Excite News. Updated
8:15 AM ET February 26, 2001
LOS ANGELES (BUSINESS WIRE) - The Marshall School of Business, at the
University of Southern California, announced that Dean Randolph W. Westerfield
and 50 business professionals enrolled in its part-time MBA program will travel
to Mexico City and Havana, Cuba, to study business practices and strategies
employed for foreign investment on March 9-18.
Cuba's willingness to host students in USC's MBA for Professionals and
Managers Program (MBA.PM) is further evidence of its interests in opening the
country and improving its economy by attracting foreign investment.
The trip was arranged in cooperation with Cuba's Centro de Promocion de
Inversiones (CPI), part of the Ministry for Foreign Investment and Economic
Cooperation (MINVEC) that oversees foreign investment for the embargoed
Caribbean nation, and with the approval of the U.S. Treasury Department.
Said Dean Westerfield: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for
Americans to observe firsthand the unique economic and business dynamics at work
in Cuba. The Marshall School is committed to finding the most appropriate method
for teaching. When it comes to international business, the right method is to be
there."
Students traveling with Dean Westerfield are all fully employed executives,
many with major corporations in Southern California. The trip, called PM.GLOBE,
exposes students to a mix of executive/expert presentations and company
site-visits, typically in Shanghai, Tokyo and Mexico City.
Said Carl Voigt, Marshall Associate Dean of Executive MBA & MBA.PM
Programs and associate professor of management and organization, "Because
of what is happening in Cuba and Mexico today, it is likely our students will be
doing business with these countries in the future, or with international
companies pursuing business in Cuba. Our graduate students must be well-prepared
for the many possible business environments they may face in the new century."
In Mexico City, students will meet with Mexican business leaders and
American businesspersons working in the country. Supermarket chain Gigante,
beverage exporters Gupo Modelo, residential developers Grupo Sadasi and mortgage
lender Su Casita will be among companies making presentations to USC business
students during a three-day stay.
The Dean will join MBA.PM students continuing to Havana for three days,
during which time they will tour the international Free Zone, Cuba's Center for
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, and meet with officials in state tourism
agencies, the Ministry of Economics, and CPI, as well as foreign nationals in
partnership with the country.
Negotiations to include Havana as a study location were first initiated last
fall when Marshall School real estate professor David Dale-Johnson traveled to
Cuba and proposed the trip to authorities there. Dale-Johnson serves as faculty
advisor for the PM.GLOBE trip, specializing in Mexico and Latin America.
"Typically, academic travel to Havana is arranged in cooperation with
Cuban education authorities or third-party entities," said Dale-Johnson. "Working
with its foreign investment office suggests Cuba views our trip as a distinct
business excursion. Travel by other American schools has been more clearly
cultural or academic in nature."
The PM.GLOBE trip is the culmination of classes in macroeconomics and
intensive country-specific training taught in the nationally seventh-ranked
graduate program (U.S. News & World Report, 2000). "With PM.GLOBE, we
are interested in finding learning laboratories that take our students outside
their comfort zone," said Voigt, "They have to rely on their full
abilities of analysis and see how business translates across cultures."
About the USC Marshall School of Business
Founded in 1920, the Marshall School of Business, with its several major
research centers and Leventhal School of Accounting, offers world-class teaching
and expertise. The oldest accredited business school in Southern California,
Marshall emphasizes the advancement of business practices and preparing
graduates for the challenges of a global marketplace.
Contact: The Marshall School of Business Barbara Roberts/Douglass Gore,
213/740-6411
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