Global Network Students Gain Insights from Corporate Leaders

How do companies navigate cultural and sociopolitical barriers to find new business opportunities abroad? How do multinational media firms adapt their platforms to address the needs of ever-growing global audiences?

Those were a few of the questions posed to executives and leaders in New York during Yale SOM’s Global Network Week, titled “Geopolitics and Global Business.”

Global Network students visited the offices of News Corporation, owner of many media brands, including Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, where they learned about the company’s innovations, including its plans to reach a broader global audience.  Later, they attended a panel discussion with Michael J. Warren, managing principal of Albright Stonebridge Group; Daniel Cruise, vice president of government affairs and business development for Alcoa; and James A. Lawrence, chairman of Rothschild North America.

Paz Roque, a student at Mexico’s EGADE Business School, said she was impressed by the candid discussions and insights leaders offered during the News Corporation visit.

“It’s an industry that you would think is dying— the newspaper industry—because everyone gets their news from Twitter and social media,” Roque said. “It happens very, very fast, but now you see how they are thinking about it. They talked about a completely different audience—the digital and print, and how you keep providing the same information across those different platforms.”

Another student, So Luk Ping from Hong Kong’s HKUST Business School, plans to start her own company when she completes her MBA. She said she gained insight from the panels into how to navigate cultural and political situations as she expands her business.  

“These few days allowed us to brainstorm and see how we can achieve more, ” Ping said. “I’ve already begun some planning on what I can do to expand my own business further and enter more countries.”

Students also attended a networking event with Yale SOM alumni and a talk by Yale SOM’s Professor Robert J. Shiller, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economics. Shiller told students that it is an exciting time to be involved in finance, with innovations like benefit corporations and peer-to-peer lending growing in popularity, and that they should seize the opportunities to work in such areas.

“I think finance is actually a powerful technology for progress,” Shiller said. “It’s not about making money: it’s about financing activities and things that matter. It’s about stewardship and making things happen. I think that there are innovations and financial techniques that are going on that are inspiring for young people.”