Articles by: Hannah Plaxen, MBA Candidate '12

To work in the U.S. or overseas? That is the question.

Last month, I attended the National Association of Asian MBA’s (NAAMBA) conference in New York. I had been looking forward to this for months, and it did not disappoint. What you readers may not know is that I am not Asian.

When presenting an idea in school, we sometimes forget that in the real world, our ideas should spark enthusiasm, concern (if the news isn’t good) or any other range of emotions other then boredom and disinterest.

It was going to happen once while in China. As a first time traveler on my own, I was bound to get ripped off. It was abundantly clear the second I left the train and went through Hong Kong customs that I was back in China. Unlike Shanghai, however, no [...]

Day One Oliver’s Super Sandwiches- Central An egg, bacon, salmon and tomato sandwich with some tea. It was easy to see the British influence in Hong Kong upon eating this first meal. The hustle and bustle of being in Central district was apparent, noses buried in newspapers and everyone eating [...]

I don’t know near enough Chinese. I wish I had started studying Mandarin earlier. According to one of our guest speakers, an American who has become fluent in Mandarin, it takes ten years or 10,000 mistakes to learn Mandarin. I’m okay with making a lot of mistakes, so I’m hoping [...]

Peppered into our busy days were important cultural visits. One of our speakers said: “If you don’t like the Chinese people, their culture and their history, don’t even think about doing business here.” Many people see the financial opportunity in this growing economy and want in, thinking perhaps they can [...]

During the Shanghai course, we had many speakers mention “Guanxi.” This is basically the relationship you have with someone, whether that be friend or business relationship. This guanxi is crucial to building a personal brand in China and it goes even further to address the reputation you achieve through these [...]