Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/58063
American students and a panel of executives use video conferencing to listen to German students make their presentations. dealing with globalization and integration headaches. Us- ing big-screen video conferencing, the German students fully participated. Students on the same team from different countries took turns making their presentations while their PowerPoint slides played on another screen. "The final presentations would have astounded anybody," says Maurizio. She was impressed not only with the way students mastered the software, but with the skills they ac- quired in the process. "They learned communication skills, how to work in virtual teams, and how to collaborate. And they also learned that business and the world change every day. You're never going to be aware of every single change that might come down and hit you in the face." Ethics at the Core Franz and Conway almost immediately planned a second collaboration for the fall of 2006, and this time they added an ethics component to the disruptive events. Early in the semester, students in both the U.S. and Germany were given the mandate to build a $100 million dam project in Africa, and their key challenges involved sorting through suppliers and deciding on procurement processes. The professors gave students a long list of potential sup- pliers, all imperfect—some known for poor environmental processes, some implicated in child labor scandals, some op- erating under a cloud of rumors, and some with convictions to their names. Transparency International and SAP provid- ed information about suppliers and mock documents that looked official. Students chose their vendors and developed a strategy for data privacy. But just as they learned that the German and American companies were being merged, they also received the bad news that the chief procurement officer had spent $1 million of the available funds to pay a bribe. To compensate for the missing money, students had to face unpleasant choic- es: lay off part of the workforce or deal with cheaper suppliers they had already ruled out on business or moral grounds. "They had to come up with three plans for how to make up for the shortfall," Conway said. "We were curious to see how the cultural differences would play out—if German stu- dents would think child labor practices weren't as important as environmental violations, or vice versa. We were interested to see how the students would trade off what they considered the more important charac- teristics of doing business with another country." Other problems were interwoven into this sec- ond exercise. Students had to revamp their pro- curement processes so a single officer couldn't make unauthorized payments. They also had to find com- mon ground on data privacy and integrate their purchasing processes. "We set it up ahead of time so students were us- ing different processes. That way, integration would have a lot of challenges," says Conway. While the first year had the element of total surprise, the pro- fessors knew that the student grapevine might help students in the 2006 class—and successive classes—prepare themselves a little for what might come. But Franz and Conway aren't too worried. Even if students know a disruption will come, they won't know what it will be, and the professors have plenty of ideas about what curves to throw at their students next. Grander Plans In fact, Conway and Franz already are mulling over new ways to rock their students' lives. For future projects, each professor wants to conduct the class in concert with faculty at a different school. "There's no reason any two schools in the world couldn't do this for free," Conway says. He would love to partner with a school in Asia, South Africa, Russia, or a traditional Muslim country, where the cultural differ- ences could seem even more profound to students from the American heartland. Conway and Franz particularly like the idea of adding eth- ical dilemmas to upcoming courses. "We have to teach stu- dents that doing business is not only about making money," says Franz. "Where is the borderline between tough compe- tition and illegal or immoral activities? Students gain some experience in what is fair. They learn that everyone is respon- sible for how livable, human, and sustainable our world is." They also believe that embedding the ethics lesson in a core course gives it more impact than if it's taught in a spe- cialized ethics class. "If you're taking an ethics class, you read assignments within that framework and you know what the questions are going to be," Conway says. When the ethical dilemma is a key—and unexpected—part of the course, it forces students to think it through in relation to their ongo- ing business practices. An upcoming disruption may revolve around an "oil for food" dilemma provided by the U.N. Students will be informed that they're supplying $100 million in grain or BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2007 37