by Thomas Earll Huang, MBA 2011
As AIM students, we have read countless pages on successful economic policies adopted by developing countries as well as corporate success stories within those countries. When it came to progress within the ASEAN, Malaysia was one of the countries that was often mentioned. Reading about a country and its triumphs has a huge difference when actually visiting since one is inevitably detached from something he or she has not seen first-hand.
I had never been to Malaysia before I joined this year’s Asian Immersion Program and the only exposure I had with the country was through the articles that I would come across. It was not until I saw the country with my own eyes that I could truly appreciate everything that was written about it. Throughout the trip we could see the signs of progress around us – infrastructure being expanded upon, skyscrapers sprouting from the ground, countless people rushing to work in their brand new cars. Imagine Putrajaya, a whole new city being built and planned to showcase how far a country has come in such a short time.
We spent the majority of the trip meeting with the institutions that helped drive the country forward, from government agencies to corporations. We had the privilege to meet with the individuals who were in key positions of these institutions and were allowed to ask questions as to how such feats were accomplished and what their future plans were. It is not every day that one finds himself talking to the CEO of a billion-dollar corporation such as Maybank. In contrast to this we also got to spend time seeing how the average Malaysian lives, complete with a tour of where one family grows their geese. Poverty seems more or less eradicated, at least in Kuala Lumpur where a “poor” family, and I use the term lightly, can afford two cars.
I picked AIM as the school I wanted to get my master’s degree from because of its case method; a technique that is supposed to be more real-life than other teaching methods. The Asian Immersion Program, as an extension of that methodology, grants students the opportunity to see and experience for one’s self what other people only read about.
