Sustainable business lessons for Executive MBA participants from Azerbaijan

“We have learned firsthand that it is possible to modernize and develop without having to ruin the surrounding environment”, said Hassan Shafiee, one of the participants of the Executive MBA jointly offered by ADA and MSM in Baku, Azerbaijan. He referred to the different work visits the 28 participants conducted during their recent European study visit. “These visits as part of the MSM initiative gave us a totally different perspective on development and technology”, he stated.

MSM welcomed the ADA group to Maastricht from 22 June to 3 July 2015. Apart from the work visits they followed two courses, Business in the Global Arena and Marketing in a Global Context.

The group received a special welcome from the MSM Chairman of the Board René van der Linden and as a token of appreciation the group handed over a typical gift from Azerbaijan to the Chairman.

The first work visit was to WP Haton, which is part of the Werner & Pfleiderer Bakery Group, a company designing and manufacturing innovative dough processing machines for both the bakery on the corner and large industrial bakers. After a company presentation followed by a Q&A session, the participants enjoyed a tour of the workplace.

“We were so impressed with their concept of automated dough processing”, Mr. Shafiee summarized the experience of the group.

Next stop was Seacon Logistics, a family owned company offering worldwide logistics solutions for the complete supply chain, encouraging rail and water transport. The group learned all about Seacon’s multimodal chain management and its extensive overseas logistics experience.

And finally they visited Greenport Venlo and Brightbox, an expertise center for daylight-free multi-layer cultivation, i.e. city farming. There the MBA participants discussed on how they see the business opportunities within Western Europe, and more specifically the role and opportunities for companies in the province of Limburg to do business in Azerbaijan and its region.

The ADA Executive MBA group not only appreciated the work visits and the courses, but also the whole MSM experience: “Having traveled from as far as Azerbaijan to visit beautiful Maastricht, home of MSM, as part of our EMBA study program, we were so overwhelmed with the generosity and hospitality of the MSM staff who made all of us feel at home helping us to get the most out of our trip. MSM made our long journey a lot more pleasant and enjoyable. What impressed us was the fact that the entire MSM staff comes from all over the planet, truly multinational professional staff. Additionally we learnt that beautiful Holland is a country “green everywhere” and “clean everywhere”. I highly recommend MSM to those who want to build a better future on their academic life.” Hassan Shafiee concludes.