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Pauline Schellart's OneMBA Class of 2006 Diary

Pauline Schellart is the CEO of St. Kinderopvang Leiderdorp, a Childcare firm based in Leiderdorp, the Netherlands. She is also a participant in the Global Executive OneMBA programme. On 16 June 2006, nearly 21 months after she began the OneMBA programme, Pauline will graduate, entering the next phase of her life. Over the course of the next few weeks, Pauline will detail her highs and lows - giving a little insight into her experiences.

June 9 , 2006: Salsa in Shanghai

Working in these global teams is one of the special features of the OneMBA. You can read plenty of books on cultural differences, but experiencing them personally is far more valuable. You learn to understand each other better, you get to know individual people, with their own set of behaviours and values, and you experience the similarities between cultures as well. The workload is intense; we cover courses on subjects such as Corporate Finance, Change Management and Strategy, but we all know this is essential to building our knowledge so we all work hard together.

What was even better was meeting in person. The entire class came together in Washington, Rotterdam, Poland, Monterrey, and Saõ Paulo, and now is meeting again in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Not everyone has become a close friend, but you share something. It is special to be together and to experience together the home countries of other students from the group. Your classmates share with you an entirely different perspective on what is happening in the region. In China, similarly to the previous residencies, the contrasts between the regions, the differences and similarities in the culture, economic situation, environment, etc., made me think.

What consequences will this have for the future of the world and of business and the people within that world? We have experienced great and confusing mixtures, like when we went dancing in Shanghai in a Salsa bar. It was fun to be in the middle of Chinese people dancing Salsa. The shoes I bought in Hong Kong are made in Paris and the toys I bought for my kids in Poland are made in China. In various assignments for the OneMBA I have researched global companies like Ikea, Burger King and Marriot.

They operate in many regions, but face challenges in adapting to the local situation as well. In my opinion creativity and flexibility are important to be able to adapt as a company as well as an executive. If nothing else, this program has made clear that the world is coming together as never before, that countries are no longer isolated, but are becoming more and more intermingled into one global community.