Arkansas Companies Mentor Students Abroad

Both Baldor Electric Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. stretched beyond continental boundaries to shape the future this summer when executives from each company met with Sam M. Walton College of Business Administration students who were visiting China.

Peng Yong Tan, managing director for Baldor Far East in Singapore, and John Reaves, a manager with Wal-Mart in Guangzhou, China, addressed the nine University of Arkansas students during their recent study abroad trip in China.

Reaves led the sophomores and juniors through several retailers in China, discussing product placement and marketing strategies, said Pu Liu, one of the UA finance professors who escorted the students. UA professor James Millar also guided the trip.

“We think China is going to be a huge market,” Liu said, “and the students need to know the market.” Visiting with Northwest Arkansas-based executives on an international level brought the global market into local focus, Liu said.

Tan spoke with the students about the political and economical atmospheres in East and Southeast Asia.

“Study abroad programs like this provide invaluable insights to students of International Business,” Tan said. “With the opening up of the Chinese … market through [its] entry into the World Trade Organization, it becomes more imperative that international businesses be conducted with better understanding of each others’ business cultures and practices.”

The UA study-abroad program only opened the doors to China for the business college in 2000. Within the Walton College, the international business and economics office paid for the group’s travel expenses. Funds from a $50 million gift from the Walton Foundation financed half of the airplane tickets which cost $1,000 each, Liu said.

Split evenly between time in Shanghai and Beijing, the 36-day trip included varied lessons in finance and marketing. During their mornings in the cities, students attended classes at Fudan University in Shanghai and Jiaotong University in Beijing, Liu said.

Afternoons were filled with trips to area businesses, and destinations included Coca-Cola, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Johnson & Johnson, a silk textile mill and a steel mill. Evenings allowed for mingling among the Chinese business students.

“Being physically there enables [students] to interact and learn with their local counter-parts, to know their views and opinions and to initiate a network,” Tan said. “With a rapidly shrinking world … the only way to move ahead is to be attuned to the needs and wants of the global customers.”

Presentations from Chinese business professors were also included in the daily lectures, Liu said. Speeches covered topics such as Chinese history, economy and business development.

To attend the trip to China, business students were required to have taken micro and macro-economics. Although the trip was not limited to Walton college, all nine of the travelers came from there.

Other study-abroad programs through the college took students to Greece, Japan, France and Spain.