Indonesia study trip - Mid-semester break

Hi
One of the great things about NUS is the study trips that are organized. I have been on a couple of study trips during my time @ NUS. These study trips have added greatly to my learning. There are two major benefits to these study trips. One is that we make new friends. The other is that we see the world in a new light. I hope that this post helps in gaining a better understanding of these two benefits.

The first study trip that I embarked upon was during the mid-semester break. I went on the a study trip to Indonesia. We were a group of around 20 consisting of first and second years. Including me, there were only 3 Indians from my batch on that trip. And in a strange way this was good. I was outside my peer group. For the first time in my NUS life, I got outside my 'comfort zone' and interacted with others in my batch. I met some wonderful people during the trip - Fred, Colleen, Du-Fei, Olivia, Kwan Ho (to mention a few). The trip gave me the oppurtunity to become great friends with these guyz and we have continued to be good friends. One of the memorable events on the trip was an argument I had with Fred. Fred is a born and sworn non-vegetarian. His victims include snake, lizards, deer and so on. Adarsh, Neha and I tried to instill in him the virtues of Vegetarianism. We argued that he was killing poor animals through his non-vegetarianism. Now Fred has a Bachelors in Biology, is exceedingly intelligent and is great at the art of persuasion. He retaliated to our comments saying that we were equally guilty. We were killing innocent plants which he explained have the same life as animals. He delved into terminologies like respiration, enzymes, reproductive systems, etc. In the end he did not convince me but he confused me. I was actually thinking about the plant kingdom and whether we vegetarians were equally adept at destroying lives!!

Indonesia was very similar to india. Dirt, pollution, traffic jams. And the people seemed to have the same spirit in them - the ability to live their lives come what may. We were in Jakarta to meet with the Lippo Group. The group had made S$21 million donation to NUS Business school. So, we were eager to meet with the people at the heart of the group. What suprised me was that the Lippo Group was equally eager to meet with us. Our first industry visit was with Matahari, the retail chain of the Lippo Group. We were taken to the boardroom where we met with the top brass of Matahari. The CEO, Mr. Noel Trinder, gave us a presentation on the state of the business, about competition, and about the strategies in the retail business. This was the first time I was meeting with a CEO. And it was a huge learning experience. He started with a joke to relax the mood and then shared his knowledge. Through his presentation, you understood why he was the CEO. This was the first of the many industry visits we had. The NUS name carried a great deal of respect wherever we went. At each company we were met by the top brass who treated us with respect. The other companies that we visited were Gajah Tunggal, the largest integrated tire manufacturer in South East Asia, and Bank Mandiri, the largest bank in Indonesia. Besides these industries we also visited three universities. The students looked at us in awe when we said we are from NUS Business School. It was an amazing feeling.

The trip also had its share of fun. We went to some amazing restaurants. Candle-lit dinner atop a mountain, a theme based restaurant which was a fusion of Chinese and Malay cultures, a restaurant which had been inhabited by Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, and a trip to F-Bar. We shopped till we dropped in Bandung (the city of flowers) where the high-fashion of Italy was available at dirt cheap prices.

As I had promised earlier, the trip achieved two objectives. It introduced me to new friends who I would never have been acquainted with in the normal course of events. The interactions with CEOs and top management of various firms made me see the world in a new light. This was my first study trip and it was great. But I went for a second one and that was even greater - it included a date with the world's richest man. That story is for another post.

P.S: For more details on the Lippo Group, click http://www.strategy-business.com/press/16635507/17609

For Neha's (NUS MBA student) view on the Indonesia study trip, click http://nusmbabuzz.blogspot.com/2007/11/indonesia-study-trip-wow.html

Cheers,

Suraj