First Classes at FGV

Yesterday I had my first class at FGV - International Supply Chain Management (ISCM)!

I have to admit, my expectations were fairly low based on the feedback that I had received from Queen's students who were on exchange to other B-Schools earlier in the year. It seems that Queen's really does earn its #1 position in the BusinessWeek MBA rankings. Fortunately, the class here at FGV definitely exceeded expectations.

There were some negatives - the biggest one being that many of the students don't seem particularly interested in participating. We were seated in a computer lab for the class, and most of the people that I could see from my seat were surfing the web or writing email for the duration.

To be fair, there are some reasons for this. The class is roughly equally split between undergrad and graduate students, and quite a few of the undergrads are only taking the course because it is required for their program. So they genuinely are not interested in the topic. Also, it is a strange fact that many students do not choose Brazil as an exchange destination with academic studies in mind! In any case, there is a noticeable difference when compared to the more engaged atmosphere back home.

On to the positives. The prof seems like a good guy and is obviously an established expert in his subject. He uses the case of Brazil to give specific examples of the complexities involved in ISCM (e.g., bottlenecks in bonded warehousing), which I find really interesting. The class format is good, the assessment structure is good and the assignments are based on cases and articles that seem really interesting.

During and after class we ran into some of the other exchange students, and discovered that what enthusiasm they lack for their studies they more than make up for in extra-curricular activities. So far I think we've signed up for an FGV party on May 23rd, a 10km run on June 1st, and made a promise to join them at a nightclub some time over the next week or two.

So all things considered, it was a good start to FGV life!

I have two more classes tomorrow ('Living the Entrepreneurial Challenge', and 'BRICs and the World Economy') so my fingers are crossed that they will be equally interesting.