Cleveland MBA Students Explore the Start-Up Nation
Cleveland MBA Students Explore the Start-Up Nation
May 13, 2014
The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Institute for Social Leadership to be constructed at BGU
Cleveland Jewish News — Dialogue is easy, according to Ronald M. Berkman, president of Cleveland State University, especially with connections in place. But execution is harder. Nevertheless, a recent trip by Berkman to Israel, along with 29 other people linked to CSU’s executive MBA program, convinced him that CSU and Israeli universities can do real business.
Twenty-four executive MBA students and six faculty members from CSU’s Monte Ahuja College of Business visited Israel. It was CSU’s first executive MBA business trip there and, interviews with four of the travelers suggest, an experience ranging from affirmative to life changing.
The underlying notion behind the trip was Israel as a “start-up nation,” as chronicled in Dan Senor and Saul Singer’s Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, a book students read to help prepare for the tour.
“My purpose was, given the position of the Jewish community in Cleveland, to try to create a series of relationships with Israeli universities,” says Berkman.
One of Berkman’s highlights was visiting the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem and BGU’s Mandel Social Leadership MBA Program in Beer-Sheva, where faculty teaches skills that apply both to conventional business and nonprofits.
The trip “exceeded every expectation,” say Berkman, and “to me it was also an incredible learning experience. But again, the thing that continues to stand out for me is the incredible receptivity we received at every university in trying to develop partnerships with Cleveland State.”
Read more on the Cleveland Jewish News website >>
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