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2015

Introduction

After four years of operation, the Emerging Markets Institute is continuing to expand its reach, with more students, visiting scholars, publications and consulting projects. We fielded the winning team in a global case competition. We are working more with partner organizations within Cornell University and other universities. We published two books, and our faculty won international recognitions. We continue to attract more talent to Johnson, and our alumni are working in high profile roles from Ethiopia to Jakarta to New York. We are truly realizing the original vision behind the establishment of the institute: to build a highly regarded academic program for the study of emerging markets and provide a private forum for lively exchange among corporate leaders from emerging and developed markets and leading researchers.

We are also finding new ways to communicate. We launched our first edition of a newsletter, and established pagades on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. We also created new marketing materials to introduce companies to our program. The website continues to carry the bulk of our information, and we are constantly looking for new ways to improve it.

The Institute would like to thank its partners, sponsors and donors which made this year possible. Specifically, KPMG; BRICLab of the Center on Global Economic Governance, Columbia University; Center for Emerging Markets, Northeastern University; Nell Cady-Kruse, BS ’84, MBA ’85; Roberto Canizares, BS ’71, MBA ’74; Peter Luerrsen, MBA ’87; James Morgan, BS ’60, MBA ’63; Bob Staley BME ’58, MBA ’59; and Al Suter, BME ’58, MBA’59. We would also like to acknowledge many gifts from our Emerging Markets Fellows alumni.

Education

The Institute recruited 23 students from the first year class in the Johnson Ithaca Residential Program into our Emerging Markets Fellows program, and will be adding more from the one year Ithaca MBA program during the summer of 2015. The fellows undertake academic coursework, study trips and consulting projects focused on the Emerging Markets. We also graduated 31 students from the program, our highest number since the establishment of the institute. The fellows and others contributed 33 articles to the EMI website during the academic year, which have proven to be significant drivers for web traffic. Topics have ranged from pyschometrics as a tool to reduce default risk to how the decline in oil prices is affecting emerging markets differently.

EMI graduates
EMI Fellows and Advisory Board Members celebrate their graduation at the home of Executive Director Richard J. Coyle, May 22, 2015.

We have plans to expand the fellows program in the next fiscal year to include students from our two Executive MBA programs (Metro New York and Americas), plus the Cornell Tech MBA students.

The Institute had a very robust array of consulting projects in the International Consulting Practicum, which is taught jointly with the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Students travelled to Chile, Australia, and Colombia to deliver their final presentations, while others were handled via videoconference. Projects this year included:

  • An Indian market expansion strategy for an international manufacturer of veterinarian products
  • A Latin American entry plan for an Indian manufacturer of chemicals for the mining industry
  • A detailed assessment of customers visiting a high end chain of hotel properties in Chile
  • A social media plan to revitalize a consumer good product line for a Mexican parent corporation of a U.S. snack food manufacturer
  • A Latin American market entry plan for a manufacturer of safety equipment for the telecommunications industry
  • A strategic plan for a UK designer of data visualization software
  • A plan to launch a private equity firm in Latin America
  • A business model for making data driven investments in innovation for an Australian bank
  • A plan for benchmarking financial performance for a Mexican distributor of consumer goods.

Study Trips

Johnson organized seven study trips during the 2014-15 academic year, involving 209 students. Destinations were Japan/Korea, Western Europe, South Africa, Israel, UAE, and Columbia

The Institute was directly involved in the study trips to India, South Africa and Colombia. During the Colombia trip, students were assigned projects to work with local companies. One project eventually evolved into a summer internship for an EMI Fellow with a family-owned distributor of motor oils and lubricants.

Research

Our faculty continued with a robust effort of research and publication during the academic year. The Emerging Markets Institute was a lead organizer in the Fourth Symposium on Emerging Financial Markets: China and Beyond, held on May 1 and 2, 2015 in New York City. The event featured a paper by Professor Warren Bailey and a panel discussion on shadow banking, moderated by Professor Andrew Karolyi. Additional emerging market-related publications include:

Outreach

The institute was initially founded as a vehicle to bring together preeminent practitioners and academics from around the world to develop the next generation of global business leaders and create the premier research center on the role of emerging markets in the global economy. As a part of this, we have an active program of outreach with the business community and organized a full agenda of activities:

Global Speakers Series

The Institute hosted another compelling roster of executives who took the time to speak to the Institute and other members of the Johnson community on timely issues affecting the emerging markets. Speakers this year included:

  • Arindam Bhattacharya, Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Delhi
  • Roberto Cañizares, BS ’71, MBA ’74, former President, MSA International
  • Lourdes Casanova, Sr. Lecturer and Academic Director, Emerging Markets Institute
  • Raj Rajkumar, Partner Symphony Asia Holdings Pte Ltd.
  • Heather White, Documentary Filmmaker, “Who Pays the Price?”
  • Yasuyuki Sugiura, President & CEO, Mitsubishi North America
  • Simon Pryke, Chief Investment Officer, Newton Investment Management (UK)
  • Rustom Desai, MBA ’95, Chief Executive Officer, Corning India
  • Anne Miroux, Director, Division on Technology and Logistics, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
  • Christine Bader, Author, “The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist”
  • Mari Amano, Secretary-General, Asian Productivity Organization
  • Hemen Shah, Partner, 8 Miles LLP (via videoconference)
  • Humberto Ribeiro, Visiting Scholar, Former Brazilian Secretary of Trade and Services
  • Andrew Karolyi, Alumni Professor in Asset Management

2nd Annual Emerging Markets Roundtable

“Managing Government Relations in Emerging Markets” and “Succeeding Against Local Competition in Emerging Markets”, New York City, August 21, 2014

In cooperation with KPMG, the Institute held its second annual roundtable on August 21 with 35 participants. Leading the discussions were Lourdes Casanova, EMI Academic Director; Richard Coyle, EMI Executive Director, and Humberto Ribeiro, EMI Visiting Scholar and former Brazilian Secretary of Trade and Services. Excellent discussions took place about how to approach foreign governments, how to deal with corruption, reforms in the Brazilian government, finding local business partners, risk assessment and Chinese investment in Africa.

III and IV Brazilian Conferences

The Emerging Markets Institute partnered with the Brazilian Students Association to organize two conferences on campus this academic year about Brazil: November 4 “Uncovering Challenges and Opportunities” and April 22 “Critical Reflections and New Perspectives”. Academic Director Lourdes Casanova was actively engaged in both events, and arranged participation for Visiting Scholar Humberto Ribeiro (former Brazilian Secretary of Commerce and Trade) and Marcus Troyjo (Director, BRICLab at Columbia University) as speakers.

4th Annual International Conference: “China, Reaching Out to the World”, New York City

On October 14, the Institute held its fourth international conference, which was focused on the increasing influence of the Chinese economy. The day-long event, “China—Reaching Out to the World: Global Investments and Partnerships,” drew a sellout crowd of more than 100 Cornell alumni and business professionals to the Cornell Club in New York City, and featured keynote addresses by Qingtong Zhou, VP Chief Strategy Officer of Lenovo, and Yuqiang Xiao, General Manager of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, New York Branch. Executive panels focused on the following:

  • Chinese Investment in the United States, moderated by Erin Ennis, Vice President of US/China Business Council. Panelists included experts from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Starr Strategic Partners, Rhodium Group
  • Ensuring Sources of Natural Resources, moderated by Andrew Karolyi, Alumni Professor of Management, Professor of Finance, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. Panelists included experts from The Eurasia Center and New York University, along with EMI Vising Scholar Humberto Luiz Ribeiro.
  • Technological and Innovation Hubs, moderated by Victoria Lai, Economist and Editor of Economist Intelligence Unit China Service. Panelists included experts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Global Cloud Xchange, GE China.
  • Competition and Cooperation: the new emerging MNCs, moderated by Lourdes Casanova, Academic Director of Emerging Markets Institutes. Panelists included experts from M&A Advisor, Agricultural Bank of China, Newman & Morrison, LLC.

The event received media coverage in Bloomberg and China Daily USA, and was additionally circulated via Twitter. At the conclusion, we announced that next year’s conference will focus on India.

Northeastern University, Center for Emerging Markets Sixth Annual Symposium, “Beyond the BRICs”

On June 2, Academic Director Lourdes Casanova, and Visiting Scholars Humberto Ribeiro and Chen Chen travelled to Northeastern University to speak at the Center for Emerging Markets annual conference under the theme, “Beyond the BRICs”. The conference focused on what was necessary for companies to enter the second tier of emerging markets. This represented the first of many planned collaborations between the Emerging Markets Institute at Johnson and Northeastern’s Center for Emerging Markets.

Fourth Symposium on Emerging Financial Markets: “China and Beyond”

Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia University, New York City

On May 1 and 2, The Institute sponsored the Fourth Symposium on Emerging Financial Markets.

“China and Beyond”, held by the Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia University. Academic Director Andrew Karolyi was a key organizer and participant, and Johnson Professor Warren Bailey presented a paper.

mai Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin

Award Ceremony in Bangkok
Award Ceremony in Bangkok with The King of Thailand’s official representative, H.E. Privy Councilor Air Chief Marshal Chalit Pukbhasuk (in white). Emerging Markets Institute team is seated in the front row (l to r): Brennan Duty, Margaret Wu, Abhijeet Bais, Chris Kim and Stephane Corgie.

Over the past four years, the Emerging Markets Institute has sent three teams to participate in the mai Bangkok Business Challenge at Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University. Sasin was founded in 1982 as a joint venture of Chulalongkorn University, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. This year, 48 teams from 18 countries submitted business plans for entrepreneurial ventures. 16 were selected to compete in Bangkok. The Emerging Markets Institute team proposed a company called UMA Bioseeds, which utilized supercharged enzymes to eliminate disease and pathogens from crop seeds, thus improving agricultural yields. After three days of pitching in several rounds before a panel of judges, UMA Bioseeds was declared the winner! More information about the win can be found at https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/article/emerging-markets-institute/research/emi-at-work/38817/the-journey-to-bangkok/ and https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/article/emerging-markets-institute/research/emi-at-work/39075/the-emerging-markets-institute-interviews-the-2015-winning-team-from-the-mai-bangkok-business-challenge-sasin-1/. The team’s participation was made possible by a generous donation from Roberto Canizares, BS ’71, MBA ’74, who also serves on the Emerging Markets Institute Advisory Board.

Advisory Board

The Institute is guided by our Advisory Board, which meets twice per year. This year we said “Goodbye” to Mark Hutchinson from GE China and added Scott Strazik, BS ‘00 from GE Power Generation Products, as well as Paul Kavuma, MBA ’93 from Catalyst Principal Partners in Kenya. They joined Mark Bissell, MBA’82 (Bissell Homecare, Inc.), Nell Cady-Kruse, BS ’84, MBA ’85 (Cady-Kruse Family Office), Roberto Canizares, BS ’71, MBA ’74, Rustom Desai, MBA ’95 (Corning India), Paul Galant, BS ’90 (Verifone), Mario Garnero (Brasilinvest Group), Felipe Garza Medina, MBA ’80 (Alpek), and Georges Ugeux (Galileo Global Advisors).

Staffing

Andrew Karolyi, one of the founders of the Emerging Markets Institute, stepped down as co-Academic Director in order to devote his energies to his responsibilities as Editor of the Review of Financial Studies, a prestigious academic journal. Richard Coyle, Executive Director, will also be leaving the Institute. Lourdes Casanova will continue as Academic Director.

We were fortunate to be joined this year by several visiting scholars: Sidney Costa from the University of Sao Paulo; Humberto Ribeiro, former Brazilian Secretary of Trade & Services, and Chen Chen from Tsinghua University. We also benefitted from research by Sukriti Jain, Samantha Rullan and Rebecca Derven.

Our administrative support is headed up by Andrea Sherwood, and was bolstered by the volunteer efforts of Lourdes Silvera and Subrina Shorna.

Funding

The Institute welcomes contributions from corporations, foundations, NGO’s and individuals to help fund the institute. We would like to acknowledge the generosity of Roberto Canizares, BS ’71, MBA ‘74 who recently provided an additional gift to the Institute.

For more information or to be added to our email distribution list (https://www.johnson.cornell.edu/EMI), please contact:

Lourdes Casanova
Academic Director, Emerging Markets Institute, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University
248 Sage Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 U.S.A.
Telephone: 607.254.1656
E-mail: lc683@cornell.edu,

OR

Andrea Sherwood
Institute Coordinator, Emerging Markets Institute, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University
248 Sage Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 U.S. A.
Telephone: 607.255.0106
Email: als22@cornell.edu