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Center for International Business Education and Research C I B E R N E W S |
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Center for International Business Education and Research C I B E R N E W S |
23 February, 1998 Volume 8, Number 8
| Did you know? The application deadline for 1999-2000 Fulbright Scholars Awards is 1 August, 1998. Opportunites for lecturers and researchers exist in many business areas for both faculty and professionals in over 125 countries. See article on back for more information. |
Peter Secchia Speaks to International Business Forum
February's International Business Forum brought former Ambassador Peter Secchia to town to speak to members about "A Day in the Life of a G-7 Ambassador." Secchia, Chairman of the Board of Universal Forest Products (a Fortune 500 industrial company) and Chairman of the River City Food Company, served as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy appointed by President Bush. For his dedicated service there, he was presented with The Knight of the Great Cross, Italy's highest award given for exceptional service in international affairs. As a Michigan State University alumnus, Secchia is an enthusiastic supporter of the University, where he earned his degree in economics in 1964. The speaker stressed the importance of the University's overseas study programs, and applauded MSU President McPherson's goal of getting 40% of students to go overseas. Secchia warned that "If you don't understand the culture in which you operate, you're never going to do business there." He knows this firsthand, as all four of his children now live overseas in Brazil, China, Russia, and Italy. Secchia addressed issues related to globalization. The former Ambassador remembered watching the global economy develop, saying "It happened overnight." Regarding technology's role he noted "Our young people today will have to compete for ideas and capital. Ideas can now be transferred in nanoseconds in cyberspace. And today's capital market is in the PC." The speaker commented on his role as Ambassador to Italy, clearing up some of the audience's misconceptions regarding an embassy's responsibilities in the areas of security and intelligence. He also explained Italy's often misunderstood parliamentary coalition government, stating "Italy has had the most steady government of any country in Europe." Secchia went on to describe Italy's economy, the 5th largest in the free world. "It's a national sport to avoid taxes," he explained, noting that Italy has no property or estate taxes, allowing many Italians to have at least two homes. In addition, he said that companies with less than 25 employees don't have to report to the government, creating many small businesses with a staff of exactly 24. "If we could ever really track the wealth in Italy," he said, "they would be by far the wealthiest people in the world." International Business Forums are monthly luncheon presentations sponsored by the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce and MSU-CIBER for the area international business community. For more information and reservations, please contact Linda Peterson at (517) 487-6340 ext.33. |
MSU CIBER is happy to welcome Beverly Riedinger as our new Assistant Director. Beverly comes to us with a wealth of experience including serving the past seven years as Administrative Services Manager of Michigan State University's A.I.S. department. Before coming to MSU, she was the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Princeton University.
Riedinger's administrative experience in policy development and implementation, budget development/management, and management of corporate grant programs will make her a tremendous asset to the Center. Her responsibilites at CIBER will include budget management, maintaining liaison with external funding agencies, and working with faculty in implementation of projects and activities.
"I am delighted to be part of the International Business Center," she said. "I look forward to working with many new people within the Business College and at MSU."
The international conference "Globalization and Emerging Businesses: Strategies for the 21st Century" will be held 26-28 September at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The conference will feature a two-day research workshop focusing on the development of concepts and frameworks for understanding the phenomenon of the internationalizing business environment and the new challenges and opportunities that these changes pose for emerging businesses. A one-day business conference will also be held on the 28th which will provide an open session at which the key ideas and insights of the research workshop will be presented to and discussed with members of the business community.
Leading-edge contributions from the conference will be published by JAI Press in a book as part of their series on Global Strategic Management. Other selected papers will appear in a special issue of the Journal of International Marketing and Business in the Contemporary World. For more information about relevant topics for papers and the conference in general, please contact Preet Aulakh at 353-6381, or see Upcoming Events on MSU CIBER's web page at http://ciber.bus.msu.edu.
MSU recently welcomed back the first participants in its Business Studies in Thailand overseas study program. Fall semester 1997 was the pilot semester for the program at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, which when fully established, will have MSU students studying at "Chula" in the fall and Chula students at MSU in the spring. The program is designed for students planning to major in business, and features courses such as Principles of International Business Management.
At the Study Abroad Fair in January, students who had returned following the first semester were on hand to promote the Fall 1998 program, which is already close to capacity. Students were enthusiastic and had many good things to say about their experiences there. "A lot of people want to go to Europe because they don't realize how much Asia or Thailand has to offer," said participant Kristin Cooper. Fellow classmate Shruti Nandani echoed the sentiment, stating "I can honestly say it was the best thing I have done in my college career thus far."
Students who want more information on this program for fall 1998 should contact the Office of Study Abroad at (517) 353-8920 as soon as possible.
The Council for International Exchange of Scholars has 1999-2000 Fulbright Scholars Award opportunities for lecturing or advanced research in over 125 countries available for both faculty and professionals. Specific international opportunities are in the areas of management, finance, marketing, organizational behavior, accounting management information systems, business policy and strategy, business law, international business, human resource management, managerial economics, operations analysis, and entrepreneurship.
U.S. citizenship and a Ph.D. or comparable professional qualifications are required. For lecturing awards, teaching experience is expected. Foreign language skills are needed for some countries, but most lecturing assignments are in English. The deadline for applications is 1 August 1998. For more information please contact the USIA Fulbright Senior Scholar Program, Council for International Exchange of Scholars at (202) 686-7877, or request application materials by e-mail at apprequest@cies.iie.org. Information is also available at http://www.iie.org/cies.
Four seminars designed to help faculty teach in a global context will be offered at the University of Memphis 11-14 June as part of the Seminars for Faculty Development in International Business (FDIB) program. Seminars will be offered in the international aspects of business, finance, management and marketing with the aim of helping business schools internationalize their curriculum within the accreditation framework of the AACSB. As a cosponsor of this event, MSU CIBER will offer scholarships for MSU business faculty. For more information, please call Dr. Cavusgil at (517) 432-4320.
If you have information or upcoming events of interest to the international business community that you would like published in CIBER News, please call editor Cynthia Hitchcock at 353-4336.
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The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management International Business CenterMichigan State University Eppley Center 645 N. Shaw Ln Rm 7 East Lansing, MI 48824-1121 USA Exec Director's Office N356 North Business Complex Tel (517) 432-4320 FAX (517) 432-4222 IBC Office Eppley Center 645 N. Shaw Ln Rm 7 East Lansing, MI 48824-1121 Tel (517) 353-4336 FAX (517) 423-1009 http://ciber.bus.msu.edu |
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