Exploring Emerging Markets With an MBA Degree

The first step to wrapping your head around a global business environment is the right kind of classroom. A classroom that has people from very different backgrounds – a well-balanced, truly international crowd – is crucial if candidates are to become experts in cross-cultural communication – a necessity in the international business arena.

ESSEC Business School, along with other schools with significant student diversity, put a strong emphasis on giving candidates an insight into cultural differences.  This allows students to experience, for example, the different negotiation styles of a German and an Indian.  From this they can infer different ways business of doing business in Germany and India, and what working cross-culturally would be like in this situation.  Although the gap between business cultures can be wide, in the classroom environment, local students are often less perceptive of cultural differences than students from different backgrounds.  With 80% international students, ESSEC’s Global MBA offers MBA students plenty of opportunities to refine their cross-cultural communication.

MBA students wanting to work in international business must be able to translate cross-cultural communication in the classroom to practical management skills.  How, for example, would they manage a situation in which they lived in Japan, had to position their projects for Indian investment, for a product to be sold in China?  Furthermore, the project will be planned in the United States, the revenue will be in yuan, the shareholders are Japanese, and the profits are in rupees…

This is the reality of doing business in emerging markets today. L’Oreal, for example, has a huge market in India and Asia. It manufactures all its products in India, and sells those products in Japan. Its costs are in rupees and much of its revenue in yen, but its shareholders are in France and its funding often comes from the United States.  This is the reality for which MBA students must prepare.

There are many doors through which candidates can find MBA careers in emerging markets, but the paths may be different for international students and for local students.

One challenge is gaining access to professional networks. In many emerging markets, students engage in more networking during their undergraduate studies than their counterparts in developed economies, such as the United States.  This is because students in developed economies have a much higher chance of pursuing graduate education and therefore have greater opportunities to build networks later on.

The easiest way to penetrate useful networks for MBA careers is through multinational companies, which are also the easiest path to enter the international market. Smaller firms that have been built up from the grassroots are also a good target, because they are open to new faces. For those pursuing MBA careers in emerging markets, to get a job at either type of firm is to get one foot in the door.

It’s also necessary to be aware of different requirements countries have for foreign workers. Candidates need to look for places where foreign workers are welcomed, instead of a market that is closed to foreign competition. Immigration requirements could severely limit their chances at finding a job.

Emerging markets are becoming more and more prominent on the global stage. They have realized that, with the right policies and the right companies, they can make up lost economic ground while improving the living standards of their citizens. While it is somewhat reductive to lump all emerging economies together, they all share these goals, and are making considerable headway in achieving them.

MBA candidates shouldn’t overlook how interesting it is to live and work in these dynamic countries. As with the first explorers in the Arctic, it’s necessary to have the right tools, an open mind, be adaptable, and to be reactive to changes in the climate.  It can be a rough start, but the rewards can be immense.

This article is sponsored by ESSEC Business School.