The Youth Vote - College of Business Administration - University of ...

Why Hong Kong?Hong Kong’s traditional culture and modern infrastructure provide the exactmix of genuine international experience and convenient living conditions wesought for our faculty. With a vibrant economy — considered the freest inthe world — the city also puts our faculty on the frontier of global businesswhile offering us a large target market of English-speaking and upwardlymobile professionals. To top it all off, Hong Kong’s reputation for the bestruninstitutions in the world makes it a naturally appealing place to set upshop. Altogether, we could not think of a better choice for our purposes.Why the Hopkins Group?Our initial MBA class convened only 11 months after we first met Leung — afast pace even for Hong Kong. The decision to work with the Hopkins Groupwas reinforced during the initial visit when Leung immediately understood ourposition: as a public university we did not want Iowa taxpayers to have to investeven a penny in the program. Leung absorbed all costs until we reached our breakevenpoint, thus laying the foundation for a trusting and lasting relationship.Ten years laterA decade has passed. Now we can confidently affirm that the Hong Konginitiative has fulfilled our objectives:• A meaningful internationalization opportunity for over 40 facultymembers. Beyond the initial experience, lasting relationships have beendeveloped with individuals and organizations in the entire region, thanksto our highly mobile network of UNI Hong Kong MBA alumni.• A steady source of revenue. The extra income has served a variety of purposes,but primarily we have invested it in professional development for our facultyand students.The Hong Kong program has also tested our entrepreneurial capacity.We have cherished the chance to practice what we preach. UNIBusinesshas carved out a respectable niche in a highly competitive market that weentered with absolutely no name recognition. Since then many globalbrands have entered — and exited.Over the years, several UNIBusiness alumni have visited our HongKong classes. If you would like to see our operation for yourself andinteract with professionals who are proudly pursuing a UNI degreesome 8,000 miles from Cedar Falls, please let me know. We knowthe importance of overseas opportunities for our faculty and students,and would be remiss not to encourage our alumni as well!ABOUT HONG KONGFor UNIBusiness, many factors makeHong Kong an ideal city in which todo business and to provide facultywith global business experience.1. Freest economy in the world(Heritage Foundation andthe Wall Street Journal)2. Largest stock exchange in theworld, as measured by the numberof initial public offerings3. Most popular business city in theworld: 68 percent of the world’slargest companies have an officein Hong Kong (CB Richard Ellis)4. English widely spoken as the officiallanguage and all signs are in English5. One of the safest cities in the 21stCentury (U.N. Habitat Report, 2007)6. Open trade relationships withthe U.S. and complete ideologicaland economic compatibility(U.S. State Department)7. World’s best infrastructure(World Economic Forum)8. World’s top city skyline(CNN International)Farzad Moussavi, DeanCollege of Business Administrationfarzad.moussavi@uni.edu319-273-62403