Each year our International Business and CEMS-MIM students spend 10 weeks outside of Canada for their Ivey Global Lab term. During this time our students work in teams, with manager level partners to define, develop and present a set of deliverables based on the problem posed by the company. The purpose of the IGL is to not only provide students with work experience but also have the opportunity to learn first-hand what it is like to work in an emerging market economy.
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MSc International Business student Brandon, shares his initial thoughts on the IGL experience and the traditional India Pre-Trip our students.
Our world has grown to feel so much smaller thanks to the Internet and the growing global transportation infrastructure. This post highlights some of the exciting spots visited by a pre-trip organized by twelve students. While only the beginning of our journey in India, it has been immensely rewarding both in the historical, cultural, and general knowledge of how such a complex society operates on a daily basis.
The pre-trip began in the capital of India, New Delhi where we would all come together; many flying directly from Canada though some flew in from Europe and Asia. The ride from the airport to the hotel upon arrival was late in the night. Most would focus on the fact that every vehicle on the road uses any available space to move forward. Most if not all vehicles have scars to show for this demand to move forward but what we found to be most interesting was late in the evening, all the traffic lights stopped functioning and what was left is a yield-based intersection. This constant movement and tension builds up to the use of horns. At first, horns seem most used to express a need to move but as we soon learned, drivers also use them to alert those around them of their presence to avoid unexpected introductions.
The Taj Mahal.
The first day involved quite a bit of sightseeing. Everyone does their best to come prepared to deal with the differences of London Ontario and New Delhi but even for many of us who have been too big cities in foreign places before, a number of lights, sounds, and constant movement challenged us. Indeed, it left us both in awe and slightly stunned as our minds attempted to find the patterns in the chaos.
The bus for our tour was always on-time, taking us from Qutab Minar to the Parliament House just to name a couple stops. With such a large bus (which we were very grateful for), it brought to our attention the limited space allocated for roadways, even in tourist like locations. The immense skill of the drivers to navigate the streetways crowded by vendors, pedestrians, vehicles, motorbikes, and animals brings unexpected constraints to the already complicated job of navigating in small spaces.
In the following days, we spent a great deal of timing traveling from city to city. Along the way, we had the opportunity to see many important historical sites. On our third day, we visited the Taj Mahal at sunrise to avoid both the crowds and see the spectacular view of the monument in the best light. While I could go on for days about how beautiful the grounds and monument were, I will leave you instead with a photo that may as some say, tell a thousand words on its own.
Amber Fort in Jaipur, India.
The fifth day may have been my favorite of all when we visited by jeep the Amber Fort in Jaipur. Included is a photo in the courtyard of this magnificent fortress. There were plenty more sites to talk about and share photos of but in the end, we visited a long list of cities including Agra, Jaipur, Pushkar, Udaipur, and Mumbai. Our trip in total was eleven days and even with this much time if we were to do this over again, it would be wise to extend the trip to touch on more of the amazing sights in New Delhi, Agar, and Mumbai. Our experiences though were thankfully filled with great weather. The average temperature was anywhere from 37 to 44 degrees’ Celsius during the day.
Until Next Time,
Brandon
Keep up to date with our Students IGL experiences on Instagram @Iveymscstudentlife and Twitter @IveyMScStudents