Training for Trade: Bringing Home the Realities of Asian Business

You can't talk about Oregon's economy without considering trade with Asia and the Pacific Rim. Consider these facts: Oregon's international export trade--$9.4 billion in 1995--has grown at more than twice the national average for four consecutive years. Trade with Asia and the Pacific Rim accounts for two-thirds of these exports. Trade with Southeast Asia increased 74 percent in 1995 alone and has grown a whopping 242 percent in the past five years.
"What we're seeing are unprecedented opportunities for Oregonians doing business with this huge and rapidly developing part of the world," says Richard Steers, University of Oregon professor of management and vice provost for international affairs. "The value of preparing for future trade relations with the East cannot be overstated."
The UO plays a key role by educating the next generation of business leaders in the realities of Asian trade.
"The world economy is rapidly globalizing; the pace of internationalization is staggering," says Gerardo "Buddy" Ungson, director of the International Business Program at the university's Charles H. Lundquist College of Business. "In response, the UO and other top business schools are expanding their offerings in the area of international business."

Real World Experience

Last spring, the UO business school initiated an innovative program to infuse a practical, experience-based awareness of Asian cultures and business practices into the business curriculum. Fifteen junior faculty members participated in a three-phase program funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and by private support. The scholars attended classes in Asian cultures and customs taught by faculty members from the university's own Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. In addition, they attended a class funded by the Philip Knight Foundation that featured high-ranking visiting business executives and government officials from Asia.

Last summer, they embarked on a three-week study tour of four eastern economic powerhouses: South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and China. The tour included visits to factories and cultural sites and meetings with leaders from business, government, and education.

In the program's third phase, participants will weave the information gained during the course of study and travel into classroom activities for the benefit of students.

"Our goal was not to send Asia scholars and international business experts to Asia," says Steers. "Rather, we sent experts in accounting, finance, marketing, and other business disciplines so they could learn more about the international context in which business transpires. This will help them bring an international perspective to classes throughout the business school and will help us better understand our Asian students here at the UO."

Lundquist College of Business Dean Tim McGuire adds, "This initiative will move us to a new level in terms of globalizing our curriculum, research, and outreach activities."

Building Bridges

One part of that research is about to bear fruit. Steers and Ungson have collaborated on studies of the Korean economy for over a decade. Their first book (coauthored with Yoo-Keun Shin), was titled The Chaebol: Korea's New Industrial Might. This highly regarded exploration of Korean economic vitality will soon be joined by Korean Enterprise: The Quest for Globalization, coauthored with Seung-Ho Park and due out in March from Harvard Business School Press.

Scholarship builds bridges of understanding between distant cultures, and so does face-to-face communication. For a decade, the university has maintained a student exchange program with Yonsei University, one of Korea's top academic institutions. Currently, more than 150 Korean students attend the UO. For students planning on studying or doing business in Korea, a good first step is to sign up for a course in the Korean language, added to the university's extensive foreign-language offerings in 1994.

"We want to give our students every opportunity to develop an interest in and an understanding of international business and culture," says Ungson. "That can take place in the classroom, while reading a textbook, in the art museum, or while studying abroad."

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