Thirteen CGU students to explore New Zealand’s economy for Global Immersions course
A tour of the world’s largest dairy exporter. Boat trips to understand leadership within a Māori context. A traipse through the land of The Lord of the Rings.
More than a dozen Claremont Graduate University students will spend an intense week in New Zealand this summer as part of the Drucker School of Management’s latest Global Immersion course. They will learn how New Zealand’s export-driven economy thrives in a highly global yet entrepreneurial environment.
Jenny Darroch, a Drucker professor of marketing and influential scholar in the field of knowledge management, is teaching the course, “Managing Globally: From the Point of View of a Small Export Economy.”
It will be a unique learning experience, she said.
“I am thrilled to be taking a group of students to New Zealand, my home country,” Darroch said. “New Zealand is an interesting country in that it has pivoted from relying on trade with the UK to trade with the Asia Pacific Region. While New Zealand is well known for its beautiful landscapes, sheep and The Lord of the Rings movies, the economy has transformed and it now exports a lot of value added agriculture and horticulture products, and is home to some extremely interesting high-tech innovations.”
The trip will span May 29 through June 3.
Topics to be covered include the economic history of New Zealand; its value added industries, such as food and wine; entrepreneurship and innovation; the country’s creative economy, including film, art, and music, and the integration of business and Māori culture. The Māori people are New Zealand’s indigenous people of Polynesian descent.
The thirteen CGU students going on the trip are from the Drucker School of Management, the School of Community and Global Health, and the School of Social Science, Policy and Evaluation.
The trip also marks the Drucker School’s partnership with the University of Auckland’s Business School.
“We partnered with the University of Auckland because it has a world-class reputation for the quality of its programs and research,” Darroch said. “Ivan Moss, director of MBA and Executive Education for the university’s Business School, and his team have put together an extraordinarily high quality program for us with access to interesting speakers and organizations that provide our students with a very balanced view of New Zealand.”
In addition to lectures, group discussions, and Q&A sessions, the course will also offer networking opportunities for students with experienced New Zealand market experts. Don Brash, who served as the governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for 14 years and was the former leader of the New Zealand National Party, will speak to students about New Zealand’s economic history and current context.
Lukas Paravacini, the CFO of Fonterra, will co-teach with Darroch a case study on Fonterra, the largest dairy exporter in the world—22 billion liters annually—and one of New Zealand’s largest employers.
Company site visits, cultural excursions, and field trips—including a visit to Hobbiton, a Hobbit village film set from The Lord of the Rings trilogy—covering a range of topics including supply chain management, healthcare, as well as technology and innovation, are also scheduled.
Students will be exposed to Māori culture by participating in a waka (a type of Māori boat) trip and visiting a Māori-owned fisheries organization to learn about sustainability. The Māori people are traditionally charged with being guardians of the sky, land, and sea to protect them for future generations.
The course will examine how entrepreneurship, tourism, and marketing has impacted the economic development of the New Zealand, whose major trade partners include China, Australia, the United States, Japan, and the European Union.