Prof. Hao Lou and Prof. Chris Thompson
Led by Faculty of Arts and Sciences Professor Chris Thompson and Faculty of Business Professor Hao Lou, the Business School’s Global Consulting Program (GCP) will travel to Tokyo in May.
Tokyo is one of two new sites at GCP this year, noted Lou, co-director of the Thompson Tokyo project. Tamarindo, Costa Rica is also a new location, along with return locations in Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Italy.
“I can’t think of a more dynamic duo than Dr. Thomson and Dr. Lou will lead us to add this exciting new addition to our lineup of experiential opportunities at the International Center for Business Education and Development,” CIBED Director Andrew Pueschel said. “The benefits of this interdisciplinary leadership collaboration will have lasting positive benefits for participating students or global partnerships for years to come.”
Like many of Ohio University’s activities in Japan, this one goes back to Ohio University’s 50-year partnership with Chubu University in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan. But Ohio State’s connections — including faculty relationships and an extensive national alumni network — now extend far beyond Chubu.
Since 1973, Ohio State and Chubu have exchanged faculty annually through the Visiting Professor Program, offering students and professors the unique opportunity to experience a truly international learning experience. The faculty member who came to Ohio from Midlands University is known as the Robert Glidden Visiting Professor. The Ohio State faculty headed to Chubu University is Kohei Miura Visiting Professor—named in honor of the founder of Chubu University.
Thompson, a cultural anthropologist who teaches Japanese in the Department of Linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences, was selected as a visiting professor in 2018. Lou is on his selection committee, and he served as an exchange professor a few years ago. So Lou naturally reached out to Thompson when the business school wanted to add the Japan destination to its popular consulting program to prepare students for the challenges of the global business environment.
“Hao actually approached me because his Chinese destination was being phased out. We talked to Chubu about doing it in Nagoya, but they were lukewarm about it, so with Chubu’s blessing, we contacted Tokyo’s Musashi University, where we also send students. Dr. Brian Masshardt at Musashi decided to hire us immediately because we would be able to provide our own placements using our extensive network of OHIO alumni in Japan,” Thompson said.
“The expansion of the Global Consulting Program to Tokyo is such a great collaboration between the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Business. We are delighted that Ohio State students will benefit from Dr. Thompson’s expertise and research in Japanese language and culture with Ph.D. Combined. Mr. Lou’s expertise in global business. With the help of the Ohio State alumni network in Japan, our students will engage in life-changing experiences where they can learn from and contribute to bilingual workplaces run by our alumni,” Sarah Poggione, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences said.
Placement in alumni workplaces
“I’ve been involving our Ohio alumni in their workplaces in Tokyo for years as I developed the Japan Global Engagement Program, once known as the OU-Iwate Prefectural University (IPU) Tsunami Volunteer Program,” Thompson Say. In 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean west of Japan, causing a wall of water more than 100 feet high in some coastal communities. More than 20,000 people died. In addition to hands-on volunteer help, Thompson’s projects continue to focus on the cultural impact of disasters and how communities can recover, most recently when a group of students and alumni gathered for 10th Year of the activity on the weekend of September. 24 Iwate Prefecture.
“As a cultural anthropologist and linguistics teacher, I’ve always been interested in sites where our Ohio students can work in Japan using their Ohio degree and the Japanese skills we can teach them. Additionally, we have Ohio alumni are also Japanese because of our exchange program. Therefore, we will place students in the Tokyo Global Consulting Program into workplaces managed by Ohio alumni,” Thompson said, noting that knowledge of Japanese is not the Program prerequisites. Global Consulting Program.
Possible locations for students to intern include a French restaurant run by two Ohio alumni, an NGO that promotes interaction between Japanese people and Japanese residents from various African countries, run by Ohio graduates, and a Japanese event planner Company, a fresh graduate from Ohio as a sales representative.
“All of these sites were deliberately chosen because they are bilingual work environments where everyone works in English. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to provide our students with a meaningful experience in such a short amount of time,” Thompson noted. Another stop is a sports management company linked to Tokyo Business School.
“The alumni relationships I cultivate are the foundation that enables these experiences to be shared with the business school and the Ohio campus. It’s no secret that many students who study Japanese at Ohio State are business majors. And Dr. Lou, who understands these The value of connections and the way alumni relations work outside the U.S. gave me the opportunity to work with him, with his vast experience leading programs in many parts of the world to develop truly unique programs,” Thompson said.
Growing influence in Tokyo
Thompson noted that the relationship with Musashi University is not as visible as the Chubu partnership, but it is just as dynamic.
“Many Ohio faculty and administrators are not even aware of the extensive connections Ohio State—especially the Ohio State Intensive English Program (OPIE) and the Department of Linguistics—have had with Musashi over the years. I have worked with them on various projects Extensive collaborations, student exchanges and administrative visits over the years. Tokyo Business School GCP is just the latest Japan-related project I’m working on,” Thompson said.
Also, Dr. Charlie Morgan, associate professor of sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is on sabbatical in Japan this year. He directs the OU-MU exchange program.
Currently, there are 8 OHIO students on exchange in Japan this semester, 4 in Chubu and 4 in Musashi.
For more information about Ohio Business School’s Center for International Business Education and Development or the Global Consulting Program, please contact Puesche at pueschel@ohio.edu.