Six lessons in global leadership from Lindner Honors-PLUS

Navigating the public transit of a foreign city. Ordering food from a menu in a language you’re just learning. Trying that new food you just ordered. Exploring local festivals or common spaces. Living with strangers and making new friendships.

The sights, sounds, tastes and smells of studying abroad are becoming a part of the typical college experience more and more each year. While a month or semester abroad can be life-changing, studying abroad is more than just a fun trip. It’s the opportunity to elevate academic study with a different approach to learning while developing a deep cultural understanding of a different place.

For third-year Carl H. Lindner Honors-PLUS (LHP) students, four and a half weeks spent in Latin America in spring 2019 did not “just” make for a trip with exciting new sights, smells and tastes. Emphasizing course content and prioritizing cultural immersion opportunities, the Lindner Honors-PLUS International Leadership Immersion: Latin America 2019 program provided a platform from which students could build cultural competencies and understand the importance of, and develop their potential in, global leadership.

Below are six lessons the LHP students brought back from Latin America relating to international business, innovation and global leadership.

International trade is complex. Each of the four countries had economies informed by the many geo-political forces and domestic challenges at play. According to Larry Gales, academic director for international programs at Lindner, the wide spectrum of economic development stages and maturity was intentional.

“The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks Chile as near-developed,” said Gales. “By contrast, Colombia is emerging from several decades of civil war, political uncertainty and bouts of economic recession. Each country has its own economic history and set of variables that can be in a state of flux.”

Whether it was copper in Chile, crude petroleum in Colombia, soybean meal, corn or soybean oil in Argentina and car parts in Mexico, the economy of each country relied heavily on exports and, subsequently, expertise in supply chain management and logistics.

Chile’s startup scene lent context to many group discussions around the importance of innovation, sustainability and social responsibility in Latin American economies. After visiting with the National Council of Innovation for Development, Startup Chile, e-commerce retailer Falabella and fruit exporting company ASOEX in Santiago, students uncovered a piece of foundational wisdom: Innovation, sustainability and social responsibility must be inextricably linked for companies to grow quickly and stabilize for consistent success.

For many startup companies, self-awareness and gaining an understanding how consumers and prospective customers see them in the marketplace is an integral part of how they innovate.

“During our visit with Bodytech in Colombia, we participated in a case study in which we could propose new ideas to top management,” said Katie Fasola, ‘21. “As strong leaders, they were the brains behind the operation, but they were continuously striving to learn more about how others perceive them so they could focus on how to positively move forward in a dynamic business world.”

Students learned that innovation is less about sleek gadgets that bring convenience and more about the ability to meet a consumer need. For example, one of the more successful entrepreneur students spoke with achieved success by finding a way to efficiently distribute different sauces that complement dulce de leche, a favorite Argentine delicacy. Sure, not the most high-tech, but it was a product and service that met a consumer need.

While the cohort discovered that technology wasn’t required for innovation, for one student, technology was essential for inclusion in the experience. Due to a recent kidney transplant that inhibited international travel, Mohamed Emlemdi, ’21, participated remotely via the “Mo-Bot,” a portable tablet through which Emlemdi could hear lectures and meet with Lindner’s international partners virtually face-to-face.

The unreliable connectivity presented its own challenges, but Emlemdi still benefitted from the immersion.

"We all took an intercultural assessment at the beginning of the program and I learned that I tend to shy away from differences when interacting with people from other cultures, and that can be minimizing,” said Emlemdi. “Throughout this experience, I tried to focus on acknowledging differences with people from other cultures and learning from that, which is where I developed the most.

“The experience gave me the strong urge to travel, so I'm fine with waiting a little longer to get healthy so I can experience more great cultures and countries around the world.”

For years, business publications have touted English as the language of business, but LHP students found that an ability to develop relationships regardless of preferred language is where business happens.

“Company executives may be bilingual or comfortable speaking English with their international counterparts,” said Lee Armstrong, associate director of international programs at Lindner and one of the designers of the LHP seven-credit immersion program along with Gales and Gruber. “Oftentimes, plant employees, customer service representatives or mid-level managers do not speak English, so our students found that speaking the local language is critical in building relationships and genuine rapport.”

Lindner Honors-PLUS International Leadership Immersion: Latin America 2019 came together through a collection of established and new partnerships, including:

• Cincinnati USA Hispanic Chamber of Commerce – board president Alfonso Cornejo spoke to the cohort before the travel experience
• World Pac Paper – LHP alumus Stanley Wells, ’07, head of recycling business development and strategy, spoke to the cohort before the travel experience
• Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Querétaro, Mexico
• Olé Center for Spanish Language and Culture in Querétaro, Mexico 
• Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia
• Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, Chile
• Startup Chile
• Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Crown Equipment
• Endeavor Colombia

Throughout the travel experience, the LHP students acted as ambassadors of the Lindner College of Business, of the University of Cincinnati, of the Greater Cincinnati region and the United States overall. But according to Associate Dean Gruber, the real work starts upon returning from abroad.

“We want to continue evolving this program from visiting to collaborating long-term,” said Gruber. “One of the ways students can do that is by being a part of the delegation that welcomes a group of ten students from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana to UC in June.”

Featured image: Lindner Honors-PLUS students visited the presidential palace in Bogotá, Colombia, in which they got to converse with an economic advisor to president Iván Duque Márquez. Photo/Provided/Daniel Gruber