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"I had never traveled as an undergraduate, and I couldn't believe it when I found myself standing in front of the Taj Mahal in India," said Cathy M. Pareto (BA '95), senior financial advisor, Investor Solutions, Inc., who is now a member of the Executive MBA cohort in the College of Business Administration.
Participants in the EMBA trip to India got to see one of the world's most Pareto was one of twenty-six students, 24 in the current cohort and two alumni, who recently went to India as part of the Executive MBA's new mandatory international trip—called the international residency—a requirement that's drawing a very enthusiastic response from students considering their executive MBA alternatives. "I thought an international trip was an interesting twist to the learning process," Pareto said. "We were told that the trip would give us real world experience. I hadn't seen this type of learning strategy, and since I had put myself through undergraduate school and hadn't had the opportunity to travel abroad, the idea really drew me in." Matthew Millheiser, managing director of Paravel, a small IT consulting company, agreed. He entered the program to take his career to the next level, and had been impressed with the dedication and quality of the faculty and staff in the College when he was evaluating his possible choices. "The mandatory trip sealed the deal for me," said Millheiser. "India is the IT hotspot in the world, and as an IT professional, I wanted to learn about their best practices." One such opportunity occurred at Infosys. "They've developed a global distribution model for application development that's their standard operating procedure," Millheiser said. "It was absolutely eye-opening for me, and I can apply what I learned to the way I do business, even though I do not currently have global operations." Infosys was just one of many companies the group toured. Paying visits to leading companies and getting to talk to senior management is one of the most important aspects of the trip. Students had the opportunity to do so at one dozen leading companies spanning manufacturing, technology, and service in New Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai (Bombay), the trip's primary destinations. In New Delhi, they visited Ranbaxy, the major pharmaceutical company in India; Hero Honda Industries, a manufacturer of two-wheelers; and Everest Industries. In Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, they went to Wipro Limited; MphasiS and the public sector company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), as well as Infosys. And in Mumbai/Bombay, they visited five companies: the Dutch multinational, Philips; Siemens; GlaxoSmithKline; Tata Motors Limited; and the Bombay Dyeing Company, one of the biggest textile manufacturers in India. "Most of the people who presented were very high-level: presidents, senior vice presidents, or CEOs," said Sumit Kundu, Ingersoll-Rand professor in international business and faculty director of the Executive MBA, who made several trips to India to make arrangements, including lining up the appointments with senior management. "They each gave a one- to two-hour talk, explaining the company overview, current strategy, and how they are competing locally and globally, to name a few of the topics they covered." Kundu, who holds two master's degrees from Indian institutions, also used the trip to get the press interested in the travels of the American graduate students and to explore how the trip would mutually benefit the two countries. "Press correspondents for the leading business and financial newspapers, such as Business Standard, Economic Times, and Financial Express, covered our story in all three cities," he said. Though she admitted that aspects of what she witnessed, such as the poverty, troubled her, Pareto returned very impressed by what she saw of the business environment in a country that is rapidly becoming an economic superpower, and she is exploring ways she can include Indian business relationships in her company. "India is gaining power very quickly," she said. "Even though I don't foresee setting up any kind of operations there, the potential for outsourcing and off-shoring in my industry is huge." Pareto, who chose FIU's business school because she felt it was "the premier institution for business in the area," found the experiences life-changing. "I had a misperception about "backward" countries," she said. "As my company looks to portfolios earmarked for other countries, I can more comfortably talk to clients about incorporating these economies. The trip itself was grueling, with an exhausting schedule, but it changed my life. It gave me a fresh perspective, and I needed that." Again, Millheiser agreed. "I did some research before we went, but I had not expected the diversity, the drive and determination, and the burgeoning middle class," he said. "The sense of entrepreneurship and innovation is almost palpable." Unfortunately, the planned session with the president of India did not materialize due to the national emergency in Mumbai—flash floods during the third week in July, whose devastating effects closely paralleled those of Hurricane Katrina. However, he promised a future meeting, should another Executive MBA group visit. The program chose India as the destination for its trip because of the country's emergence as a business powerhouse. "The Indian business environment is one of the fastest-growing in the world today, behind only China," Kundu said. "Therefore, it is imperative for international business students to learn about its business situation, including how it has evolved to attract more international investment groups and how it plans to face global competition." Clifford Perry, associate dean of academic affairs and undergraduate programs, also went on the trip.
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