Already a top international business program, the Lauder Institute is celebrating its 30 years of excellence with a new approach— the Lauder Global Program.
A subset of students within Lauder’s Class of 2015 MBA/MA candidates has already embarked on this innovative program of study, designed to approach international business from a macro level. The Lauder program has traditionally emphasized mastering a new language and culture. The Global Program brings in students who are already fluent in two languages other than English. Replacing the language study are courses on global economic, social and political topics, with an emphasis on intercultural communication and emergent trends.
“We appreciate that there is a need to design a program that reflects the broader changes in the global system and provides our students with an opportunity to develop the skills that will set them up for success across business contexts,” notes Program Director Regina Abrami, who is also a senior lecturer in Political Science and Management.
The inaugural class of Global Program students arrived on campus May 6. Hailing from such diverse countries as Brazil, Cameroon and Mexico, the seven exceptional students bring with them a wealth of experiences and perspectives, from sales to mechanical engineering.
The offering of the Lauder Global Program was a key factor in students’ selection of Wharton for their graduate studies.
“When I was researching business schools, one of the things that I focused on was the availability of international opportunities,” says first-year Global Program student Anirudh Rudrapatna Rajendraprasa from Delhi, India. “Having already worked in different international environments, I was looking for something more substantive than a rubber-stamp approach to global business. The Global Program seemed especially suited to enhance my understanding of how international business molds itself to regional parameters.”
Following one month of on-campus course preparation, Global Program students launched into an intensive summer of international study. They traveled first to South Carolina and Washington, D.C., before jetting off to Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Tanzania and London—all in the span of eight weeks. This is a departure from the language-centered immersion experienced by their Lauder peers and emphasizes strategies for navigating the interconnected world of modern business and the role of regulation and government within it.
Moving forward, Mauro F. Guillén, director of the Lauder Institute and Wharton’s Dr. Felix Zandman Professor in International Management, hopes to see the Global Program grow to become “the gold standard when it comes to a global education in business.”
Judging from the pool of talent recruited for the first class and the overwhelmingly positive reception of the program thus far, this vision appears well within reach.
—By Elizabeth Johnson
