BECOME A GLOBAL LEADER

Entrepreneurs, lawyers, engineers, students, business managers and family business heirs are just some of the professions you will find represented in the Global Village.  Interns attend the Global Village for many different reasons including cultural exposure, career development, networking and learning opportunities.  The average age of Global Village participants is 25 with interns ranging from 18 years of age to 55 years of age.  The dynamics of the Global Village change each year based on the demographics and experiences of the interns making each person’s experience extraordinary.   

Learn Experientially
Your experience is unique. The opportunities are abundant. Through seminar-style courses, discussions with executives, company visits, consulting projects, country panels, and guest speakers, you will increase your knowledge of business and industry, enhance your leadership and entrepreneurial skills, and develop a global network. Your learning experiences are enhanced as you interact with your fellow interns and develop an understanding of the many cultures represented in the Global Village.

Link to GV 2008 Calendar

Learning Objectives
Increase Business and Industry Knowledge
Enhance Leadership and Entrepreneurial Skills
Develop Global And Cultural Networking

Seminar-Style Courses
Exposure to some of the most critical topics affecting companies of today and leaders of tomorrow is what the Global Village is all about. With more than 50 courses presented by 40 facilitators, including at least 12 international instructors, you will discover business trends and best practices needed to understand the global marketplace. Work with skilled practitioners to develop new leadership and entrepreneurial talents. Interact with your classmates and discover the thought processes of other cultures. Your personal guide will work with you to develop goals and select the learning experiences that will help you achieve success.

Link to 2007 course offerings

Executive Visitors
Founded in 1865, Lehigh University has developed a significant number of viable rewarding, and long-standing partnerships with important leaders in business and industry. During your stay at the Global Village, you will have the opportunity to interact with more than 60 executives who represent large and small corporations, family-owned businesses, start-up companies, and sole proprietorships. These interactions are a key feature of the program.

Through roundtable discussions, Q&A sessions with guest speakers, company tours, and project work, interns are encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities to meet influential executives who will assist them with developing their professional network.
Each week in the Global Village, top-level senior executives visit the program to spend time interacting with interns. During these visits, they meet with small groups of interns for informal discussions about business trends, corporate ventures, career paths, successes and failures, and the future.

More importantly, it is the interns themselves who direct the conversation by asking questions, by raising objections, and by offering alternative points-of-view and the best practices of their respective nations.

Again and again, visiting executives tell us what a rare joy it is to have the opportunity to learn from others as well as to teach from their own experiences.

Link to list of 2007 executives and their companies

Country Panels

Business persons are being challenged to operate in an increasingly complex, interdependent, and dynamic global environment. To compete and succeed, firms must often make considerable investments outside of their own borders. Understanding the business climate, opportunities, cultural nuances, and acceptable business practices of countries around the world is a cornerstone of the Global Village program and provides the foundation for Global Village Country Panel sessions.

As a Global Village participant, you will utilize expertise and skill to serve as a Business Development Consultant for your own home country. Challenged to provide the right information to a potential investor, you must convince the potential investor that your country has the best opportunity, incentives, and environment for their business proposition case to be successful, rather than other countries the investor may be considering for the same investment proposition. Through case work prepared by investors with actual experience, you will compete, challenge, learn and represent your country and its business environment.

Consulting Projects
Throughout your weeks at the Global Village, you and your colleagues will be working on international project teams under the supervision of the sponsoring company's executives and your Iacocca Institute®  project mentor. The designs, demands, and deadlines are real and so are the expectations that your team's project deliverables will be a success. Everyone will learn basic project management techniques and be taught how to utilize project management tools. If you have thought about becoming a senior project manager, then this is your opportunity to experience the pressures and reap the rewards.

Company Visits
You won't stand still! Included in your six weeks are trips to New York City and Washington D.C. Each week you may choose to visit local distribution and manufacturing facilities, nonprofit and governmental agencies, small entrepreneurial firms, and medical- and technology-related businesses.
Link to list of 2007 company trips

Seminars and Panel Discussions
The Global Village staff recognizes that interns need a forum to discuss global "hot" topics. Time is built into the schedule to allow for these discussions to take place. These seminars can be arranged by staff or interns. In addition to seminars, the Global Village provides a series of panel discussions.  The topics of these sessions change each year and are dependent upon current global issues.  Past panels have focused on career assessment centers, global warming, servant leadership, immigration, and visa legal issues.

 

Customization 
The purposes of the Global Village are to expose interns to an array of cultural experiences and global business issues through company visits, executive networking sessions, facilitated seminars, team project work, and country panel presentations.  The offerings of each Village are designed to meet the predefined goals of our interns.  There are certain instances when a few of our interns have a specific goal defined which is not met by our curriculum.  In these cases, the interns work directly with their guide to

Team-Building

A typical Global Village is comprised of eighty-five interns, more than 20 staff members, and forty plus countries.  We are all introduced to one another on Sunday of our opening week and by the following Saturday, we are cohesive project teams, guide teams, country panel teams and dorm mates.   Through a series of team-building exercises led by external facilitators and guide staff, each working group learns about their team dynamics and cultural differences.

The Global Village for Future Leaders of Business and Industry ® is a leadership experience unlike no other. We believe that ethical leadership matters. We believe that knowledge of business and industry, skill in leadership and entrepreneurship, and a powerful global network are essential to success. We recognize the importance of cultural values and differences and believe that effective leaders must work to break down cultural barriers. We believe that the Global Village is the place where future leaders of business and industry are created.