Webster University course takes global perspective

The international business class, which began Aug. 18, is taught by chamber Executive Vice President Brad Bodenhausen. The class will run for nine weeks, meeting 5:30–9:30 p.m. on Mondays. Four students are currently enrolled; Webster officials say six to eight students is common for a first-time course offering.

“I’m excited about the chance to share some of what we’ve done here at the chamber and how those experiences have helped us learn more about business, particularly in China, Mexico and other places where we have partnerships,” Bodenhausen said.

Bodenhausen will draw on his contacts at local firms that do business internationally, including members of the chamber’s new International Business Council, as guest speakers, giving students a frontline perspective on globalization.

Meeting a need

The new class offering “has come in part because we realize that Springfield has become an international hub of sorts for numerous types of business,” said Benjamin Akande, Ph.D., dean of Webster University’s School of Business and Technology.

“There’s a great awareness in Springfield that international business is not an anomaly. It’s not something that everybody else is doing out there, but clearly, it’s something that offers opportunities for folks in this community,” added Akande, who visited Springfield Aug. 13 to present a program on professional networking.

While Webster has offered international business courses at several of its more than 100 campuses worldwide for some time, the Springfield course was added at the request of local students, said Ann Elwell, community relations coordinator.

Plotting an international course

The class is structured as “a good overview of international business,” Bodenhausen said. It embraces cross-cultural issues, political forces that affect business, and specifics of foreign exchange, international financial markets, logistics and transportation and some of the technological changes that have hastened globalization, he added.

Webster University student Reed Petty works for an undisclosed national company with an international presence. While the international business class is not directly related to his job, “I think globalization is an issue that most, if not all, businesses worldwide will need to grapple with at some point in the not-too-distant future, and I would like to be prepared.”

After attending the first class, Petty said he felt he was on the right track.

“(Bodenhausen) is very qualified and impressive,” Petty said, citing Bodenhausen’s six trips to Asia and his “excellent grasp of the material.”

Because class sizes at Webster are small, Bodenhausen is working with his students to focus on what they – and their respective companies – need to get out of the course. Though most of his initial enrollees are from large corporations, including McKesson and FedEx – Bodenhausen said he will also address international business from the entrepreneur’s perspective.

Akande said the key to the U.S. sustaining its role as a major player in the global economy, “is to do what America does better than anybody else, and that is creative innovation: The capacity to see around corners; the ability to recognize what the consumer wants way before the consumer even knows it; and the willingness to be creative, to be resilient and to be transformational.”

The companies and nations that embrace this American ideal will own the future, he said, but they’re not going to announce what they’re doing.

“What we are going to see is the result of that leadership, that creativity, show up unexpected, unannounced – but significant,” he said.

That the U.S. can provide such leadership is clear, Akande noted, citing the Apple iPod as an example.

“I’ve always believed that three square meals a day was a necessity, but I had a young man tell me the other day, ‘It’s two square meals and an iPod,’” Akande said with a laugh. “When they start looking at your product as a necessity to existence, you’re doing something right. And that’s what this nation has done consistently well over time.”

Webster launches Global MBA program

St. Louis-based Webster University has just launched a new Global MBA program, an 11-month, five-country immersion that takes students from St. Louis to Geneva, Amsterdam, Shanghai, London and Vienna.

The program is highly selective, and Webster chose 12 individuals to participate from a field of more than 100. None of the students in the inaugural Global MBA program are from Webster University’s Ozark Regional Campus.

“We were more concerned about the quality of our candidates than the numbers,” said Benjamin Akande, Ph.D., dean of Webster University’s School of Business and Technology. The program is designed to accommodate a maximum of 25 students.

In addition to the Global MBA, another milestone for Webster is the accreditation of its business and management programs by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs. The ACBSP team also named Webster’s quality assurance and academic assessment initiatives Best in Class.

The Global MBA program cost of $40,000 includes session tuition, housing, books and fees. Application and registration information is available online at www.webster.edu/globalmba/.