Interstate gives MBAs an inside view on European challenges
Published 29 June 2010
Two Lancaster MBA students have been confronting some of the urgent problems facing Europe in the wake of the world recession. Dinesh Sinha from the Executive MBA and Juan Carlos Reyes from the Full-time MBA were selected to represent LUMS in Brussels at the 11th Interstate Programme, an annual economic forum which brings together MBA students from leading schools across Europe and North America.
The two students both received scholarships from LUMS to attend the three-day event at the end of May, after winning an essay competition. The Interstate seminars and debates introduced participants to a broad range of topics, from the role of NATO in security co-operation and the situation in Afghanistan, to European integration and national sovereignty to issues of migration – and of course, centrally, the economic prospects and challenges ahead for the region.
Dinesh Sinha and Juan Carlos Reyes at the European Parliament
‘The quality of the speakers was just phenomenal. There were people from the EU Commission and from the European Parliament. By the second day I was really in tune with what was going on, it slowly started making sense.
‘Because you had people from Europe and from the US, you had different viewpoints, so being able to sit together, thinking about things, was really helpful. From a professional point of view, that for me was what an MBA was all about.’
‘It was very good learning,’ agrees Juan Carlos Reyes who had worked for Procter & Gamble Mexico and run his own real estate company before coming to Lancaster for his MBA. He has maximised his opportunities to get European perspectives, as just before going to the Interstate programme he completed a two-week MBA exchange programme at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Koblenz, one of Lancaster’s partner schools.
‘It’s very important that we, as MBAs, understand the context of where we are working,’ he says. ‘That when we take strategic decisions, we can say we have really taken all aspects into consideration.
‘Even for people from the UK, it’s difficult to understand what is happening with the European Union, with the euro and the pound, and what Europe is trying to do. So this complements my programme very well.’
Understanding changing dynamics
The Interstate programme was set up in 1999 to help integrate the relationship between Europe and the US, to give future leaders from both sides a better understanding of that relationship and of how shifting political and economic dynamics may affect business transactions. With China in the ascendancy, the US may be looking more to the East than to Europe. But, as a Mexican, Juan Carlos – whose long-term ambitions may even include a political career – is also aware that, for his own country, Europe may become an increasingly important market.
A tour of the European Parliament, introduced by an MEP, formed part of the programme. ‘I was very much looking forward to going to the European Parliament,’ says Dinesh. ‘I hadn’t been quite aware just how the European Union functioned at its core in Brussels. It made me much more aware of real tensions there, between the thinking in Brussels and the thinking in nation states. The speakers were fairly open about that.
Networking over dinner at the Interstate Programme (Dinesh third from left). Photo courtesy of F Lienhardt
If you get the opportunity to go to the Interstate, take it, urge both students. ‘I’m so glad that the School had the imagination to put students forward for this, where they can learn important things to complement other tools, skills and theories’ says Juan Carlos. ‘Seeing the constant tension between what economists said needed to be done – and what the politicians say is possible – was very powerful. It was really good to be able to get perspectives from those involved so as to understand more about how they saw the problems.’
‘It’s been the highlight of the past year,’ says Dinesh. ‘You get taken out of your little space and put in a different frame. On a personal level, you meet people from so many different places whom you wouldn’t meet otherwise, and you also see the impact that political policies have on your day-to-day life, and can speak to people who are involved with that. It’s such an interesting experience – I came back feeling quite exhilarated.’
