“Business in Europe means knowing what is happening from a political, ethical, regulatory and technological perspective within the EU and in the world overall,” said Francesca Sagui, a participant in RSM’s OneMBA Class of 2017. “A global perspective today is crucial to be able to take the right decisions, within the EU, in such a complex context.”
Company visits
The European residency is part of the Global Executive OneMBA curriculum, and kicked off on RSM’s campus in Rotterdam on 14 March 2016. The next day, professionals visited ISM eCompany, Port of Rotterdam Authority and Royal Vopak for company visits. The group flew to Warsaw, Poland for the second part of the study programme. In Warsaw, the OneMBA participants visited Optima Logistics, security company PCO, health and life quality organisation VIMED, cosmetics company Dr Irena Eris, consultancy company PKF Polska, and IT firm BV Grupa.
During the week-long residency, the participants also attended lectures by prominent speakers, including Janusz Lewandowski, Polish politician and economist; Radoslaw Pyffel, president and co-founder of Poland Asia Research Center; and Prof. Jan Peter Balkenende, former prime minister of the Netherlands and partner at EY.
“EU: the centre of economic gravity”
RSM OneMBA participant Brent van Rossem said his negative outlook on the future of Europe has changed during the residency. “I’m now convinced that the EU has a bright future ahead. Through people, capital, goods and services, the EU has become a centre of economic gravity, being the largest economic block in the world, with diverse innovative and competitive industries.”
Van Rossem said he also learned that the EU allows member states to serve their self-interests through decentralised power and serves member states to co-ordinated solutions to common challenges, like trade agreements, consumer protection, human rights, democracy while allowing diversity and national sovereignty. “The larger the European crises, the stronger the European integration,” he said.
Trade agreements
“The past decades have shown us that every time a supranational European crises emerged countries look at Europe to come up with supranational solutions,” said Van Rossem, adding that the OneMBA’s European residency also discussed how the EU ‘exports’ its values on democracy, free trade and human rights to its trading partners globally through trade agreements.
In total, there were 106 participants from all OneMBA Classes of 2017 from the programme’s five business schools: Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo da Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) in Brazil; School of Management, Xiamen University (SMXMU) in China; EGADE Business School Tecnológico de Monterrey (EGADE Business School) in Mexico; Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) in the Netherlands, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Kenan-Flagler Business School in the USA.
The residency concluded with a festive closing dinner at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Friday 18 March.
Global Executive OneMBA
The 21-month Global Executive OneMBA programme is the only Executive MBA programme designed with equal input from five premier business schools located in Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Senior executives and professionals experience business through the lens of the world’s most important economic regions, making it unparalleled in its development of knowledge, leadership abilities, global networks and experience of international business where it happens, as it happens.
The OneMBA Class of 2017’s participants also gathered for their global residency in Washington DC in October 2015 to explore global business just after starting the programme.
