Doing business . . . a world away

Citation

(1999), "Doing business . . . a world away", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 23 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.1999.00323iab.006

Doing business . . . a world away

Keywords: Developing countries, Management development

A new business programme aimed at giving young managers the chance to work in developing countries has been launched by one of the UK’s leading educational travel organizations, Teaching Abroad.

Executive Development Abroad (EDA) has been designed to meet the training and business development needs of world markets by offering short-term placements to executives whose skills are in demand for everything from technology transfer to market development. The programme has been endorsed and is actively supported by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), the private sector voice of the Commonwealth.

Placements are individually tailored to meet the developmental needs of the individual executives and the business objectives of the company sending them abroad – and of those hosting them. According to Teaching Abroad and EDA founder, Dr Peter Slowe, “EDA acts as a matchmaker for businesses in developing regions and smaller organizations on the one hand, and larger transnational corporations and organizations, on the other”.

“A small company in a developing country needing technical expertise might obtain it through an executive placement in, say, a Canadian company. A large UK-based transnational’s executive training programme could usefully include overseas placements in developing markets that are important to future business in, say Bangladesh. We can design placements to suit both these circumstances using the network we’ve built up between emerging and developed economies.”

The EDA programme meets the needs of the CBC which was set up in 1997 by the Commonwealth Heads of Government, with a remit to improve trade, encourage investment and generally expand business links between Commonwealth countries to benefit their economic development. Dr Mohan Kaul, of the CBC, said: “The EDA programme facilitates exchanges between developed and developing Commonwealth countries; it also acts as a link between the English-speaking Commonwealth and non-English-speaking markets – an important part of business in a fast-changing global economic environment”.

The CBC will promote EDA programmes through its network of members and businesses in the Commonwealth.

For further details, contact Executive Development Abroad, Gerrard House, Rustington, West Sussex BN16 1AW. Tel: +44 (0)1903 856888. Fax: +44 (0)1903 785779. E-mail: eda@teaching-abroad.co.uk