MSU grows business connections overseas

For Missouri State University Management Development Institute Director Rayanna Anderson, the flight back from Cairo took roughly 20 hours with stops in Frankfurt, Germany, and Chicago. When MDI Assistant Director Jeff Schmedeke returned to Springfield late on Jan. 19, his flights from Bahrain spanned 29 hours including layovers.

Their long flights come with the territory when expanding educational opportunities for professionals in the Middle East.

Anderson and Schmedeke last month worked with MSU Associate Vice President of Research and Economic Development Allen Kunkel and Egypt-based business educators International Business Drivers License and International Professional Managers to collectively sign new agreements for services.

Since 2006, the university and MDI have partnered with IBDL and IPM founder Khaled Khallaf, to evaluate the business-training company’s curriculum, materials, objectives and methodology for university courses offered in such countries as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

MSU officials said Khallaf formed a relationship with Missouri’s second-largest university based on the reputation of its business school and his desire to adopt American business-education practices.

Last spring, the local trio met with Khallaf and visited Qatar University in Doha, Qatar, off the Persian Gulf, where IBDL recently signed on to offer professional development courses. That trip led to January’s agreement in Bahrain, where Schmedeke traveled after visiting the land of the pyramids.

Schmedeke said MSU and MDI plan to send six instructors April 4-9 to train business educators in Bahrain.

MSU will share in the cost and proceeds with its Middle East partners. Up to 30 participants are expected with each paying the equivalent of $6,300.

“The Bahrain trip (solidified) the first direct executive education run by Missouri State in the area,” he said. “Typically, we are this third-party certifier, but now we are doing direct education.”

Schmedeke said training centers in Bahrain are under government pressure to provide high-quality professional development as a way to spur economic growth. The country is known as a regional vacation destination for Saudis and others.

“We are targeting the leaders of these training centers for a boot camp-style executive education retreat,” Schmedeke said. “It will have broad themes every day with 15 learning objectives that will be achieved over the five days.”

Areas of training include financial management, leadership and strategic planning and goals.  

The opportunity came about when MDI representatives met with Gulf Pros Training Center CEO Ahmed Obaidli during last year’s trip, Schmedeke said. Obaidli is president of the Society of Private Training Institutes in Bahrain, and utilizes IBDL and IPM curriculum at Gulf Pros, according to Schmedeke.

“His fellow leadership-institute brethren needed some upgrading in skills, and it needed to be a comprehensive kind of focus about how to create the leadership and change to meet the new national standards,” Schmedeke said.

“That’s what he’s called us to do – to come in and bring American and Western business-management expertise to Bahrain.”   

Anderson said the group was in Egypt to kick off its new certification relationship with the University of Cairo, visit a few training centers served by Khallaf’s companies and explore opportunities with potential centers including one managed by the national land-line provider, Telecom Egypt. She said it was an eye-opening experience.

“It was very interesting. Cairo University has 240,000 students,” Anderson said.

Though Anderson didn’t know how much revenue the relationship has generated since 2006, she said the work with IBDL and IPM garnered $91,000 in fiscal 2014. And the relationship is growing.

“They are always marketing and working to expand their programming, which also expands our international footprint,” she said.[[In-content Ad]]