In the six years since the Business Study Mission (BSM) module was introduced at SMU in 2002, over 800 students have been directly exposed to the business practices and cultures of countries such Argentina, Bangalore, Bahrain, Chile, China, Denmark, Germany, India, Korea, Laos, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, UAE, USA and Vietnam. This unique programme combines business seminars, cultural talks, study trips and networking, and results in the successful exposure of SMU students to global business practices and first hand encounters with business leaders in the visiting countries.

Developed as an optional course for SMU undergraduates, most students may, however, choose to participate in a BSM to fulfill their compulsory “Global and Regional Studies” course component. The subjects offered in this course are designed to provide students with an awareness of developments in the region and the world. Choosing to participate in a BSM requires the students to work together on research projects to analyse the socio-cultural settings, political and economic conditions of a country, successful business models, and aspects of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship opportunities. They also focus on the internationalisation of Singapore-based companies in a specific region and how to foster business relations.

The most recent 2008 BSMs have been to Korea, New York, Russia, Scandanavia – Denmark and Sweden, and the Middle East – Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

The 24 students who travelled to Moscow and St. Petersburg in June had the benefit of joining a delegation of about 100 Singaporean business professionals and travelling to the Russian capital with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan, as part of the business exploration and networking programme of Spotlight Singapore from 4-7 June 2008. By joining the delegation, the BSM Russia group met with Russian leaders and top Russian businessmen.

The objective of the BSM is to create an awareness of the unique identity of a country’s economy, and to introduce students to a variety of tools and resources for obtaining information on current political, economic and business environments. These tools and resources inculcate in the students the ability and desire to incorporate humanistic, social science and cultural perspectives into business analysis; and significantly, to impress on them the wealth of business and employment opportunities in the countries visited. As a result of the BSM UAE & Qatar and the BSM UAE & Bahrain, which were undertaken in August 2007 and April 2008 respectively, over 20 students were accepted for internships in the region, and over 25 were offered full-time professional employment in international companies in Dubai and Kuwait.

Most BSM are generated from within the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, although several, including the highly successful BSM Silicon Valley (2007) and BSM Bangalore (2007), were coordinated by the School of Information Systems. Reflecting SMU’s broad-based pedagogy eligibility is university-wide. This has ensured that the BSM is an extremely popular course and increasingly over-subscribed.