MSM – CENTRUM MBA students experience education in the heart of Europe

On Friday, 17 November nineteen participants completed a four-week program as a part of the MSM joint MBA with CENTRUM Católica Graduate Business School in Peru, the number one ranked international MBA program in Latin America (Eduniversal 2015-2016).

As part of this program participants attended four management courses at MSM: International Business, Global Supply Chain Management, Managing Cultural Diversity, and Global Corporate Strategy. In the last course the Peruvian group interacted in class with the residential Full-time MBA program, a truly multicultural experience that they highly appreciated.

Besides this, the Peruvian MBA candidates visited and networked with a number of international companies and organizations, among which the EU in Brussels, Greenport Venlo, Seacon Logistics and Nike. At the City Hall in Venlo, an impressive sustainable building, participants attended a presentation on the Greenport by Ms. Ellen Berkvens, Economic Advisor from the City of Venlo. The Venlo region was the first region in the world to fully embrace cradle-to-cradle (C2C) design. C2C implies the continuous recycling of materials, preventing the loss of valuable raw materials, which makes it cost-saving and profitable. In 2013 Venlo was awarded a leadership prize in New York for the efforts in the field of C2C. In the words of one of the MBA participants, Ms. Monica Del Aguila: “the visit was interesting, mainly due to the fact that this kind of cooperation between local authorities and entrepreneurs is hardly seen back in Peru. In addition, it caught everybody’s attention that the business environment was not only accessible and relaxed but also has the facilities that provide a proactive approach to environmental sustainability”.

The Peruvian group also visited Seacon Logistics where Mr. Frank Hermans, Director Transport & Forwarding, welcomed them and presented this successful Dutch company, a leader in multimodal transport with presence in more than 75 countries. After the presentation the MSM – CENTRUM students followed an interesting tour by Mr. Christian Maas, Manager Warehousing and Logistics, and by Mr. Gé Lucassen, Advisor New Business & Sales, in the warehouse and inland harbor from Venlo respectively.

At the European Commission in Brussels, the MBA candidates attended the following two presentations: The European Commission: the political executive of the European Union by Mr. Simon Pascoe, from the Directorate-General for Communication, and The EU’s Competition policy by Mr. Cyril Hariton from the Directorate-General for Competition. MBA candidate Edgar Medina found this visit valuable because in his words: “it allowed us not only to understand the general function of the European Union (EU), but also to obtain more detailed information in matters of policy coordination, budget implementation, and especially in actions related to competition”.

Moreover, the Peruvian participants had a tour in the new installations of the Nike European Logistics Center in Ham, Belgium, the biggest distribution center in Europe and the largest in the world for the American sportswear distributor. The Peruvian group was amazed by the level of automatization at this new location which is an example of how sustainable innovation is embedded into Nike’s growth strategy.

Finally, The Peruvian MBA candidates were very satisfied with the experience at MSM, Mr. Cesar Valdivia mentioned: “MSM provided me with the opportunity to study abroad and learn from other cultures. The professors enriched the learning experience with their global perspective and point of views. For sure, MSM’s location also favors students, who are interested to perform networking in Europe. I would totally recommend the experience”.

MSM and Nichols College double degree students visit Maastricht

MSM-CENTRUM’s DBA students from Colombia and Ecuador visit Maastricht

MSM and CENTRUM celebrate the new Peruvian and Colombian graduates