San Diego State's Global Perspective

(page 3 of 3)

Dean Gail Naughton
San Diego State University

Story Tools

• post a comment
• e-mail this story
• print this story
• order a reprint
• digg this
• save to del.icio.us

How did you determine which regions to choose?

The U.S., China, and India were obvious choices. The Middle East was one that was key to us for a couple of reasons. The American University of Beirut, as an example, is a top school and very much dedicated to good global governance, which is important for our students to learn. In addition, there's tremendous growth opportunity throughout the Middle East, and there's a tremendous amount of high-tech, biotech, and wireless activity within Israel.

Should this have been happening sooner, and will other B-schools respond with similar global entrepreneurship programs?

You can never do things early enough. If we started this six months ago, it may have been perfect timing. Still, I think the timing is excellent right now because there's a momentum of growth and corporate enthusiasm within the various locations we'll be visiting. The corporate partners now have a firm hold in those regions. Instead of just starting out in China, they already have an established presence and leadership there, so that's good timing.

I think any major business school is going to need to put in some kind of program that addresses globalization. With the Internet and the way we communicate right now, there's no business that's going to be isolated from globalization. It's going to be integral for us to go and teach our business leaders the path to successful globalization.

What do you think is the biggest mistake that B-schools are making when introducing globalization into the curriculum?

I wanted to avoid just giving a perfunctory introduction to a culture or geographic location. To go and visit someplace for a week truly doesn't let you understand the culture and the differences and similarities of doing business in that area. You need to absorb it and see various types of academic and corporate settings. You need to learn the history of the region and traditionally what kinds of businesses have been successful there. You need to be able to put together this information to then understand not only what kind of businesses can be done there, but the best hiring and retention practices and how cultural differences will affect you as a manager or leader in that area.

Does the Ugly American still exist?

Yes, the Ugly American certainly does exist. I saw it firsthand when I was in business not too long ago. We still are arrogant in thinking that the way we do business in the U.S. is the way business should be done everywhere else. We truly, in many instances, haven't respected the fact that local culture and very often religion play a major role in negotiations and how to deal with the workforce effectively. We have tried to force-fit our own way of doing business into the various cultures. That's just not acceptable anymore. It's anti-efficient and anti-productive.

Di Meglio is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com in Fort Lee, N.J.