Executive Decisions being made in Smurfit

This week sees an international module taking place in UCD Smurfit as part of the Global Network in Advanced Management immersion week which is taking place this month in a number of international partner schools.  Currently 14 members of the Full-time MBA class are abroad undertaking modules variously in Yale, IE Business School in Spain, Indian Institue of Management in Bangalore and Pontiificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago Chile.

The UCD Smurfit contribution to the networks modules is ‘Executive Decision Making’ lead by module co-ordinator Stephen Boyle and a select group of guest speakers.  Participants on this module include Smurfit full-time and EMBA students and participants from Yale, Remin (China), Koc (Turkey) among others.

The module includes lectures, a simulation game and company visit to Accenture to see decision making in practice.  Not to mention some social activities and the practically mandatory visit to the Guinness Storehouse in town.

Watch this space for bpogs from the various modules as participants have a chance to think the experience through and report back on it.

Vietnam Culture Night

Let’s remember and be proud of yourself and your ethnic identity. We often feel lost in a complex and large world. However, you will feel consoled if you have a knowledgeable background of your ethnic cultural heritage. It gives you a historical root, a sense of your place in the present and a unique permanent though this world is always changing.

– Le Hong Diem, MSc Strategic Management & Planning, UCD Smurfit

Traditional Costume “Ao dai” Performance

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, though living far away from home, Vietnamese MBA students in Dublin were involved in organizing a successfully special and meaningful event – Vietnam Culture Night. The event’s purpose, along with introducing and promoting Vietnamese culture, was to raise funds to support poor children in mountainous areas of Vietnam through the programme, “Only rice is not enough.” The event attracted more than 400 international friends, expatriates and Vietnamese students in Ireland.

Guests attending the event enjoyed the traditional foods of Vietnam such as Gac sticky rice, spring rolls, salt roasted chicken, Vietnamese salad, and a traditional five fruits tray garnished with apricot, peach blossom and Lunar New Year calligraphy. The entire space of the event was decorated with red and yellow symbolizing “luck” and “prosperity”. International friends were excited to take memorial pictures in Vietnamese Tet space and enthusiastic to participate in quizzes about Tet traditions in Vietnam.

I want to send best wishes to the MBA program staffs and my classmates in the new year!

Chuc mung nam moi!

Happy Lunar New Year 2014!


Hung Nguyen

FTMBA 2014

Vietnam