[Korea MBA] Field Trip to Vietnam (Fall 2019) – Short Memoir by Kim Seung Taek (Korea MBA, Admitted at ’19)

Studying at the Korea MBA gives students the opportunity to broaden their insights as students who have accumulated field experience in diverse environments can discuss and share theories and field experiences with professors. When I debate with my fellow students who all have experience in a myriad of fields, I am inspired to develop ideas that are not conceivable at work and further progress them to the next level.

The Overseas Field Trip is a process that helps students directly see, experience, and expand what we’ve learned from our professors and fellow classmates by visiting an actual business site.

The 2019 Fall Field Trip that was held in Vietnam consisted of the head of KOTRA’s lecture about the Vietnamese economy, culture, and politics and visiting the business sites of successful Korean businesses in Vietnam along with lectures about the localization and differentiation strategies from administrators.

The companies that we visited were CGV, Lotte Mart, Shinhan and Samsung Electronics. Every company has become a leading company for each industry through differentiation strategies that fit each industry’s characteristics, and through complete localization, they have become companies loved by Vietnamese as well as employees. The companies all explained business with a good understanding of Vietnam’s political, economic and cultural characteristics and emphasized what they prepared, and it was a great opportunity to listen to the story and learn how to do business with Vietnam.

I understood Vietnam's social, political and economic culture through the overseas field trip program, so I decided to apply my new knowledge to my current work. On the last day, I decided to call my friend who was a Vietnam Sales Manager at an existing Global company and is currently importing and selling medical devices. Although we had been close to each other for about seven years, we had never done business together. Applying what I've learned, I tried to emphasize his self-esteem and our relationship, and he responded by offering to do business together and now he is talking about conditions for exporting to Vietnam.

Through the efforts of professors, managing staff and classmates who have prepared so hard, the solid schedule was completed and it was a meaningful overseas Field Trip in which I was able to learn a lot about Vietnam and apply them directly to my current work. Above all, I think it was more meaningful because I could talk with my classmates all night for four days through the overseas Field Trip.

▶ What is Korea MBA field trip?

'Field Trip' is a specialized education program of Korea University’s Korea MBA designed to foster students’ global leadership, and it has recently conducted special lectures on foreign studies and experts, visits to local companies and industrial inspections, focusing on emerging markets in Southeast Asia.