Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Module 4-India!!
Posted by Elizabeth on 4:43 AM
Today I arrived in Bangalore India for Module 4 of my Global Educational Experience.
I left mid day Friday in Seattle and spent over 20 hours in the air flying, touching down just briefly in London, and arriving on Sunday morning in Bangalore.
From London to Bangalore I had a window seat. One of my professors told me that to understand globalization, you just have to follow the light. He showed in class a picture of the world at night and all the light scattered around the world clustering at metropolitan areas and dispersed in less developed areas. Flying from England to India-the route took us over the Middle East during night. If I wasn't asleep, then I was just following the light. Seeing how cities where connected by street lights, or how single pockets of flickering lights scattered like stars in the sky. I am curious how those lone flickers received electricity-was it battery, solar energy, some non obvious connection to a grid? Or maybe it was that water in the bottle, with bleach invention light technology solution that I have heard so much about. None the less, the pattern of light from the sky is thought provoking and beautiful and I would love to fly around at night taking pictures.
Back to school stuff...
This module I am taking three classes and my consulting team will be presenting our findings to our clients.
The classes:
Managing human and social capital 1: Cross cultural management & Intercultural development Inventory. Negotiating Intercultural Interactions.
Managing Human and Social Capital 2: Building Competitive Advantage through People
Knowledge & TechnologyManagement
Consulting Project Practicum: My group's focus is "Innovations and Technology for the Poor. " We will be presenting our findings to Infosys at the end of the module. The Consulting project was started at the end of Module 2. I have had the great pleasure of interviewing companies, and organizations in Seattle to get first hand accounts of what is working and what is failing when looking at services and products to the poor globally.
So much more to come...
Love you all,
Lizzie
I left mid day Friday in Seattle and spent over 20 hours in the air flying, touching down just briefly in London, and arriving on Sunday morning in Bangalore.
From London to Bangalore I had a window seat. One of my professors told me that to understand globalization, you just have to follow the light. He showed in class a picture of the world at night and all the light scattered around the world clustering at metropolitan areas and dispersed in less developed areas. Flying from England to India-the route took us over the Middle East during night. If I wasn't asleep, then I was just following the light. Seeing how cities where connected by street lights, or how single pockets of flickering lights scattered like stars in the sky. I am curious how those lone flickers received electricity-was it battery, solar energy, some non obvious connection to a grid? Or maybe it was that water in the bottle, with bleach invention light technology solution that I have heard so much about. None the less, the pattern of light from the sky is thought provoking and beautiful and I would love to fly around at night taking pictures.
Back to school stuff...
This module I am taking three classes and my consulting team will be presenting our findings to our clients.
The classes:
Managing human and social capital 1: Cross cultural management & Intercultural development Inventory. Negotiating Intercultural Interactions.
Managing Human and Social Capital 2: Building Competitive Advantage through People
Knowledge & TechnologyManagement
Consulting Project Practicum: My group's focus is "Innovations and Technology for the Poor. " We will be presenting our findings to Infosys at the end of the module. The Consulting project was started at the end of Module 2. I have had the great pleasure of interviewing companies, and organizations in Seattle to get first hand accounts of what is working and what is failing when looking at services and products to the poor globally.
So much more to come...
Love you all,
Lizzie
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Module 3 update
Posted by Elizabeth on 7:34 PM
Watching the elections in Sao Paulo will be an experience I will never forget. My classmates both republican and democrat surrounded by Brazilians, and hotel guests from Germany and else where..watching the numbers role in on the Hotel's outside bar TV-was exciting and fun.
Cheers-Clapping-Boos could be heard from each announcement on CNN (the first Chanel we could find broadcasting the results-the rest of the channels broadcasting just regular programming). Everyone was making early predictions, asking each other about the process in early voting for each state-how some classmates couldnt vote -as early voting opened the day some left and the lines were too many hours long for them to make their flights to school...the sacrifices they made.
some people left the night early like around 9pm (which is 3pm PST) while I stayed till 1am with the last troupers. By the time I feel asleep-it was clear Obama won.
The next day, it was strange to be in a foreign country-it seemed only our class was obsessed with our election and outcome. Maybe the silence I experienced from the hotel guest was just lost in the translation and poor eavesdropping skills I have. I lived vicariously through through social media -and US newspapers to feel a bit more of a connection to the event.
~
Class ended on Friday in Sao Paulo and by Friday night we hopped a flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We had class early on Saturday morning. And sometime in the morning I came down withVertigo. The most obnoxious sickness -where the world just starts moving and I just got nauseated and dizzy. I laid down and the school called a doctor. I was given medicine and was told that due to elevation change, the late night traveling and change in altitude that the cause was more environmental than anything else. Which was good--as my body acclimated -the vertigo ceased. It's funny to get a new illness in a foreign country. Never knowing what to do, where to go, the panic for a second steps in. Thankfully, my GEMBA family is exceptional. Within a minute of talking to my friend about what I felt I had a pharmacist (who is pregnant and has a small cabinet of medicines for any miss calculated experience) and a medical doctor -both classmates of mine-diagnosing my symptoms and prescribing me medicine. Talk about the richness of resources on our adventure. But like I said, the school had a local doc come by and do assessment just in case. After a few days though the vertigo was gone.
~
My professor Pedro said there are four types of countries in the world:
-rich
-poor
-Japan
-Argentina
Japan having very limited natural resources yet is quite successful and then Argentina which is a country with ample of resources, and yet not doing so well.
Argentina is Beautiful! The sun, the people, the old architect. Being in Buenos Aires you feel like you are in any European city! I could live here in a heart beat. It feels comfortable. Sao Paulo on the other hand is not a city I would want to live in-too ugly and horrible traffic.
Right now we are doing a business simulation-computer game if you will-where you put in variables like price, factory location, capacity, advertising, etc...and you add in your values for each simulation and see hw your group did in the market place. Kinda fun in a geeky way-but to
totally stressful in another-no one wants to be that group that defaults. But weird though huh-playing simulation "games" in grad school just seems odd-but I much prefer it to writing papers. Anyway that is hat my last days in class will be-combing the Supply chain operations, Marketing, and Global structures classes into one long "real life" experiment. Wish my team well!
Love you!
Lizzie
Read more »
Cheers-Clapping-Boos could be heard from each announcement on CNN (the first Chanel we could find broadcasting the results-the rest of the channels broadcasting just regular programming). Everyone was making early predictions, asking each other about the process in early voting for each state-how some classmates couldnt vote -as early voting opened the day some left and the lines were too many hours long for them to make their flights to school...the sacrifices they made.
some people left the night early like around 9pm (which is 3pm PST) while I stayed till 1am with the last troupers. By the time I feel asleep-it was clear Obama won.
The next day, it was strange to be in a foreign country-it seemed only our class was obsessed with our election and outcome. Maybe the silence I experienced from the hotel guest was just lost in the translation and poor eavesdropping skills I have. I lived vicariously through through social media -and US newspapers to feel a bit more of a connection to the event.
~
Class ended on Friday in Sao Paulo and by Friday night we hopped a flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We had class early on Saturday morning. And sometime in the morning I came down withVertigo. The most obnoxious sickness -where the world just starts moving and I just got nauseated and dizzy. I laid down and the school called a doctor. I was given medicine and was told that due to elevation change, the late night traveling and change in altitude that the cause was more environmental than anything else. Which was good--as my body acclimated -the vertigo ceased. It's funny to get a new illness in a foreign country. Never knowing what to do, where to go, the panic for a second steps in. Thankfully, my GEMBA family is exceptional. Within a minute of talking to my friend about what I felt I had a pharmacist (who is pregnant and has a small cabinet of medicines for any miss calculated experience) and a medical doctor -both classmates of mine-diagnosing my symptoms and prescribing me medicine. Talk about the richness of resources on our adventure. But like I said, the school had a local doc come by and do assessment just in case. After a few days though the vertigo was gone.
~
My professor Pedro said there are four types of countries in the world:
-rich
-poor
-Japan
-Argentina
Japan having very limited natural resources yet is quite successful and then Argentina which is a country with ample of resources, and yet not doing so well.
Argentina is Beautiful! The sun, the people, the old architect. Being in Buenos Aires you feel like you are in any European city! I could live here in a heart beat. It feels comfortable. Sao Paulo on the other hand is not a city I would want to live in-too ugly and horrible traffic.
Right now we are doing a business simulation-computer game if you will-where you put in variables like price, factory location, capacity, advertising, etc...and you add in your values for each simulation and see hw your group did in the market place. Kinda fun in a geeky way-but to
totally stressful in another-no one wants to be that group that defaults. But weird though huh-playing simulation "games" in grad school just seems odd-but I much prefer it to writing papers. Anyway that is hat my last days in class will be-combing the Supply chain operations, Marketing, and Global structures classes into one long "real life" experiment. Wish my team well!
Love you!
Lizzie
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Module 3 begins!!
Posted by Elizabeth on 5:54 PM
We are in Sao Paulo and Buenos aires for Module 3- a week in each city.
I arrived in Brazil after traveling for a combined 17 hours. The temperature is pleasant. Not too hot, nor smug, just sorta perfect 75 with little humidity. I was prepared for the worse-sweat drenched clothes exiting the plane like in Tanzania. But instead-just a little overcasted 75 degrees.
I took a taxi with my classmate and pal Phil. The biggest observation I have about Sao Paulo is the graffiti everywhere. I kept thinking to myself how did they reach that spot or that one? Phil commented that it reminded him of New York in the 80's. The overall architecture is mostly cement buildings-indicative of any hot climate location. I didn't see a lot of trash. The city seems mostly clean. The stories about the traffic congestion is true. It's bad. The people seem very friendly from my limited interactions and overall I like this city. Tomorrow our group will go on a tour of the city. I will take some photos and post later.
The classes:
This module I will be taking:
Global Operations and Supply Chains
Marketing for the Global Executives
Structuring and Managing the Global Firms
The integrated course will be Designing the Global Firm
Well I am going to go back to studying. Have a great night!
Xo
L
Read more »
I arrived in Brazil after traveling for a combined 17 hours. The temperature is pleasant. Not too hot, nor smug, just sorta perfect 75 with little humidity. I was prepared for the worse-sweat drenched clothes exiting the plane like in Tanzania. But instead-just a little overcasted 75 degrees.
I took a taxi with my classmate and pal Phil. The biggest observation I have about Sao Paulo is the graffiti everywhere. I kept thinking to myself how did they reach that spot or that one? Phil commented that it reminded him of New York in the 80's. The overall architecture is mostly cement buildings-indicative of any hot climate location. I didn't see a lot of trash. The city seems mostly clean. The stories about the traffic congestion is true. It's bad. The people seem very friendly from my limited interactions and overall I like this city. Tomorrow our group will go on a tour of the city. I will take some photos and post later.
The classes:
This module I will be taking:
Global Operations and Supply Chains
Marketing for the Global Executives
Structuring and Managing the Global Firms
The integrated course will be Designing the Global Firm
Well I am going to go back to studying. Have a great night!
Xo
L
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
October 2012 Update
Posted by Elizabeth on 9:20 PM
In between the modules life is pretty much finishing finals and reading for the next module and of course working. Now because life is life, there are still about a million other things that happen as well.
Read more »
I will try to recap them here:
First- This happened:
I have worked at VLST for over 7 years. I am grateful for the experience that the company has provided me with and also for all the great people I have worked with over the years. I walked in as a lab manager and research associate focusing on molecular biology and leaving as the Sr. Operations Manager. My favorite projects would have to be moving the company, space planning and overall creating operations. With a small company I have loved being able to wear so many hats over the years and being exposed to the different aspects of a company. My company, when appropriate, has tried to be very transparent and candid. I know everyone who has worked here and everyone has given their best. As small biotechs go, they don't get much more fun than VLST. I am excited to see what happens next for VLST and their clinical projects. I truly do believe in what the company does and I believe that their therapeutics can have real benefit for patients. However, due to their limited resources and refocusing, I will no longer be working there past February. So as they saying goes, one door closes and another one opens.. and it seems that over the month of October I have had some great conversations about some potential possibilities, with other small biotechs, some international firms outside of science field, some random odd stuff, and even some ideas about my own projects. All in all, I feel overall positive of my next steps-whatever they will be. :)
Second:
School-so besides just the readings for the next module, we have started our thesis paper (not due till July) and a small group consulting project with a firm in India for our Module 4. My thesis mentor is a fascinating man with the same passion (I think) for interdisciplinary approaches as well as for disrupting the status quo. Needless to say, I think I will very much enjoy his insights! I also have found some of my own mentors in the community around Seattle. It is hard for me not to constantly work on my project.
My team consulting project is also really neat. I have a great group of four other classmates, each bringing a tremendous value to the table. Our topic is to look at innovation and technology solutions for the poor for InfoSys. One of my favorite aspects of this project is just how you have global meetings. First you had to pick a time that would work for everyone's time zone. So for me, it is 9am on Sundays, which is noon on the east coast, and about 4pm in Europe and one of our members travels a lot, so sometimes he is in Peru, sometimes in Madrid, so for him, who knows. ;) One of our team members is an IT guru-her name is Amy and she set us up with a great google group site, and one of our members Clive had a global conference program we could utilize. I find the logistics in the actual meetings so fascinating. How do we move forward on projects with out seeing each other eye to eye. (We do have video chat-but on a sunday at 9am-I usually try to spare my teammates).
Ohh and how can I forget this news: our GEMBA program got ranked as 19th in the world for EMBA programs by the Financial Times. This was the first time the program got ranked-so next year I think we will be #1.
Third:
Heavy on my heart and my mind is this: Washington State is voting on Marriage Equality this November. Our state congress passed marriage equality at the beginning of the year, and our Governor even signed it into law. I even made the front page of the paper with Shena. See us here. However, a small group of people got together, got some signatures and used our governing process to put it up for a vote in the November election. "Now the thing about rights is that you are not suppose to vote on them." Rachel Maddow. However, in WA we do. So this October I volunteered with the pro-marriage equality people-Washington United for Marriage Equality by doing a phone bank one night and by donating money as well. (Not a lot of money-but what I could.) It was eye opening to say the least to talk to the undecided voters on the phone. There is a lot of misinformation being spread by the opposition that people haven't bothered to check the facts. The school curriculum won't change, and if you sell a service or a product to the public and you discriminate- you can be sued today for that. This law doesn't change anything with regards to that. And all religious folks get to keep their rights and their own customs, etc etc. The hardest claim to hear is that people just were not comfortable with it. They were married. But were uncomfortable with marriage for all. What?! They just have arguments that are just not logical-based in a fear of the unknown or something else that I can't grasp. Any Washington voter undecided please check the facts, talk to me, and vote for equality this November. I have heard all the arguments against, and I think this pastor sums it up best.
And a fun insight too, is that most Seattle companies from Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, REI, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Expedia etc etc all support Marriage equality.
Check out this great video from Expedia.
It is really neat to see how these global companies support their employees and support diversity and love. I wonder what impact it had to their global business for standing up for human rights. Of course I can imagine how it helped tremendously in goodwill and in overall respect. Shoot-Expedia is the only company that I buy my tickets through from now on.
Also our capitol hill musicians also showed their support by creating this song, and played on Ellen today: watch the video here.
The fact that we are debating marriage equality is crazy. The world is in so many time zones all at once, from dark ages to enlightenment to the 21st century. I guess I am just use to living in a progressive, innovative city that I forget that it is not the norm. Hopefully, this November we will be the first state to vote in marriage equality and we can be an example for the rest of the country and to the world.
I won't be around though for this historic day, as I will be in Brazil for module 3, so please celebrate for me!!
Well there it is, a quick recap. Oh and also, I turned 31 in October. I had a great dinner with the family and another small quick dinner with some friends. My best bud Krystal even flew in from Montana. Pretty Special.
Oh and one more thing: Pygmy Survival Alliance is starting to ask for donations for 2013. We have accomplished so much from literacy program, secondary education, deworming, health insurance, creating sustainable businesses, launching a CD of the music, to food security, to social community empowerment, to a youth soccer team. Just incredible. A true testament to the holistic micro-development approach. For updates check out www.facebook.com/pygmysurvival or www.pymgysurvival.org and www.coffeerwanda.com
Okay now I am done.
XO,
L
My team consulting project is also really neat. I have a great group of four other classmates, each bringing a tremendous value to the table. Our topic is to look at innovation and technology solutions for the poor for InfoSys. One of my favorite aspects of this project is just how you have global meetings. First you had to pick a time that would work for everyone's time zone. So for me, it is 9am on Sundays, which is noon on the east coast, and about 4pm in Europe and one of our members travels a lot, so sometimes he is in Peru, sometimes in Madrid, so for him, who knows. ;) One of our team members is an IT guru-her name is Amy and she set us up with a great google group site, and one of our members Clive had a global conference program we could utilize. I find the logistics in the actual meetings so fascinating. How do we move forward on projects with out seeing each other eye to eye. (We do have video chat-but on a sunday at 9am-I usually try to spare my teammates).
Ohh and how can I forget this news: our GEMBA program got ranked as 19th in the world for EMBA programs by the Financial Times. This was the first time the program got ranked-so next year I think we will be #1.
Third:
Heavy on my heart and my mind is this: Washington State is voting on Marriage Equality this November. Our state congress passed marriage equality at the beginning of the year, and our Governor even signed it into law. I even made the front page of the paper with Shena. See us here. However, a small group of people got together, got some signatures and used our governing process to put it up for a vote in the November election. "Now the thing about rights is that you are not suppose to vote on them." Rachel Maddow. However, in WA we do. So this October I volunteered with the pro-marriage equality people-Washington United for Marriage Equality by doing a phone bank one night and by donating money as well. (Not a lot of money-but what I could.) It was eye opening to say the least to talk to the undecided voters on the phone. There is a lot of misinformation being spread by the opposition that people haven't bothered to check the facts. The school curriculum won't change, and if you sell a service or a product to the public and you discriminate- you can be sued today for that. This law doesn't change anything with regards to that. And all religious folks get to keep their rights and their own customs, etc etc. The hardest claim to hear is that people just were not comfortable with it. They were married. But were uncomfortable with marriage for all. What?! They just have arguments that are just not logical-based in a fear of the unknown or something else that I can't grasp. Any Washington voter undecided please check the facts, talk to me, and vote for equality this November. I have heard all the arguments against, and I think this pastor sums it up best.
And a fun insight too, is that most Seattle companies from Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, REI, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Expedia etc etc all support Marriage equality.
Check out this great video from Expedia.
It is really neat to see how these global companies support their employees and support diversity and love. I wonder what impact it had to their global business for standing up for human rights. Of course I can imagine how it helped tremendously in goodwill and in overall respect. Shoot-Expedia is the only company that I buy my tickets through from now on.
Also our capitol hill musicians also showed their support by creating this song, and played on Ellen today: watch the video here.
The fact that we are debating marriage equality is crazy. The world is in so many time zones all at once, from dark ages to enlightenment to the 21st century. I guess I am just use to living in a progressive, innovative city that I forget that it is not the norm. Hopefully, this November we will be the first state to vote in marriage equality and we can be an example for the rest of the country and to the world.
I won't be around though for this historic day, as I will be in Brazil for module 3, so please celebrate for me!!
Well there it is, a quick recap. Oh and also, I turned 31 in October. I had a great dinner with the family and another small quick dinner with some friends. My best bud Krystal even flew in from Montana. Pretty Special.
Oh and one more thing: Pygmy Survival Alliance is starting to ask for donations for 2013. We have accomplished so much from literacy program, secondary education, deworming, health insurance, creating sustainable businesses, launching a CD of the music, to food security, to social community empowerment, to a youth soccer team. Just incredible. A true testament to the holistic micro-development approach. For updates check out www.facebook.com/pygmysurvival or www.pymgysurvival.org and www.coffeerwanda.com
Okay now I am done.
XO,
L