The University of Chicago's newest classroom building seems like a riddle unto itself.
It is not actually new; it originally opened in 1885. It features not gargoyles and spires, as the university's neo-Gothic campus does, but gold-plated carvings and hand-painted tiles. And it is not anywhere near Chicago. In fact, it sits directly across the street from the offices of the current president of Singapore.
But sure enough, some 84 students filed into the building -- a former plantation house owned by a Chinese spice merchant who lived in Singapore -- this week to start a two-year M.B.A program that is part of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. The students, mostly executives in their 30's, represent the new campus's first class, and they personify the expansionist dreams of the best-known American business schools.
Imitating the companies they study, some of the business schools are spending millions of dollars to set up satellite operations around the globe. The schools' rationale for expansion mimics the goals of international companies as well: they hope to find new sources of revenue, establish a brand name in far-away places and learn lessons about how other markets function.
It is not actually new; it originally opened in 1885. It features not gargoyles and spires, as the university's neo-Gothic campus does, but gold-plated carvings and hand-painted tiles. And it is not anywhere near Chicago. In fact, it sits directly across the street from the offices of the current president of Singapore.
But sure enough, some 84 students filed into the building -- a former plantation house owned by a Chinese spice merchant who lived in Singapore -- this week to start a two-year M.B.A program that is part of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. The students, mostly executives in their 30's, represent the new campus's first class, and they personify the expansionist dreams of the best-known American business schools.
Imitating the companies they study, some of the business schools are spending millions of dollars to set up satellite operations around the globe. The schools' rationale for expansion mimics the goals of international companies as well: they hope to find new sources of revenue, establish a brand name in far-away places and learn lessons about how other markets function.
The media is incredibly powerful. Businesses which understand this can reap the benefits, but businesses that don’t can miss out on vital publicity or even worse, attract negative publicity.
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