The Experience 

This semester, I was able to enroll in INTB3080, a course focused on increasing students’ understanding of the intricacies of conducting business across cultures. The class was divided into two portions: learning and traveling. During the spring semester, in-person learning focused on the nuances of international trade, economics, currencies, marketing, and many more interesting topics. Our final project required us to take an existing food product into a new market, considering obstacles such as distribution, branding, marketing, and hiring processes. This course opened my eyes to the nuances of conducting business globally, but my learning didn’t stop in the classroom. After the in-class portion of the class was over, my classmates and I had the opportunity to apply our learning through a cultural immersion in the Czech Republic and Albania. 

After exploring these two countries for 10 days, my biggest takeaway from an international business perspective is to always be open to new experiences and be willing to ask questions. Through the in-class portion of this course, I was able to learn about textbook examples of international business situations and understand many important considerations companies have to make when starting operations abroad. Upon visiting actual companies in the Czech Republic and Albania, I was able to experience the more personal side of business and learn what decisions these companies have to make on a daily basis to uphold their mission. In Albania, an agritourism farm we visited chose to keep its prices low, despite high demand for their services, to remain an accessible option for Albanian locals. In Prague, at Steiner and Kovarik Chocolate, they are adamant about using the whole cocoa bean in the craft of chocolate making, despite the added costs and production times. Both of these business models are contrary to what I have learned in school because they are not return focused. However, being open-minded during both of these experiences and understanding their business models, although sometimes contrary to what I have learned in school, are still successful was an eye-opening experience. I think having these experiences will influence my professional future because they showed that there is more than one way to run a business. Being successful doesn’t always mean having the highest returns, sometimes it's about the quality of the product or the accessibility of the experience. Again, always being open to new perspectives is extremely important! 

Another key cultural takeaway was being put in uncomfortable situations. Although going into this trip I knew I would not be able to learn Czech or Albanian, being put into a culture where you do not remotely speak the language is an interesting experience. Although most of the people I encountered spoke English very well, buying products in stores and navigating the city proved to be a more challenging experience. As a result of this trip, I am more driven to pick up a second language and continue to put myself in uncomfortable situations. 

The pictures below show moments from my trip: