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Spotlight Donning traditional Chinese costumes, MBA students Willian Shiang, Tommy Liu, and Chad Berbert take a lighthearted break from their studies during their two-month immersion in Beijing, China. The immersion is part of the Lauder Institute's globally focused MBA program at The Wharton School. The Institute wants its students to be among an elite group of global professionals. "We target a very small group of students who are flu- ent in a language but not native to its culture," says Palmer. "We want them to learn to be fearless, able to go to Russia, China, or Japan to live, work, and pursue whatever they want to achieve." Globalization seems like such a 'Culturally Savvy' Is 'Globally Prepared' Wharton's Lauder Institute combines MBA training with intensive cultural preparation. To understand the nuances of a country's business practices, students must know more than its language, says Tonio Palmer, director of lan- guages at The Wharton School's Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. They must also become proficient in the nuances of a country's politics, busi- ness practices, and social customs, whether by chatting up a Chinese executive in the native language—or taking a bike ride through Beijing. The Lauder Institute offers the traditional Wharton MBA with a global twist. Its MBA students also receive a Master of Arts in interna- tional studies from the University's School of Arts and Sciences and customized language training. Before students are even accepted to the program, they must possess advanced skills in one of eight languages— French, German, Japanese, Portu- guese, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, or 72 BizEd MAY/JUNE 2007 Arabic—in addition to English. In the program, they develop their lan- guage skills from proficient to fluent. Then, they are trained to understand the business climate and cultural subtleties of their chosen country. Students in the Chinese immersion program, for exam- ple, begin in May to complete a month of business coursework. Then, they spend two months in China, participating in language courses in the mornings and studying Chinese government, history, and art in the afternoons. Before their two-month stay is over, they visit 15 Chinese multinational corporations, conduct- ing meetings with Chinese execu- tives in Mandarin. When they return to Wharton, they complete MBA coursework supplemented by lan- guage, cultural, and political courses. "WE WANT STUDENTS TO BE FEARLESS AND PURSUE WHATEVER THEY WANT TO ACHIEVE." —Tonio Palmer 21st-century phenomenon that it comes as a surprise to some that the Lauder Institute is actually more than two decades old. It was found- ed in 1983 by Leonard Lauder, chairman of the Estée Lauder Com- panies, and Robert Lauder, chair- man of Clinique Laboratories. Both are Wharton alumni who wanted to find professionals comprehensively trained to do business in different cultures. They founded the Institute when they realized that few or no MBA programs focused on global skills at that level. To date, the Insti- tute has graduated 930 students. The intense train- ing the Institute offers works hand in hand with the grow- ing complexities of global business, says Palmer. "It's true that, at very high levels, language is key to com- munication; but even then there's a danger," he says. "You may think someone understands what you are saying just because you speak the language. Because of cultural differ- ences, however, it may come across differently than you intend. For that reason, it's crucial that students also understand the culture." ■ z