Wharton Module in Rio's Business School debates energy and infrastructure in Brazil

A group of students from one of the leading business schools in the United States - Wharton Business School ? were at EBAPE from 4 - 7 March to attend the Managing in Emerging Economies course. With the theme Energy and Infrastructure, the course aimed to present economic, demographic and political trends of emerging countries' economies.  Eight students of the Professional Executive Masters in Business Administration from EBAPE (MEX) were also part of the program. This was the case of Marcio Colmerauer, MEX student, who had participated in a similar course in January at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. The great experience in Madrid motivated me to attend the Wharton module. These courses, in a complementary way, allow us to have the opportunity to exchange experiences with people from different cultures, and thus, to discern worldviews that lead us to new ways of thinking, he said. For him, the format is ideal for MEX students. These short courses provide an important gain, especially for MEX students, who mostly divide their time between study and work, making it difficult to make a space in their agendas to participate in programs of longer duration abroad, he said. In turn, Raquel Carvalho de Castro, who is manager of a corporate education consulting company and student at MEX, saw a great opportunity in this course to understand in greater depth the challenges of Brazil's infrastructure and how organizations are impacted by them. It (the course) broadened my vision, allowing me to prepare more complete solutions for clients, she explained. Another important aspect of the program noted by her was the high level of the foreign students. The level of the students was very high and the debates were always very rich. It was very interesting to see different perspectives on our country. We got access to a series of structured information about Brazil's scenario that gave me plenty to think about and improve some previously formed opinions, she explained.The course included lectures by Wharton professors Mauro Guillen and Ruben Lobel, plus visits to companies such as Vale, Gávea Investimentos and Odebrecht. The group also visited Rio Operations Center, IBM (International Business Machines) and Petrobras, where they attended lectures on the current energy scenario and the diversification prospects of the Brazilian energy matrix.