By fostering the exchange of students, faculty, staff, and alumni, the Global Network for Advanced Management strives to deepen its members’ cross-cultural understanding and to increase their effectiveness as business leaders.

During Global Network Weeks specifically, business school students and faculty visit other participating network schools to intensively study a current business challenge. They take part in collaborative projects, tour local businesses, network, and attend guests lectures in which they have the opportunity to learn from a broad spectrum of invited business leaders and scholars.

In the past, the program was offered solely to MBA students. This past June, however, master’s in management (MIM) students were invited to participate in their own MIM Global Network Week for the first time. From June 11to 15, a total of 135 MIM students traveled to seven schools across the globe to delve into themes as diverse as clean energy and green infrastructure (Canada); business challenges in Latin America (Chile); the “Belt and Road Initiative” (China); startup financing, valuation, and venture capital (Germany); talent management (Ireland); innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging markets (Mexico); and design thinking (Spain).

In the video, four MIM students – Martin Leal, PUC- Chile; Diana Zhao and Olivier Viel, UBC Sauder School of Business; and Sheer Ali, UCD Smurfit – share their experiences at the Global Network Week program at ESMT Berlin, which hosted 31 students from the Network in June. The students discuss why they chose ESMT’s venture-capital-focused program from among the Global Network Week options, and also talk about the German ecosystem for entrepreneurs and startups.

“I've learned a great deal about how you really go about pitching to VCs and really selling your ideas, selling your business proposition,” said Ali. “It’s not only about marketing; there’s so much to [learn] about how you’re going to fund it. What we’ve learned will be important to us in the future.”