古巴能否成爲美國商學院的新機遇

The long-term prospects for business education in Cuba are undoubtedly bright following the warming of relations between Washington and Havana. But how quickly such opportunities will unfold for those schools with connections to the Caribbean island state is a tougher question to answer.

在美國與古巴關係日益升溫之後，古巴商學院教育的長期前景無疑是光明的。但有一個問題更難回答：對於那些與這個加勒比海島國有聯繫的商學院而言，這些機遇將多快展開？

For US business schools, the opening up of access to Cuba has been an unmitigated success in one regard, according to professors such as Stephan Meier at Columbia Business School in New York. His school is one of several to have taken advantage of the ability for US-based academic institutions to visit Cuba for study trips. In fact, his biggest headache has been running enough trips to satisfy the demand from students, particularly those with US passports who would not otherwise be able to travel abroad.

據紐約哥倫比亞大學商學院(Columbia Business School)的斯蒂芬•梅爾(Stephan Meier)等教授稱，對於美國商學院而言，在某個意義上，打開通往古巴的道路是一種不折不扣的成功。迄今有幾所商學院利用了美國學術機構能夠組織赴古巴游學的規定，梅爾所在的學院就是其中之一。實際上，最讓他頭疼的問題就是組織足夠多的遊學之旅以滿足學生的需求，尤其是那些持有美國護照、否則將無法前往古巴的學生。

In three years, Prof Meier has taken 120 students to Cuba. But he could have taken many more, he says. “Cuba is exotic,” he explains.

3年裏，梅爾教授已安排120名學生到古巴。但他表示，他原本可以安排更多學生的，他解釋道：“古巴有着異域風情。”

Downtown from Columbia’s Manhattan campus, NYU Stern has run a similar programme called Doing Business in Cuba. This was the product of lobbying by Stern’s Association of Black and Hispanic Students, and proved somewhat complicated to organise.

從哥倫比亞大學商學院曼哈頓校區向市中心走，紐約大學斯特恩商學院(NYU Stern)開展了一個類似的項目，名爲在古巴做生意(Doing Business in Cuba)。這是斯特恩商學院黑人及西語裔學生協會(Association of Black and Hispanic Students)遊說的結果，事實證明，組織起來有些複雜。

To date, the 84 Stern MBA students who have taken the trip to Havana have only been able to do so thanks to connections provided by Ludwig Foundation, a not-for-profit body created to build links between the US and Cuba, primarily in the arts.

迄今，已到哈瓦那遊學的84名斯特恩商學院MBA學員之所以能去古巴，只是因爲非盈利組織路德維希基金會(Ludwig Foundation)提供的關係，該組織創建的目的是加強美國與古巴的聯繫，主要是在藝術領域。

Emily Goldfrank is one of these students. She has travelled widely, spending time in Argentina and Australia as part of her MBA studies, but claims Cuba — “the one forbidden place” — offered a particular value because it operated so differently to other countries. “How and what we learnt was of a different variety because the whole business environment was so different,” she recalls, adding that this was in itself valuable in that it showed the challenges of operating in such a different economy.

艾米麗•戈德弗蘭克(Emily Goldfrank)是其中一名學員。她遊歷廣泛，作爲MBA學習的一部分，曾在阿根廷和澳大利亞待過一段時間，但她稱，古巴“這塊禁地”提供特別的價值，因爲其運作模式與其他國家非常不同。“我們學習的方法以及學到的知識很不同，因爲整個商業環境差異很大，”她回憶道。她補充稱，這一點本身就極具價值，因爲它展示了在一個如此不同的經濟體開展經營所面臨的挑戰。

The pace of change in Cuba, where no business school yet exists, is a subject of debate. Tom Pugel, vice-dean of MBA programmes at Stern, is more confident than many of his academic peers and predicts that the country will have its own business school in five years.

古巴的變革速度是各方辯論的一個主題。目前，該國還沒有商學院。斯特恩商學院MBA課程副主任湯姆•普傑爾(Tom Pugel)比很多學者同行更有信心，他預測，古巴將在5年後擁有自己的商學院。

“There are already people who are ready to work with that transition,” he claims. “They are well positioned to be the leaders of a business school.”

“有人已準備好利用這種過渡，”他辯稱，“他們處於有利地位，能夠成爲商學院的領導者。”

Carl Voigt, professor of clinical management and organisation at USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles, who led the first US business school delegation to Cuba in 2000 and has since taken about 1,000 students on study visits, is less optimistic.

在洛杉磯，南加州大學馬歇爾商學院(USC Marshall School of Business)臨牀管理和組織教授卡爾•福格特(Carl Voigt)卻不那麼樂觀，他曾在2000年率領第一支美國商學院代表團到古巴，此後已帶領約1000名學生到古巴游學。

“I feel Cubans would be a little bit suspect of plans to set up programmes in Cuba because they would want to know where the money came from,” he says.

“我認爲，古巴方面對於在該國開設商學院課程的計劃有點疑慮，因爲他們想知道資金來自何處，”他表示。

“They are not anyone’s puppet and they do not want to be played.

“他們不是任何人的傀儡，他們不希望被玩弄。”

“Money has been earmarked in the US to help Cuban students study here, but it is felt that there are people in the US government who would use that as a way of brainwashing students.”

“在美國，已有人安排資金，準備幫助古巴學生在這裏學習，但古巴有人認爲，美國政府的一些人將藉此機會給學生洗腦。”

There have been opportunities for Cubans to study freely in Europe and the US, Prof Voigt notes, but there has not been a lot of take up of these schemes because students in Cuba lack the funds to study overseas. Thus for the moment, the traffic is likely to be mainly the other way.

福格特教授指出，迄今古巴人有機會到歐美自由學習，但報名人數不多，因爲古巴學生沒有錢到海外留學。因此目前主要是外國人到古巴留學。

Those US students lucky enough to gain a place on Columbia’s Cuba programme have been able to meet some of the country’s small but growing population of entrepreneurs, who are currently restricted to a limited number of service sectors such as restaurants and hotels.

有幸獲得哥倫比亞大學商學院古巴游學機會的美國學生，可以見到數量不多但與日俱增的古巴企業家，他們目前被侷限於數量有限的服務行業，例如餐廳和酒店。

Visiting students have also been able to see first hand what an economy looks like without the capitalist trappings of widespread advertising and credit. “They learn that in a market economy we take a lot of aspects for granted,” Prof Meier says.

訪問學生還能直接見證：在一個沒有鋪天蓋地的廣告和信貸等資本主義特徵的情況下，一個經濟體會是什麼樣子。梅爾教授表示：“他們意識到，在市場經濟中，我們把很多東西都想當然了。”

Cuba’s newly empowered entrepreneurs would be target candidates should a school like Columbia open in the country, although Prof Meier does not see this happening in the near future.

如果像哥倫比亞這樣的商學院在古巴設立校區的話，新近被給予活動空間的古巴企業家將是目標候選人，儘管梅爾教授認爲這種情況不會在短期內出現。

“I guess we are a long way from teaching an executive programme in Cuba to Cuban managers,” he says. “But they could definitely do with some business school education.”

“我認爲，我們距離在古巴向古巴的管理人員講授高管課程還很遠，”他表示，“但他們肯定需要一些商學院教育。”

Although the US has by far the most developed business education market, and almost all the top business schools, it faces significant competition, particularly from Europe.

儘管美國擁有遙遙領先的最發達的商學教育市場以及幾乎所有最頂級的商學院，但美國面臨激烈競爭，尤其是來自歐洲的競爭。

Barcelona-based Esade, for instance, has been working directly with Cuba’s ministry of higher education on Forgec, a European Commission funded project to strengthen the managerial capabilities of Cuban institutions.

例如，總部位於巴塞羅那的Esade正就Forgec項目直接與古巴高等教育部合作，該項目由歐盟委員會(European Commission)出資，旨在增強古巴企業的管理能力。

One of the key goals of the project is to establish long-term co-operation in management education between Cuba and Europe. Whether or not this would mean a school such as Esade opening a campus in Cuba is not clear, however, since the project plans to achieve its aims in part by improving the quality of Cuban universities and the ability to run business education programmes.

該項目的關鍵目標之一是在古巴和歐洲之間建立長期管理教育合作。不過，尚不清楚這是否意味着Esade等商學院會在古巴開設校區，因爲該項目在一定程度上計劃通過提高古巴大學的質量以及開辦商學教育課程的能力來實現其目標。

Schools in Latin American countries also sense an opportunity to serve Cuba as and when it is ready to allow business schools to open.

拉美國家的商學院也意識到，一旦古巴準備允許開設商學院，它們將有機會爲古巴服務，

Carlos Martí Sanchis, academic director at Barna Business School in the Dominican Republic, claims that Caribbean and central American schools like his have expertise in subjects that would likely be of interest to Cuban business students, such as tourism. “Big and prestigious schools will have advantages but I think it will be a great opportunity for medium and small business schools that can have a better fit to the Cuban reality in different dimensions such as cultural, economic, idiomatic and business sectors similarities,” he says.

多米尼加共和國巴納商學院(Barna Business School)教務主任卡洛斯•馬蒂•桑吉斯(Carlos Martí Sanchis)稱，像他所在學院這樣的加勒比和中美洲商學院，在古巴商學院學生可能感興趣的一些學科上具備專長，例如旅遊業。他表示：“大型知名商學院將具備優勢，但我認爲，這將是中小商學院的一個巨大機會，它們將在不同方面更加切合古巴現實，例如文化、經濟、語言習慣和商界相似之處。”

However, US-based schools are not giving up hope. Brandeis International Business School, for instance, has not just taken students and faculty to Cuba as a part of its Hassenfeld Overseas Fellows Immersion Program. It has also hosted Cuban visitors on its campus.

然而，美國商學院沒有放棄希望。例如布蘭迪斯大學國際商學院(Brandeis International Business School)不僅把學生和教師帶到古巴，作爲哈森菲爾德海外研究員沉浸式課程(Hassenfeld Overseas Fellows Immersion Program)的一部分。該學院還曾在本校校園接待古巴客人。

These include the founder of Cuba’s first private MBA programme, run by the Roman Catholic Church, the director of The Center for the Study of the Cuban Culture + Economy and a distinguished professor from the University of Havana law school.

其中包括古巴首個私立MBA課程（由羅馬天主教會(Roman Catholic Church)開辦）創辦人、古巴文化經濟研究中心(The Center for the Study of the Cuban Culture + Economy)主任，以及哈瓦那大學(University of Havana)法學院的一名知名教授。

Bruce Magid, dean of Brandeis, is looking forward to the future. “For academic institutions in the US, particularly business schools willing to make the first move, the opportunity exists to have a profound impact on the next stage of US-Cuba economic relations,” he says. “This is more than just an opportunity. It is a strategic imperative for business schools to make this move. Opening Cuba’s borders to trade and investment is the best way to ensure Cuba prospers.”

布蘭迪斯大學國際商學院院長布魯斯•馬吉德(Bruce Magid)對未來充滿期待。“對於美國學術機構而言，特別是那些願意率先行動的商學院，目前存在的機遇將對下一階段的美古經濟關係產生深遠影響，”他表示，“這不僅僅是一種機遇。從戰略上講，商學院做出此舉勢在必行。在貿易和投資方面推動古巴開放，是確保古巴繁榮的最佳方式。”

Having said that, Mr Magid believes that efforts to build ties with Cuba are part of a broader commitment that Brandeis needs to demonstrate towards the whole of Latin America.

話雖如此，馬吉德認爲，與古巴建立聯繫的努力是布蘭迪斯大學國際商學院需要向整個拉美地區展示的整體承諾的一部分。

In the past year, the school has announced two memorandums of understanding for joint degree programmes with Eafit in Medellín, Colombia and Insper in São Paulo, Brazil, all of which have added to the school’s roster of partnerships in the region.

過去一年期間，該學院宣佈了兩份有關聯合學位課程的諒解備忘錄，一個是與哥倫比亞麥德林市行政、金融和技術大學(Eafit)，另一個是與巴西聖保羅Insper商學院，這些項目擴大了布蘭迪斯大學國際商學院在該地區的合作。

For now, Cuba will have to wait.

就目前而言，古巴只能再等一等。