In an effort to bridge the gap between North and Latin American business, a new ASU program will encourage students to build global networks.
Effective fall 2020, W. P. Carey School of Business has teamed up with Tecnológico de Monterrey's Escuela de Graduados en Administración y Dirección de Empresas (EGADE) for a new international partnership that is specific for Executive MBA students.
The Executive MBA program is intended to help students gain skills in strategic and critical thinking, international relations and data analytics.
EGADE is recognized as one of the most prestigious business schools in Latin America. According to the EGADE website, one of its main focuses is on innovation and technology to increase growth in the global world.
Amy Hillman, dean of W. P. Carey School of Business, said this is a 15-month program in which MBA students spend a one-month session in Mexico and two sessions at ASU. Students also have to spend two weeks in a country of their choosing for a global intensive immersion program.
“ASU and Tech de Monterrey have a long-standing relationship," Hillman said. "We are both very innovative universities and we have embraced different forms of learning, and we value the same thing and we wanted to set our faculty teams out to create an innovative approach to learning.”
To be considered for this Executive MBA, students must be working professionals who have eight to 10 years of work experience. Students will learn online and face to face with EGADE and ASU W. P. Carey.
Hillman said the program will foster relationships with large, multinational corporations through sponsorships for mid-level managers moving quickly in their organizations.
According to Hillman, students participating in this program do not have to quit their job to go back to school.
Students can continue working at their current job and could be sponsored by the company they work for to complete their Executive MBA and attend a few sessions each month, both online and in-person.
Gerry Keim, faculty program director of the Executive MBA, said his main role in the program is to manage the academic side, work with faculty and students while also teaching a course in the program.
Some of the courses offered in this program are business law, corporate finance, and negotiations and conflict resolution.
Rivadavia Alvarenga Neto, clinical assistant professor at W. P. Carey, will be teaching an innovation course, which is a speciality for students in the program. He said that his course will focus on innovation in a global perspective.
Many courses similar to the innovation course will focus on hands-on learning and strategic thinking in order to help students apply their knowledge in the business world.
Neto also highlighted the importance of the global aspect of this program.
“I have learned to respect different cultures to gain cultural sensitivity to understand problems using different lenses," Neto said.
Students will have an opportunity to immerse themselves in the culture of Mexico and the specific country that they choose for the global intensive program by visiting cultural and historical landmarks.
“It is a program that covers all the basics in business," Hillman said. "In an executive perspective, not only to program data, but to understand data and motivate others on how to think strategically."
In terms of the global and cultural perspective, the new partnership offers opportunities for students to interact globally and work on hands-on projects.
To emphasize diversity and global engagement in the program, the program selects students from North and Latin America. Students then are taught to compare analytics from two or more separate countries to then apply those skills in different business environments.
"I think (global involvement) is really important," Hillman said. "For anyone who has experience living, working or studying in another country, one just doesn't see the world the same way after that."
Reach the reporter at anatar12@asu.edu or follow @AnushaNat1 on Twitter.
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