "Korea needs to be proud of its success story." Harvard Business School students will return to the United States on the 20th to announce the final consulting results.
By Kunchang Lee
[Source: The Chosun Ilbo]
Original Article: [http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/05/20/2019052000271.html]