For 5 months, from February to June, the SMI gives student teams a complete professional immersion in America or Asia.
Combining courses at the university and seminars with local entrepreneurs and company visits, the SMI also enables each student to become a representative for a company hoping to enter new markets in Asia and the USA.
All those participating in the SMI leave with one or more export missions to accomplish.
The group is supervised, throughout the stay, by a senior manager who gives them access to his networks and offers the students his experience in the field.
The group is supervised, throughout the stay, by a senior manager who gives them access to his networks and offers the students his experience in the field.
As a third-year student, I chose the SMI (Intercultural Management Semester) for many reasons :
Firstly, behind those three words is a rich program, tailor-made for future global managers.
Over five months we attended a variety of conferences in different cities across Asia (Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hanoi then San Diego (U.S.A.)). They were given by top French industrialists, corporate lawyers from Gide Loyrette practicing in China, Chinese managers or even diplomats posted in Asia.
What was interesting for us during these conferences were the debates that helped us understand the Chinese business world, share their professional experiences and build up a real objective vision of China. It was soon obvious from our day-to-day experiences and the images that have stayed with us, that China is very different from what we were taught in our history and geography lessons at school…This was highlighted even more when, at each session, in different cities, we visited key sites. Tiananmen Square in Beijing is an immense square that is full of history, Emperors Palace, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tomb, the Great Wall of China…Our days were completely filled. We followed courses given by lecturers at the FUDAN University (the second largest university in China), in different subjects such as Economy, Finance and Management. More than 300 hours of lessons in total.
Moreover, the rest of the time, we were doing research in different organizations: The Economic Expansion Post in Shanghai, the Chamber of Commerce, the Consulate…
Secondly, the SMI, for me, represents a future professional springboard. At the moment I am working as a junior consultant carrying out an export mission for Célil ZENGHIN, a company specialized the creation of haute couture leather garments, which is based in Paris. Its young boss was very impressed by the dynamic approach of the SMI and by my strategic plan.
Under the supervision of the director of the SMI, Serge GUARINO, my role is to find out whether there is a market for this type of product. The staff at the Shanghai post for economic expansion really helped me in my search for information. They made themselves available to help me, gave me lots of interesting information and helped me reach the conclusion that Shanghai does have a niche market for this type of product. »
