International Emphasis

The International Seminar, a program highlight, offers you a real-world opportunity to apply and deepen the global business concepts you learn in your course work. Students travel abroad for one week of experiential learning through lectures, discussions with local business and government leaders, and site visits. Each trip examines key factors influencing global business success. Past locations have been Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Paris, Shanghai, Munich, and Mumbai. The list of destinations is continually evolving.

You will also have the opportunity to take classes, meet with local companies, visit cultural sites, practice your foreign language skills, learn cross-cultural business etiquette, and build your personal international network. While studying Entrepreneurial Finance at Hong Kong University, for example, Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA students created an opportunity to chat over champagne and dinner with a key financial player in the region, Jonathan Slone, CEO of CLSA (Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia), Asia’s leading brokerage and investment group.

Experience Locally, Learn Globally

Students choose an International Seminar that matches their business interests—whether current or future. Christian Klotz, MBA 2011, a Brazilian hedge fund manager, chose to study in Shanghai because, he says, “China has been the most important country economically for the last ten years and will continue to be for the next ten.”

Columbia Business School Professor Bernd Schmitt teaches a popular International Seminar on branding in Munich, where the class focuses on three topics: brand strategy and valuation; visual identity and experiential branding; and organizational branding issues. “Drawing on the unique course location, students have met with professionals from the branding industry from companies such as Siemens, BMW, Allianz and Lowenbrau,” says Professor Schmitt. “We also take advantage of local cultural events, including Oktoberfest.”

A Global Cohort

Your International Seminar experience will be thoroughly global, including your classmates, who come from all over the world and from the full range of Columbia Business School’s global partners. Two Berkeley-Columbia students traveling to Hong Kong recently for an International Seminar in entrepreneurial finance created a study team that included: a German student based in Boston, who works with Siemens; a European student who works in international trade negotiations; a Filipino investment banker based in the Philippines; and a London-trained lawyer living in Hong Kong.

[+] to top