An Indian View of Studying in France: Harshit Didwania, MBA student from prestigious Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) talks about his international exchange at Grenoble EM

Stepping into the so called ‘developed world’ for the first time definitely felt strange. However, my journey to Grenoble and beyond was filled with unexpected and very memorable experiences.

 

Interview with Bertrand Guillotin of the Fuqua School of Management, Duke University

It was a great pleasure to welcome Bertrand Guillotin, International Programs Director at the Fuqua School of Management, Duke University to Grenoble EM in November. During his time at the school we were able to make a short video in which Bertrand talked about life at Duke. Having studied and worked in both France and the USA, he was also able to share his insights into and the differences between French and American styles of teaching and learning.

BOOK REVIEW: “What is Strategy – and does it matter?” by Richard Whittington (2000)

Key words
Strategy, brief history of strategy, corporate, international trade, IBM, technology, resource-based of the firm, knowledge-based view of the firm, Apple, Walkman, Intel, Andy Grove, leadership, Japan, France, USA, UK

Summary

Richard Whittington, who has published extensively on strategy, offers a fascinating discussion on some of the key issues in strategic management. The book requires some background knowledge of the subject (perhaps not the first book to read then if you are new to this discipline) and then invites you to develop a personal view.

This is quite a useful book then once you have mastered some of the key elements of strategy. The book states clearly that it is designed more for a graduate or advanced undergraduate level.

Some keys facts:
The word ‘seduction’ comes from the Latin word “ducere”, to lead.

Only a quarter of the Japanese companies described ‘good short-term profits’ as their objective

Pascale ( 1982) reports that the Japanese do not even have a phrase for ‘corporate strategy’

When, in 1982, it launched its first personal computers, IBM predicted a market of 300,000 worldwide; a decade later, the installed base was 110 million. (Tate, 1991)

Cold Turkey

Cold turkey after Christmas
Cold turkey refers to the withdrawal symptoms heroin addicts feel when they come off the drug. (It is said that they get shivers so strong that their skin looks similar to that of a turkey before it is cooked.) More prosaically, the expression can be used to describe the feeling of readjusting after an exceptional good moment in your life. 72 hours after Christmas though, it is simply a description of what is left on the dinner table! The appearance of this cold, unwanted meat is all too often a sad reflection of peoples’ feelings now that the big party is over.

An Englishman in New York

Psychological distance and international trade

In the 1970s researchers in Sweden starting looking into the concept of psychological distance and how this related to the international development of companies. The basic premise is that we prefer to interact and therefore trade with people who are similar to ourselves. Spanish companies find it easier to trade with South America because of the historical links they share. Similarly, British managers find that they are psychologically closer to their US counterparts than managers in Continental Europe.  

Symbols of the nation in the USA, the UK and France

 The news last week was dominated by the commemoration of the terrorist attacks on New York & Washington on September 11^th 2001. During such difficult moments people often try unite around their nations. In this context, symbols of the nation become important. However, such symbols will vary from country to country. 

French Management Schools: Stop apologizing!

Over the past 20 years, management schools in France have led the way in providing young internationally minded graduates fit to work in modern business. They should recognize this and stop apologizing for what they have achieved. 

“Do any French people actually work in your school, Mark?”

My international visitor was looking incredulously around in the vast entrance of my school. This school lies in a medium-sized French city at the bottom of the French Alps. I had just taken him for coffee with my Austrian colleague, had introduced to two programme directors (one Irish and one English), and had bumped into our Academic Director (Scottish) and one of our most senior professors in HRM (American).