The Business of Transforming Lives

Last week I had the good fortune of speaking at two events that epitomize the transformational nature of the Carlson MBA experience.

At the Carlson Funds Enterprise Annual Review, I marveled at the presentations given by Carlson students who a re managing nearly $40 million in assets for some of the nation's top financial institutions - and outperforming many of the professionals as they do it. It's truly an amazing program, one that can take a student who was previously a lawyer and in two years put her on equal footing with someone who spent their early career on Wall Street.

Later in the week I saw our Full-Time MBA students conclude their nearly semester-long Global Discovery program with the Emerging Markets Symposium. At the symposium, the students shared their observations and analysis from visits to China and Chile, and displayed a profound understanding of the ways in which companies deal with operational, economic, cultural, and political risks in their internationalization efforts as they go into or from emerging market economies. Best of all, they engaged in robust conversations on these issues with members of our business community. And they weren't discussing just theory. They were tackling the real issues facing the companies where they may someday find themselves working.