International business and you: SIBC hosts globalization forum
PAUL RILEY
Scene Writer
Do you ever wonder how your Gucci loafers made the trip from the factory where they are handsewn, to a port to be shipped across the Atlantic, to your local department store and eventually to your feet?
Do you ever think about how American products like Coke, Pepsi and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese end up in supermarkets in Brazil or how American companies do business in such countries in the first place? Do you know what exactly e-business is and how it works? Do you think about any of this in the first place?
To help answer these questions and to provide an informative and entertaining afternoon for interested students, faculty, and the public, Notre Dame's Student International Business Council will be hosting its Globalization Forum this Saturday in the Jordan Auditorium of COBA.
The Globalization Forum features seven speakers from various fields who have backgrounds in international business in countries from Italy to Brazil.
These speakers will be addressing issues in international business and globalization to provide students with general information on the topic and their own knowledge and expertise in the field. The breadth of speakers at the forum will provide valuable information for students who are interested in specific facets of international trade.
The forum presents valuable opportunities to the Notre Dame community, according to SIBC president Dave Wilson: "[The forum] is a way to reach out and give back to the students at Notre Dame."
Students who attend the forum will have "the opportunity to learn more about international business and they will also have the ability to meet highly regarded business professionals and make incredible contacts," said Wilson. The forum's wide range of speakers and fairly small setting will provide students with ample opportunities to learn from the speeches and interact more personally with the speakers.
Several professors and alumni are among the list of speakers. Professor Lisa Caponigri, the former general counsel for Gucci based in Florence, Italy, will be speaking on the role of multinationals and global mangers in globalization.
A visiting professor from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, Professor James Hill will draw from his experiences in the industry, retail and agrifood sectors as he speaks on "Doing International Business: Some Practical Lessons."
One of the forum's speakers is a former SIBC member. Bryan Jordan will provide an overview of international economic trends and familiarize students with inflation, interest rates and financial markets across the world.
Business executives make up the rest of the forum's presenters. Frank Pollack, the vice president of international marketing for Plastipak Packaging, whose consumer base includes Coke, Pepsi and Kraft, will discuss international marketing.
The vice president of e-business at Thomson Multimedia, a global electronics company — Douglas Pileri — will present on technology and business. Finally, the "Future of Free Trade after Seattle" will be the topic of the forum's last speaker, Michael Eads, executive at JBC International in Washington D.C.
The Globalization Forum is just one of the many opportunities that the SIBC provides to students at Notre Dame. The organization boasts the largest membership on campus and has a healthy budget, thanks to its benefactor and founder Frank Potenziani.
The SIBC also prides itself on devoted alumni who make up the International Business Council. With these resources, the SIBC is able to work to capture its vision of "peace through commerce" by sending students from Notre Dame all over the world for summer internships and teaching positions.
This summer the council is sending students everywhere from Ireland to Estonia, providing the students with ample opportunities to get their feet wet in the business and teaching arenas, while at the same time promoting ethical business, good will and peace.
When the group isn't sending members away in the summer, the SIBC keeps busy at weekly division meetings. The club is broken up into divisions of marketing, finance, accounting, global development, human resources and internships. Each of these divisions performs a specific role in the club and has separate goals and projects.
The marketing division handles advertising on and off campus for SIBC events. Finance has many subcommittees assigned to various projects and simulations, and has ties to the Federal Reserve Board of Chicago, Credit Suisse First Boston and Robert W. Baird. The business consulting division assists companies entering emerging markets while at the same time working with companies such as Mckinsey & Co. and CSFB.
SIBC's accounting division prepares the group's budget and annual report, while allowing its members to gain international exposure to accounting projects. Global development is in charge of acquiring and filling international teaching positions and spearheading other humanitarian efforts.
The division's most recent project, the Haiti Bednet Project, will help provide much-needed bednets to those in need. The last SIBC division, human resources, works to maintain contact with the IBC and plans events like the Globalization Forum, which Wilson claims is "one of the biggest events of the spring semester."
"It is our duty to reach out to students and provide experiences and opportunities to enhance their experience at Notre Dame," said Wilson. "We hope that people attend and enjoy [the Globalization Forum]."
All Scene Stories for Wednesday, March 28, 2001
