Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Rollins College MBA International Study Trip
Part of the curriculum at the Rollins College MBA program is an international study trip. This trip is used as a cornerstone of the school's marketing campaign. Here is the truth behind the glitz...
INTRODUCTION
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1985) defines the word “propaganda” as “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.” I was able to witness the power of propaganda from the time I first heard of our international study trip in June until the time I returned from the trip in January. There were three major subjects of propaganda that I witnessed. These sources were:
• Propaganda about the trip.
• Propaganda about London and England.
• Propaganda about Dublin and Ireland.
These subjects are discussed in more detail throughout the next three sections of this paper.
PROPAGANDA ABOUT THE TRIP
It is not difficult to imagine my excitement when I discovered that the MBA program that I was accepted to included an overseas business study trip as a part of the curriculum. The trip was described so well in the Crummer Graduate School of Business general catalog that is given to all prospective students. The description reads:
“You’ll have the rare opportunity to meet one-on-one with high-ranking executives of premier multinational corporations in countries such as, England, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, and Hong Kong. On recent International Study Trips, students have visited the headquarters of BMW (Munich), met with senior managers at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (London), and attended a private briefing with a member of the European Parliament (Brussels).”
My excitement mounted as the months passed. All I could think of was “meet one-on-one with high-ranking executives” and “senior managers at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter” and “a private briefing with a member of the European Parliament”. Now I fully understood that our trip would not match the list of highlights from years past, but I did assume that a school as progressive as Crummer would surely execute continuous improvement to all of their programs, and our trip would be the best trip ever. I was ecstatic on the day we finally left for the trip. I could hardly wait to dig in to this engorgement of international business learning.
Seven days later I had a whole different view of this “learning” experience.
The first part of the catalogue description reads, “rare opportunity to meet one-on-one with high-ranking executives…”. Our first outing was to the Jaguar manufacturing plant that was a brisk 3 hour drive from our hotel. At this point, our “rare opportunity” consisted of a 2-hour tour that is run 8 times per day, 5 days per week, and 50 weeks per year (according to our tour guide). That means that this “rare opportunity” only happens 2000 times per year. The “one-on –one” interaction with “high-ranking executives” consisted of a 10-minute video shown by the receptionist and a 1-hour tour given by a retired assembly line worker. We were also privy to a brief conversation with the Jaguar Gift Shop attendant. The following day we toured Lloyd’s of London. Now Lloyd’s was a bit more of a “rare opportunity” since they only run 2 tours per day. Our “one-on-one” interaction here was actually forty-to-one and it was with a semi-retired insurance salesman who knew a lot about the history of Lloyd’s but not much about our group’s relevant business questions. Later that day we spent a pain staking 2 ½ hours listening to a man named John White drone on about the history of Europe. I preferred that class more when it was called World History 1 and I was in 6th grade. When we finally reached Dublin we went to visit Oracle. Here we were treated to a presentation given to all 80 of us by a mid-level trainer in one of their call centers. Again, this is a far cry from “rare opportunity” or “one-on-one” or “high-ranking executive” or “headquarters of…”.
There were numerous other examples of propaganda throughout this entire trip, but these were the most memorable moments .
PROPAGANDA ABOUT LONDON AND ENGLAND
The great English writer, Samuel Johnson, once wrote, “Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” (http://www.samueljohnson.com/london.html 3/7/04). Let us examine this quote and how it pertains to the international study trip.
I would consider our MBA class to be mostly classified as “intellectual”. I can also name about 25 students who could not wait to leave London. The London leg of our trip started out with a 3 hour tour of London which was actually a 2 hour trip INTO London followed by a 1 hour tour of the city. The first 2 hours consisted of a long highway drive made even longer by a tour guide who felt that it was her duty to enlighten us with her personal social commentary. Ten hours of travel followed by 2 hours of non-value added time…we were intellectuals who were already sick of London.
The next three days were filled with dirty tube rides, smoke filled bars and restaurants, rude locals, and overpriced food. The Tube is the main form of transportation, and despite its ease of use, it still requires you to stand shoulder to shoulder with the local hooligans who can’t afford cab fare. You are also forced to hold on to greasy handrails that are covered in so much hand funk that they resemble an old Petri dish. My dry cleaning bill was a fortune when I returned home because of the smell of smoke that was entrenched in all of my clothes. Who ever said that Americans are the unhealthiest people obviously never spent time in London. Smoking seems to be the national pastime in London. None of the locals look at you…most don’t even acknowledge your presence. They walk around the streets with their heads hung low like the Deltas from a scene in Huxley’s Brave New World. Yes, after a few days we were tired of London…according to Samuel Johnson, we also must have been “tired of life.”
The final part of Johnson’s quote states that, “there is in London all that life can afford.” He must not have been thinking of the food. The food in London is overpriced and under seasoned. The vegetables are as grey as the noon sky and the prices are astronomical. Luckily we discovered the made-to-eat sandwiched that are sold in most convenient stores. For about $6 you could get some bread with a few veggies and some mayo. They weren’t very tasty, but they were affordable. They were all that my life could afford.
PROPAGANDA ABOUT DUBLIN AND IRELAND
After researching numerous websites about Dublin and Ireland, I came to one with a particular slogan that really struck a sour note with me. The caption on the homepage for tourism in Ireland read, “There’s something of Ireland in all of us,” (http://www.shamrock.org/flash.html 3/6/04). A more accurate slogan would read “There’s something of ours in Ireland.” During the 3 days that I spent in Dublin I saw more things get stolen that I ever had in my previous 29 years on this planet. Our laundry list of stolen items (that was reported) included:
• 1 brand new cell phone
• 1 gold wrist watch
• 300 Euro
• 1 gold pocket watch
• 3 jackets
I was present in a hotel room that had been robbed no more than 1 hour after we had arrived in Dublin. The cunning thief was able to climb into the room through the open window, pilfer what he could, and leave the premises without being detected. Later that evening (after we gathered enough courage to brave the crime ridden streets of Dublin) we had another fellow student get his trench coat and gold pocket watch taken from a pub where there were nearly 25 other students from our group present. Finally, during the second evening, two more students had their jackets stolen…FROM THE HOTEL LOBBY!
Yes, there is definitely something of ours still in Ireland; unless of course everything made its way out of the country on the black market.
EPILOGUE
The propaganda will continue. I have been a personal medium in helping its spread. I volunteer for all of the preview weekends that Crummer hosts for prospective students. I shockingly hear myself describing the trip as “amazing” and “well worth the time”. Hopefully someday this propaganda will become the truth.
INTRODUCTION
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1985) defines the word “propaganda” as “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.” I was able to witness the power of propaganda from the time I first heard of our international study trip in June until the time I returned from the trip in January. There were three major subjects of propaganda that I witnessed. These sources were:
• Propaganda about the trip.
• Propaganda about London and England.
• Propaganda about Dublin and Ireland.
These subjects are discussed in more detail throughout the next three sections of this paper.
PROPAGANDA ABOUT THE TRIP
It is not difficult to imagine my excitement when I discovered that the MBA program that I was accepted to included an overseas business study trip as a part of the curriculum. The trip was described so well in the Crummer Graduate School of Business general catalog that is given to all prospective students. The description reads:
“You’ll have the rare opportunity to meet one-on-one with high-ranking executives of premier multinational corporations in countries such as, England, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, and Hong Kong. On recent International Study Trips, students have visited the headquarters of BMW (Munich), met with senior managers at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (London), and attended a private briefing with a member of the European Parliament (Brussels).”
My excitement mounted as the months passed. All I could think of was “meet one-on-one with high-ranking executives” and “senior managers at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter” and “a private briefing with a member of the European Parliament”. Now I fully understood that our trip would not match the list of highlights from years past, but I did assume that a school as progressive as Crummer would surely execute continuous improvement to all of their programs, and our trip would be the best trip ever. I was ecstatic on the day we finally left for the trip. I could hardly wait to dig in to this engorgement of international business learning.
Seven days later I had a whole different view of this “learning” experience.
The first part of the catalogue description reads, “rare opportunity to meet one-on-one with high-ranking executives…”. Our first outing was to the Jaguar manufacturing plant that was a brisk 3 hour drive from our hotel. At this point, our “rare opportunity” consisted of a 2-hour tour that is run 8 times per day, 5 days per week, and 50 weeks per year (according to our tour guide). That means that this “rare opportunity” only happens 2000 times per year. The “one-on –one” interaction with “high-ranking executives” consisted of a 10-minute video shown by the receptionist and a 1-hour tour given by a retired assembly line worker. We were also privy to a brief conversation with the Jaguar Gift Shop attendant. The following day we toured Lloyd’s of London. Now Lloyd’s was a bit more of a “rare opportunity” since they only run 2 tours per day. Our “one-on-one” interaction here was actually forty-to-one and it was with a semi-retired insurance salesman who knew a lot about the history of Lloyd’s but not much about our group’s relevant business questions. Later that day we spent a pain staking 2 ½ hours listening to a man named John White drone on about the history of Europe. I preferred that class more when it was called World History 1 and I was in 6th grade. When we finally reached Dublin we went to visit Oracle. Here we were treated to a presentation given to all 80 of us by a mid-level trainer in one of their call centers. Again, this is a far cry from “rare opportunity” or “one-on-one” or “high-ranking executive” or “headquarters of…”.
There were numerous other examples of propaganda throughout this entire trip, but these were the most memorable moments .
PROPAGANDA ABOUT LONDON AND ENGLAND
The great English writer, Samuel Johnson, once wrote, “Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” (http://www.samueljohnson.com/london.html 3/7/04). Let us examine this quote and how it pertains to the international study trip.
I would consider our MBA class to be mostly classified as “intellectual”. I can also name about 25 students who could not wait to leave London. The London leg of our trip started out with a 3 hour tour of London which was actually a 2 hour trip INTO London followed by a 1 hour tour of the city. The first 2 hours consisted of a long highway drive made even longer by a tour guide who felt that it was her duty to enlighten us with her personal social commentary. Ten hours of travel followed by 2 hours of non-value added time…we were intellectuals who were already sick of London.
The next three days were filled with dirty tube rides, smoke filled bars and restaurants, rude locals, and overpriced food. The Tube is the main form of transportation, and despite its ease of use, it still requires you to stand shoulder to shoulder with the local hooligans who can’t afford cab fare. You are also forced to hold on to greasy handrails that are covered in so much hand funk that they resemble an old Petri dish. My dry cleaning bill was a fortune when I returned home because of the smell of smoke that was entrenched in all of my clothes. Who ever said that Americans are the unhealthiest people obviously never spent time in London. Smoking seems to be the national pastime in London. None of the locals look at you…most don’t even acknowledge your presence. They walk around the streets with their heads hung low like the Deltas from a scene in Huxley’s Brave New World. Yes, after a few days we were tired of London…according to Samuel Johnson, we also must have been “tired of life.”
The final part of Johnson’s quote states that, “there is in London all that life can afford.” He must not have been thinking of the food. The food in London is overpriced and under seasoned. The vegetables are as grey as the noon sky and the prices are astronomical. Luckily we discovered the made-to-eat sandwiched that are sold in most convenient stores. For about $6 you could get some bread with a few veggies and some mayo. They weren’t very tasty, but they were affordable. They were all that my life could afford.
PROPAGANDA ABOUT DUBLIN AND IRELAND
After researching numerous websites about Dublin and Ireland, I came to one with a particular slogan that really struck a sour note with me. The caption on the homepage for tourism in Ireland read, “There’s something of Ireland in all of us,” (http://www.shamrock.org/flash.html 3/6/04). A more accurate slogan would read “There’s something of ours in Ireland.” During the 3 days that I spent in Dublin I saw more things get stolen that I ever had in my previous 29 years on this planet. Our laundry list of stolen items (that was reported) included:
• 1 brand new cell phone
• 1 gold wrist watch
• 300 Euro
• 1 gold pocket watch
• 3 jackets
I was present in a hotel room that had been robbed no more than 1 hour after we had arrived in Dublin. The cunning thief was able to climb into the room through the open window, pilfer what he could, and leave the premises without being detected. Later that evening (after we gathered enough courage to brave the crime ridden streets of Dublin) we had another fellow student get his trench coat and gold pocket watch taken from a pub where there were nearly 25 other students from our group present. Finally, during the second evening, two more students had their jackets stolen…FROM THE HOTEL LOBBY!
Yes, there is definitely something of ours still in Ireland; unless of course everything made its way out of the country on the black market.
EPILOGUE
The propaganda will continue. I have been a personal medium in helping its spread. I volunteer for all of the preview weekends that Crummer hosts for prospective students. I shockingly hear myself describing the trip as “amazing” and “well worth the time”. Hopefully someday this propaganda will become the truth.
# posted by The Professor @ 8:27 PM 
