Well-educated, international and successful

Diversity is the key to success: the most brilliant and amazing ideas and discoveries are made at the border of two – sometimes being far away and contrasting – disciplines. And international teams achieve even 20% more productivity than those consisting of members of just one nation

You know it, don’t you: a German company acquires an Indian one – or vice versa. Or they build a facility together. Or representatives of many nations do a research project together. All the projects have something common: they require successful working in international teams.

Experience shows that teams learn quicker, meet better decisions, are more productive and achieve better quality than single persons. International teams achieve even better synergies.

However, teamwork should be learned. And learning from each other and about each other is essential as well: for different people even the understanding of the terms “team”, “team leader” and “teamwork” can differ from each other and they have different expectations from teamwork and team leaders. While some persons expect the team leader to make decisions and show the way of doing things, other one want to have initiatives and to make decisions together with other team members. For that reason the key for success of each team is to communicate with each other and to understand the way of doing and expectations of each party.

Therefore the contemporary education system pays attention on intercultural competencies. Good preparation for working in international environment are MBA programmes which offer their students the opportunity to establish international groups during the studies and also to spend some time abroad. Following a (small) example from Frankfurt, the town I live in.


Students of the Goethe Business School
Source: GBS, http://www.gbs.uni-frankfurt.de/images/stories/media/thumb/2Student...
Just a few days ago, the Goethe Business School (GBS) located in Frankfurt established a partnership with the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad. The first project will be a 12-day-stay in India for the participants of the Goethe Executive MBA programme in April 2010. The purpose of the course “Leading within New Realities – Inside India“ which will be held in Hyderabad is to show the economic situation in India and to make possible for the participants to get insight into the Indian system of education, to visit local companies and to exchange ideas and knowledge with representatives of industry and economy in India.


Graduation Ceremony 2009 at Indian School of Business
Source: ISB, http://www.isb.edu/GradDay2009/Image/10_big.jpg
Hannelore Bossmann of DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst: German Academic Exchange Service) branch in New Delhi is of the opinion that the Indian system of education is much more like teaching in school and based on transfer of knowledge while German students develop own ideas and work independently but there is a need for them to extend their knowledge. Therefore the Indo-German projects are challenging and beneficial for both parties. Their current and future employers – does not matter if located in India, Germany or any other country – will for sure benefit from their ability for teamwork in international teams.


Federal President Johannes Rau visiting Hyderabad
Source: DAAD, http://www.daad.de/presse/de/pics/8.3_100303_Indien2_kl.jpg
The region of Frankfurt belongs to the regions in Germany where the most Indian companies are located. Indians living in Germany belong to a very good integrated groups of foreigners. They are well-educated as education is one of the important issues Indian families put attention on. About 33% of them belong to the group of migrants with the highest income, representing such professions as doctors, scientists and business people. And Indian companies are important employers in Germany, giving jobs to around 20,000 full-time employees and around 1,000 apprentices. No wonder that the Goethe Business School has chosen the Indian School of Business as one of its partners.

Magdalena Szarafin
http://www.szarafin.info

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Goethe Business School (GBS) was founded in 2004 as the center for high-quality management education at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. GBS’s educational programmes combine the highest standards of academic rigor with a hands-on applicability to real-world issues. The Goethe Executive MBA is offered in co-operation with the Fuqua School of Business at the Duke University in Durham (North Carolina, USA) and includes visits to China and India. The full-time MBA will be offered starting September 2009. more >>

Indian School of Business (ISB) was founded by eminent international business leaders, entrepreneurs and academicians and is a research-oriented independent management institution that grooms future leaders for India and the world. Its association with the Kellogg School of Management, The Wharton School, and London Business School make it one of its kind in Asia. The faculty is drawn from leading business schools such as Wharton, Kellogg, London Business School, Stanford, Chicago, Duke and Texas among others. ISB offers a one-year post-graduate programme; short-duration, high-powered executive education programmes for CEOs and senior executives; and a two-year research fellowship programme. more >>

German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst: (DAAD) is one of the world's largest and most respected intermediary organisations in its field. Scores of students, teachers, researchers and scientists from different countries supported by the DAAD have been able to gain valuable experience abroad. Except of that, there are also many other areas of the work of the DAAD. more >>