3 Reasons Why an Exchange Term at Europe Better Prepares Me to be a Leader

 “Hi, Ray, which country are you from?”

This is the most common ice-breaking question at IESE Business School. But I did pause and ponder for one moment when I first heard it: not once have I been asked in that way in the past one and a half year in US. In the immersion program designed to familiarize international students at Kellogg with US cultures, we were advised to avoid assuming any person, particularly one of color, is from another country. At Kellogg, a similar prompt is thus always phrased as “where do you grow up” or “where have you spent most of you time before coming to business school”.

However, at IESE, the #1 ranking business school in Europe by Economist and located in arguably the most enjoyable city in the world, Barcelona, such an assumption makes sense statistically. 85% of the students are international, from a gamut of 55 nationalities, making 42%, the highest percentage of international student among M7 business schools in US, pale into comparison. Diversity is repeatedly pinpointed by full-time students as their favorite thing about IESE, and after a phenomenal two months here, also became a key reason why an exchange term at Europe prepares me to be a better leader. And my reasons are more than that.

Develop empathetic leadership in a truly multi-cultural environment

I used to spearhead the product innovation with Russia teams at a US company in China. This early career episode enlightened me that, bringing innovative business ideas across borders is where my passion lies in, and to achieve that goal, it's instrumental for me to develop leadership in a diverse environment through my MBA journey. The ubiquitous emphasis on diversity and inclusion at Kellogg laid a solid ground, and IESE, with its incomparable multi-cultural environment, brought up my learning to a new level.

I am always amazed by how internationally diverse the experiences of students at IESE are. I met Mike, a white American student, at a section dinner. Upon hearing that I worked in Beijing for 5 years, he responded, “Me too,” and then in perfect Mandarin,

“Wo zai guo mao shang ban. (I used to work in China World Trade Center)”

Mike is just one among numerous with a global footprint. Gregory was born and raised in Indonesia, studied Chemical Engineering at Berkeley, worked in renewable energy at Iceland and then banking in Hong Kong. Anass grew up in Morocco, worked in France, Germany, Belgium and now studies in Spain. Classmates like them share perspectives which immensely add to the breadth and depth of the class. In Wealth Management, Greek student shared an insider view of the debt crisis in Greece. In Geopolitics, multiple non-Chinese students with working experience in China debate on what China’s rise means to the world. Public Speaking class, where we were required to give a presentation on a topic of our choice, basically evolved into a TED talk, with kaleidoscopic subjects ranging from child obesity in UK, to social enterprise in Kenya, to search fund in India.

Perhaps the best embodiment of how IESE provides a perfect platform to learn perspective-taking is the Cross-cultural Negotiation class, where we were divided into groups based on our nationalities to resolve conflicts typical in different cultures but with approaches normative in our own.

In one case set in a Chinese city, A suspected B’s son of stealing his tape recorder and they ended up in an open fight about it, and we need to mediate the dispute from the perspective of a street committee mediator. Team Spain proposed to interrogate the suspected kid and turn him to police; while Team China, adhering to the old Chinese saying of “Da shi hua xiao, xiao shi hua liao” ( De-escalate big dispute to smaller ones and then to none), dismissed resorting to police and prioritized bringing two parties back to harmony. The enormous variety of approaches to every dispute never failed to drop our jaws, and the subsequent analyzing, rationalizing and reconciling these drastically different paradigms is truly valuable.

I took the IESE crew to hot pot (the first one for many of them!)

Be a C Suite executive for a week

No food or coffee allowed in the classroom. Strict no laptop rule in many classes. It didn't take long for me to realize how IESE lived up to its reputation of the academic rigor, particularly when I saw a student was asked to leave the classroom for fidgeting with cellphone for a while - a throwback to my disciplined high school year in China. Good, let’s get down to study.

The case-based pedagogy at IESE is a great complementary to the lecture-based model at Kellogg. Students’ participation, as well as its content, is carefully recorded, and the vibrant class environment further incentivizes us to engage in thought-provoking and sometimes heated debate.

One assignment in the Power and Influence class is to reenact the apology speech of BP's CEO after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. My video was displayed in the class for discussion.

The most memorable class is IESE’s flagship Executive Simulation. In the one-week intensive course, we compete with each other on teams of five, running a company as heads of marketing, finance, operation, logistics and CEO. For each period, which in reality iscompressed into a few hours, we need to collect and analyze external and internal information and make dozens of strategic, operational and organizational decisions such as:

• Which regions should we sell our products and at what volume and price respectively?
• What’s the combination of raw material, human resources, warehouse capacity and equipment we should input to reach the optimal efficiency?
• Should we pay dividend to the shareholders or double down on the new opportunity?
• How should we prioritize the plethora of tasks and split them between five of us?

As if these are not enough to wrack our nerves and boost our adrenaline, into the packed agenda we need to further squeeze board meeting presentations and negotiation with labor unions and banks, which leaves us with an average of 3 hours’ sleep every day. Ultimately our team achieved the best performance, but even the sense of fulfillment was utterly outshined by how much I've learned. I had the opportunity to review and put into use the entire MBA curriculum from strategy to marketing to operation to negotiation. I practiced every minute how to simplify the overwhelmingly huge amount of information and form strategies and tactics on my feet. I also better understood the business challenges in Europe: coming from China where labor union usually organizes team-building activities, I truly appreciate the experience of negotiating with real labor union as the Chief Operating Officer of a Spanish company. Above all, I’m glad to have my unique value proposition reconfirmed and endorsed: to cheer up the team even in the most stressful time.

Our "C-Suite" working dinner during the intensive Executive Simulation course

Explore Europe with real insiders

Travelling internationally with classmates is the unofficial course on the transcript of every MBA student, and the abundant low-cost carriers and the convenient railway system in Europe make it a treasure trove for any traveller. At IESE, I’m lucky to have met a curious, fun and diverse crew of exchange students from all over the world and with incredible rapport, with whom the in-depth discussions about local cultures make those trips both delightful and inspirational. What’s even better is that after a trip to a country, I can easily find an IESE student from this country to chat with and form a more holistic view.

Channel our inner Berber in Morocco

Wine tour in Porto, Portugal

Pasta making in Rome

Now I’m back at Evanston, reflecting on and reminiscing of the lovely days at Barcelona. My heart brims with gratitude to all the people I’ve interacted with during the exchange: wise and inspiring professors, authentically curious and incredibly welcoming IESE students and the tight-knit exchange crew who planned a reunion at Chicago the moment we departed. On my last day at the campus, the cafeteria guy said to me, IESE is also your home now. You are always welcome to come back and grab a coffee. I was almost in tears. I’m more than sure, this exchange term is the best decision I’ve made in my MBA life.