Traveling while Studying for a Masters (Quick Reads)

Helpful for: Masters Applicants

Read Time: 8 minutes

Quick Facts:

• The International Masters Program for Managers (IMPM) is a partnership between Desautels Faculty of Management in Canada, Lancaster Management School in Britain, FGV in Brazil, Renmin University in China, and IIMB in India.
• Isabelle Graveline, a student of the program, got to travel for 16 months around the world, expanding her business knowledge through different modules, with the final one, Worldly Mindset, taught in India.
• The Worldly Mindset module had students from 12 different cultures, aimed at understanding what India represents as a nation.
• Isabelle witnessed how inhabitants of rural areas made a living through micro-financing social projects in order to escape poverty.
• Microfinancing is when small loans are given to individuals who struggle with traditional banking services in order to help them start a business.
• Isabelle also visited the biopharmaceutical company Biocon/Syngene, founded in a garage in 1978 by Mazumdar-Shaw. Its founder is listed on the Financial Times top 50 women in business and the 77^th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. Her company is now worth over $1.5 billion. Isabelle adds:

Selected Quote:

In this company, the biggest stakeholders are the employees. The firm’s focus on meeting its workers’ expectations really resonated with me. These visits and experiences affected me deeply. I now regularly question and re-evaluate my behavior, values and entire organizational ethos. I have learnt to listen more and talk less. I understand that the collective wisdom of the group is far more powerful than my own thought processes. For example, I facilitate our senior management meetings by being far more curious. I consciously make sure to slow down and consider everyone’s viewpoint. I ask that our team members push each other outside their emotional comfort zones so that we can make the best decisions possible.

Useful Information:

• Traveling makes you more open-minded and accepting of different cultures, thereby improving your communication and social skills. The business environment is becoming increasingly more international, and having the flexibility to understand and work with a culturally diverse team makes you highly employable.

         Source: The Economist