古巴可否成為美國商學院的新機會
在美國與古巴幹系日趨升溫以後，古巴商學院教導的歷久遠景無疑是光亮的。但有一個題目更難答復：對付那些與這個加勒比海島國有接洽的商學院而言，這些機會將多快睜開?
據紐約哥倫比亞大學商學院(Columbia Business School)的斯蒂芬•梅爾(Stephan Meier)等傳授稱，對付美國商學院而言，在某個意義上，打開通往古巴的途徑是一種徹徹底底的勝利。迄今有幾所商學院應用了美國粹術機構可以或許構造赴古巴遊學的劃定，梅爾地點的學院便是個中之一。現實上，最使他頭疼的題目便是構造充足多的遊學之旅以知足門生的需求，特別是那些持有美國護照、不然將沒法前去古巴的門生。
3年裏，梅爾傳授已支配120邏輯學生到古巴。但他表現，他本來可以支配更多門生的，他說明道：“古巴有著他鄉風情。”
從哥倫比亞大學商學院曼哈頓校區向市中間走，紐約大學斯特恩商學院(NYU Stern)展開了一個相似的項目，名為在古巴經商(Doing Business in Cuba)。這是斯特恩商學院黑人及西語裔門生協會(Association of Black and Hispanic Students)遊說的成果，究竟證實，構造起來有些龐雜。
迄今，已到哈瓦那遊學的84名斯特恩商學院MBA學員之以是能去古巴，只是由於非紅利構造路德維希基金會(Ludwig Foundation)供給的幹系，該構造創立的目標是增強美國與古巴的接洽，主如果在藝術範疇。
艾米麗•戈德弗蘭克(Emily Goldfrank)是個中一位學員。她遊歷普遍，作為MBA進修的一部門，曾在阿根廷和澳大利亞待過一段時光，但她稱，古巴“這塊禁地”供給特殊的代價，由於其運作模式與其他國度異常分歧。“咱們進修的辦法和學到的常識很分歧，由於全部貿易情況差別很大，”她回想道。她彌補稱，這一點自己就極具代價，由於它展現了在一個如斯分歧的經濟體展開謀劃所面對的挑釁。
古巴的變更速率是各方爭辯的一個主題。今朝，該國尚未商學院。斯特恩商學院MBA課程副主任湯姆•普傑爾(Tom Pugel)比許多學者同業更有信念，他猜測，古巴將在5年後具有本身的商學院。
“有人已預備好應用這類過渡，”他辯稱，“他們位於有益位置，可以或許成為商學院的引導者。”
在洛杉磯，南加州大學馬歇爾商學院(USC Marshall School of Business)臨床治理和構造傳授卡爾•福格特(Carl Voigt)卻不那末樂觀，他曾在2000年帶領第一支美國商學院代表團到古巴，爾後已率領約1000邏輯學生到古巴遊學。
“我以為，古巴方面臨於在該國開設商學院課程的籌劃有點疑慮，由於他們想曉得資金來自那邊，”他表現。
“他們不是任何人的傀儡，他們不願望被擺弄。”
“在美國，已有人支配資金，預備贊助古巴門生在這裏進修，但古巴有人以為，美國當局的一些人將借此機遇給門生洗腦。”
福格特傳授指出，迄今古巴人有機遇到泰西自由進修，但報名流數未幾，由於古巴門生沒有錢到外洋留學。是以今朝主如果外國人到古巴留學。
有幸得到哥倫比亞大學商學院古巴遊學機遇的美國粹生，可以見到數目未幾但一日千裏的古巴企業家，他們今朝被範圍於數目有限的辦事行業，比方餐館和旅店。
拜訪門生還能直訪問證：在一個沒有遮天蔽日的告白和信貸等本錢主義特點的情形下，一個經濟領會是甚麽模樣。梅爾傳授表現：“他們意想到，在市場經濟中，咱們把許多器械都想固然了。”
假如像哥倫比亞如許的商學院在古巴設立校區的話，新近被賜與運動空間的古巴企業家將是目的候選人，只管梅爾傳授以為這類情形不會在短時間內湧現。
“我以為，咱們間隔在古巴向古巴的治理職員講解高管課程還很遠，”他表現，“但他們確定須要一些商學院教導。”
只管美國具有遙遙領先的最蓬勃的商學教導市場和險些全部最頂級的商學院，但美國面對劇烈競爭，特別是來自歐洲的競爭。
比方，總部處於巴塞羅那的Esade正就Forgec項目直接與古巴高級教導部互助，該項目由歐盟委員會(European Commission)出資，旨在加強古巴企業的治理才能。
該項目標癥結目的之一是在古巴和歐洲之間樹立歷久治理教導互助。不外，尚不清晰這是不是象征著Esade等商學院會在古巴開設校區，由於該項目在必定水平上籌劃經由過程提古雅巴大學的質量和創辦商學教導課程的才能來實現其目的。
拉美國度的商學院也意想到，一旦古巴預備許可開設商學院，它們將有機遇為古巴辦事，
多米尼加共和國巴納商學院(Barna Business School)教務主任卡洛斯•馬蒂•桑吉斯(Carlos Martí Sanchis)稱，像他地點學院如許的加勒比和中美洲商學院，在古巴商學院門生大概感興致的一些學科上具有特長，比方旅行業。他表現：“大型著名商學院將具有上風，但我以為，這將是中小商學院的一個偉大機遇，它們將在分歧方面加倍符合古巴實際，比方文化、經濟、說話習氣和商界類似的地方。”
但是，美國商學院沒有廢棄願望。比方布蘭迪斯大學國際商學院(Brandeis International Business School)不但把門生和西席帶到古巴，作為哈森菲爾德外洋研討員沉醉式課程(Hassenfeld Overseas Fellows Immersion Program)的一部門。該學院還曾在本校校園招待古巴顧客。
個中包含古巴首個私立MBA課程(由羅馬上帝教會(Roman Catholic Church)創辦)開辦人、古巴文化經濟研討中間(The Center for the Study of the Cuban Culture + Economy)主任，和哈瓦那大學(University of Havana)法學院的一位著名傳授。
布蘭迪斯大學國際商學院院長布魯斯•馬吉德(Bruce Magid)對將來充斥等待。“對付美國粹術機構而言，特殊是那些樂意率先行為的商學院，今朝存在的機會將對下一階段的美古經濟幹系發生深遠影響，”他表現，“這不單單是一種機會。從計謀上講，商學院做出此舉勢在必行。在商業和投資方面推進古巴開放，是確保古巴繁華的絕佳方法。”
話雖如斯，馬吉德以為，與古巴樹立接洽的盡力是布蘭迪斯大學國際商學院須要向全部拉美地域展現的團體許諾的一部門。
曩昔一年時代，該學院宣告了兩份有關結合學位課程的原諒備忘錄，一個是與哥倫比亞麥德林市行政、金融和技巧大學(Eafit)，另外一個是與巴西聖保羅Insper商學院，這些項目擴展了布蘭迪斯大學國際商學院在該地域的互助。
就今朝而言，古巴只能再等一等。
【參考口譯譯文】
The long-term prospects for business education in Cuba are undoubtedly bright following the warming of relations between Washington and Havana. But how quickly such opportunities will unfold for those schools with connections to the Caribbean island state is a tougher question to answer.
For US business schools, the opening up of access to Cuba has been an unmitigated success in one regard, according to professors such as Stephan Meier at Columbia Business School in New York. His school is one of several to have taken advantage of the ability for US-based academic institutions to visit Cuba for study trips. In fact, his biggest headache has been running enough trips to satisfy the demand from students, particularly those with US passports who would not otherwise be able to travel abroad.
In three years, Prof Meier has taken 120 students to Cuba. But he could have taken many more, he says. “Cuba is exotic,” he explains.
Downtown from Columbia’s Manhattan campus, NYU Stern has run a similar programme called Doing Business in Cuba. This was the product of lobbying by Stern’s Association of Black and Hispanic Students, and proved somewhat complicated to organise.
To date, the 84 Stern MBA students who have taken the trip to Havana have only been able to do so thanks to connections provided by Ludwig Foundation, a not-for-profit body created to build links between the US and Cuba, primarily in the arts.
Emily Goldfrank is one of these students. She has travelled widely, spending time in Argentina and Australia as part of her MBA studies, but claims Cuba — “the one forbidden place” — offered a particular value because it operated so differently to other countries. “How and what we learnt was of a different variety because the whole business environment was so different,” she recalls, adding that this was in itself valuable in that it showed the challenges of operating in such a different economy.
The pace of change in Cuba, where no business school yet exists, is a subject of debate. Tom Pugel, vice-dean of MBA programmes at Stern, is more confident than many of his academic peers and predicts that the country will have its own business school in five years.
“There are already people who are ready to work with that transition,” he claims. “They are well positioned to be the leaders of a business school.”
Carl Voigt, professor of clinical management and organisation at USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles, who led the first US business school delegation to Cuba in 2000 and has since taken about 1,000 students on study visits, is less optimistic.
“I feel Cubans would be a little bit suspect of plans to set up programmes in Cuba because they would want to know where the money came from,” he says.
“They are not anyone’s puppet and they do not want to be played.
“Money has been earmarked in the US to help Cuban students study here, but it is felt that there are people in the US government who would use that as a way of brainwashing students.”
There have been opportunities for Cubans to study freely in Europe and the US, Prof Voigt notes, but there has not been a lot of take up of these schemes because students in Cuba lack the funds to study overseas. Thus for the moment, the traffic is likely to be mainly the other way.
Those US students lucky enough to gain a place on Columbia’s Cuba programme have been able to meet some of the country’s small but growing population of entrepreneurs, who are currently restricted to a limited number of service sectors such as restaurants and hotels.
Visiting students have also been able to see first hand what an economy looks like without the capitalist trappings of widespread advertising and credit. “They learn that in a market economy we take a lot of aspects for granted,” Prof Meier says.
Cuba’s newly empowered entrepreneurs would be target candidates should a school like Columbia open in the country, although Prof Meier does not see this happening in the near future.
“I guess we are a long way from teaching an executive programme in Cuba to Cuban managers,” he says. “But they could definitely do with some business school education.”
Although the US has by far the most developed business education market, and almost all the top business schools, it faces significant competition, particularly from Europe.
Barcelona-based Esade, for instance, has been working directly with Cuba’s ministry of higher education on Forgec, a European Commission funded project to strengthen the managerial capabilities of Cuban institutions.
One of the key goals of the project is to establish long-term co-operation in management education between Cuba and Europe. Whether or not this would mean a school such as Esade opening a campus in Cuba is not clear, however, since the project plans to achieve its aims in part by improving the quality of Cuban universities and the ability to run business education programmes.
Schools in Latin American countries also sense an opportunity to serve Cuba as and when it is ready to allow business schools to open.
Carlos Martí Sanchis, academic director at Barna Business School in the Dominican Republic, claims that Caribbean and central American schools like his have expertise in subjects that would likely be of interest to Cuban business students, such as tourism. “Big and prestigious schools will have advantages but I think it will be a great opportunity for medium and small business schools that can have a better fit to the Cuban reality in different dimensions such as cultural, economic, idiomatic and business sectors similarities,” he says.
However, US-based schools are not giving up hope. Brandeis International Business School, for instance, has not just taken students and faculty to Cuba as a part of its Hassenfeld Overseas Fellows Immersion Program. It has also hosted Cuban visitors on its campus.
These include the founder of Cuba’s first private MBA programme, run by the Roman Catholic Church, the director of The Center for the Study of the Cuban Culture + Economy and a distinguished professor from the University of Havana law school.
Bruce Magid, dean of Brandeis, is looking forward to the future. “For academic institutions in the US, particularly business schools willing to make the first move, the opportunity exists to have a profound impact on the next stage of US-Cuba economic relations,” he says. “This is more than just an opportunity. It is a strategic imperative for business schools to make this move. Opening Cuba’s borders to trade and investment is the best way to ensure Cuba prospers.”
Having said that, Mr Magid believes that efforts to build ties with Cuba are part of a broader commitment that Brandeis needs to demonstrate towards the whole of Latin America.
In the past year, the school has announced two memorandums of understanding for joint degree programmes with Eafit in Medellín, Colombia and Insper in São Paulo, Brazil, all of which have added to the school’s roster of partnerships in the region.
For now, Cuba will have to wait.
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