Global Network Experience at Yale School of Management, New Haven, CT, USA

IIM Bangalore is a member of the Global Network, which includes 32 eminent business schools around the world, convened by Yale University.

Being an active participant in the Global Network, IIMB hosts Global Network Weeks (GNWs) in the months of March and October every year when international students from partner schools visit IIMB. The GNWs feature sessions by eminent faculty, guest speakers from the industry coupled with company visits. Likewise, IIMB students enrol for the Global Network Weeks conducted around the world. Nikhil Dhar, from IIMB’s one-year fulltime residential Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management, participated in the Global Network Week at Yale School of Management and shares his experience.

28 March, 2018, Bengaluru: As an MBA student, I had read about David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage. Global Network Week is seeing Ricardo’s theory live in action, giving participants from the world over an opportunity to learn from each other and collaborate to create a better future. Students from top B-schools located around the globe come together twice every year to share and exchange ideas on some of the fundamental issues facing the world of business. Thus, I was naturally ecstatic when I was nominated from IIM Bangalore to attend the Global Network program at the prestigious Yale School of Management in USA. The theme for the program was Design & Innovation.

After a 20-hour flight, two of us from IIM Bangalore finally arrived in New York. The first thing that hit us was the carpet of snow all over and chilly wind of -30 C. From warm climes of Delhi and Bangalore this was quite a shock. We had a day to spend in New York before we headed to the Yale campus in New Haven, Connecticut. So, the next morning we decided to take the subway (metro) and explore the city landmarks.

The information desk at the subway station was manned by a gentleman of Pakistani origin, who after finding that we were from India and could converse in Hindi/Urdu, gave us valuable tips about touring the city in a day and even offered his own subway card, which we politely declined. We bid each other goodbye. We visited the Statue of Liberty and then the Ellis Island, a place where the immigrants from Europe first arrived when they came to US in search of a better future. As MBA students we couldn’t have missed the visit to NYSE. As we approached NYSE we were surprised to hear Bollywood numbers blasting from giant speakers on a food truck parked right outside NYSE. Talk about India going global!

The next day we arrived in the university town of New Haven. Our trip had been quite uneventful till now, but little did we know that it was about to change pretty soon. As we made ourselves comfortable at our AirBnB, my friend realized that he had forgotten his laptop bag in the taxi that we took from the train station at New Haven. We called our host Amy, a fairly recent immigrant from China, for help. She took us back to the station in search of the bag, driving her Camry like Schumacher drove his Ferrari. We were eventually able to find the taxi, waiting there for its next fare, and retrieve the bag. This was something we were not going to forget anytime soon. We all had a good laugh on our way back from the station.

Next day at Yale, we were welcomed by the Deputy Dean of Yale School of Management. We were given an overview of the program and were also informed about the approaching snow storm that could shut the university. The participants utilized the breakfast time to get to know each other. We had students from 15 different countries, from Chile and Guatemala to Philippines and Japan. We were all divided into groups of five to work on our final project. Praying for good weather we began our first session, dedicated to understanding creativity. The ensuing discussion on creativity as a process and ways in which organizations can breed creativity, was a revelation. The day concluded with a welcome dinner hosted for us by Yale SoM.

What started as an ominous snow storm lapsed into a gentle flurry. We all enjoyed the snowfall as much as the sessions on lean innovation, disruptive technologies such as blockchain and problem reframing. As we worked in groups, the ideas that came out of our collaborative efforts were truly fascinating.

To learn more about how organizations innovate, Yale SoM had arranged visits to offices of Etsy.com, a popular eCommerce company and What If!, an innovation consultant. We got first-hand insights about how a small player like Etsy uses innovation to maintain an edge over the likes of Amazon and Ebay and how an innovation consultant like What If! helps companies turnaround their fortunes by helping them come up with innovations that are a source of sustainable competitive advantage.

By the time the program ended a great camaraderie had developed between the participants. We all bid adieu to Yale SoM and to each other, promising to stay in touch.

The Global Network program was truly an unforgettable experience. The power of human collaboration had never made such a deep impression on my mind before. This experience has reaffirmed my belief that shunning a protectionist mindset, and collaborating instead, can solve the gravest of problems facing mankind today.