In retrospect, there were several benefits from the trip. One comes from the opportunity to meet with other faculty–not just from other colleges, but also from other disciplines–and from a range of schools. They ranged, too, from first time visitors to Asia to moderately experienced visitors to Asia. At every site visit–and there were three to four a day–our colleagues brought a variety of perspectives and diversity of questions to the table, insights not always readily apparent to a customer-focused marketer, or an income statement based accountant. Second, although perhaps the strongest feature of the trip, were the site visits, arranged through the guanxi of our hosts. Using business and alumni contacts, Professors Julian Gaspar and Lane Kelley got us into places that read like a who’s who of Asian business. In Tokyo, the embassy and Honda; in Seoul, the chaebols–Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai, and Hanhwa; in Hong Kong, Motorola; IBM in Shenzhen; and the stock exchange and Nike in Bangkok. A third was the exposure to cultural sites. Some of that was built into the trip, such as a Kabuki dinner in Tokyo, and similar cultural experiences in Seoul, where the farmers’ dance reminds me of United Airlines and Korea (the power of advertising), and Bangkok; and we visited palaces in Seoul and ruins in Thailand.
In short, the FDIB trip had all the characteristics of a trip I would have designed, but lacked the contacts to do so–full days meeting real business people, with business cards and an address for further contacts, a blend of cultural and business, a range of countries, overall, an excellent introduction to the varieties of Asian businesses and civilizations. It had major curricular outcomes: Partly with the aid of contacts I made on the trip, I taught an Asian/Pacific business course at Illinois Wesleyan; we also used the FDIB contacts for our Asian business trip; and finally, I have continued to draw on the expertise (particularly yours) I encountered on the trip.