Santiago, Chile!

Welcome back to the UAlbany Business blog! Join us as we prepare to travel to Santiago, Chile for our annual international business trip. We are busy working with our 31 Weekend and Evening MBA students, faculty and staff in anticipation of our visit to South America. We hope you will join us beginning on Friday, July 10, to learn more about the School, our programs, and about the current business & industry trends in Santiago.

Goodbye Budapest!

Buda just before sunrise on Saturday morning, taken by Weekend MBA student Rick Cutright.

Farewell dinner

Friday evening the group had its farewell dinner at Callas Cafe, a restaurant across the street from St. Stephens Cathedral. What a great evening! The food was so good that Scott had the chef come out to our tables, where he received a rousing round of applause (and a big hug!). The students (first) and then Paul and Melissa thanked Alice for her superb efforts in organizing our week of activities and ensuring that everything went as planned. There were also thanks to Lynda Holt and Melissa and Professor Yasha for making the trip a worthwhile and rewarding experience.

As dinner wound down most everyone headed out for one final night in Budapest. And I'll note for the record that everyone was on time for the bus to the airport on Saturday morning.

Last Day in Budapest

Today marks our last full day of activity in Budapest. It is only fitting that our last company visit was with Albany Molecular Research, Inc. (AMRI). AMRI, headquartered in Albany, NY and founded in 1991, AMRI is the only fully integrated, global contract drug discovery and chemical services provider. AMRI Hungary serves as the Central Eastern European arm for the company's European operations, with their area of expertise in discovery services.

Following a presentation by Business Development Manager Cesare Spadoni, we enjoyed a tour of the laboratory, and also attended presentations on AMRI's IT infrastructure and HR management.

Vienna

Thursday most of the group traveled to Vienna (Wien in Austria). Despite a long bus ride and rainy weather, the trip was great. Our travel from Budapest took us through the agricultural region of Hungary. We drove through mile-after-mile (kilometer-after-kilometer) of fertile fields planted with corn (for ethanol), sunflowers (for sunflower oil), and grains (what appeared to be wheat). As far as the eye could see in any direction there were alternating fields of green, yellow, and brown. It was easy to understand why Hungary's major industry until just a few years ago was agriculture.

In Vienna, the old city lies within the modern ring road, so seeing many historical sites is an easy walk. Two of the most impressive sites are St. Stevens Cathedral and the Imperial Palace. St. Stevens sits on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first dating to 1147. The original church was largely destroyed by fire in 1258. The church was reconstructed and several additions and expansions occurred over the next three centuries. In 1469 with the creation of the Diocese of Vienna, St. Stevens became its mother church.

The Imperial Palace was the winter home of the ruling Habsburg family. The Habsburg's controlled large areas of central Europe beginning in the 10th century. Their control over many areas dimished in the 1800s, but they still maintained the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. But there was a desire by many citizens to have their own countries and this created tensions with the Habsburgs. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, in Sarajevo in 1914 caused the Habsburgs to declare war on Serbia, an event that led to World War I in Europe.

The Imperial Palace is HUGE, similar in size to the Habsburg palace in Budapest. Each contains approximately 200 rooms and occupies what are the equivalent of several city blocks. But it is not the sheer size that is most impressive -- it is their luxuriousness. The State Hall, which is now part of the State Library, is a stunningly beautiful room. Calling it a room is misleading; it is the length of a football field and its ceiling is five stories high. The murals, stautues, and collection of old books are beyond description.

Pictures from Vienna

There were numerous wind farms on the way to Austria...















State Hall in the Habsburg Imperial Palace: A quintessential portrait of an 18th c. baroque library.




















St. Stephen's Cathedral

A Full Day of Operations Management

Today marked a full day of travel to our fifth and sixth (out of seven) company site visits; we began our day by meeting at 7:50 AM in the hotel lobby to greet the bus and make the drive out to Magyar Suzuki. There is a lot of history to learn about the establishment of Suzuki in Hungary; with four logistic corridors crossing the country, and a location in the heart of Europe, it allows access to more than 490 million consumers. It was no surprise when Deputy Managing Director Laszlo Urban pronounced today that Suzuki Hungary is #1 in sales of new passenger cars in Hungary for twelve consectuvie years. In addition, one new car is produced on the production line every 57 seconds!

Following a quick lunch at Rozsakert Etterem (complete with American music in the background, compliments of the chef!), we were off to Tetra Pak, Danube. Tetra Pak is a Swedish multinational food processing and packing company. Following World War II, they boasted 100% market share, with Germany claiming the largest share. Tetra Pak's innovation is in the area of aseptic processing liquid food packaging which, when combined with Ultra-high temperature processing, allows liquid food to be packaged and stored under room temperature conditions for up to a year. Our host, Dr. Helga Nemeth, completed her MBA with a specialization in Human Resources and joined a tour of the facilities to provide additional answers to all of our questions.

It has been quite a busy schedule the past three days...we are all looking forward to a day of leisure in Vienna, Austria tomorrow.