Business School students visit the Silicon Valley

Two-week program included classes at Stafford House and visits to Apple and Google

Business School students took part in an international program at the Silicon Valley during the summer break. In February, they went on a two-week immersion program on business management to San Francisco, California (USA). The program featured workshops and visits to companies such as Apple and Google.

The mission focused on the main business management concepts and drew insights from the practice of global brands. The mission was partnered by Stafford House. The morning classes addressed leadership, teamwork and innovation. In the afternoon, students attended lectures delivered by renowned professionals in their area of expertise. As they went on a tour around the Silicon Valley innovation center, they also had the chance to learn more about Tesla Model X, Oculus Rift and Microsoft Hololens, the renowned Draper University, Googleplex, Android Garden and the Google store.

“We also paid a visit to Amazon Go and the Computer History Museum. An informal meeting with a Google employee was very striking. I had a feeling I could not describe as I drove an autonomous Tesla car. Seeing the Apple Park in full operation was something I will never forget”, says Marketing major Alessandra Enck. In her view, in addition to working on her English, this experience gave her a chance to experience the future as she saw cutting edge technologies in full operation. She also had the chance to see how people behave in the workplace.

4^th Industrial Revolution

In an effort to visit the birthplace of the “4^th Industrial Revolution”, the Business Management major Giovani Righi joined the international mission. To his mind it has been quite a remarkable immersion. Over the two-week program, they had extra class work. He and his classmates were the only Stafford House class to present a final paper in English to everyone, around 60 students and faculty.

“The networking activities were amazing. This is one of the advantages of San Francisco and Silicon Valley: there is a number of small events for business and technology, the pitches, where you can find professionals from different areas”, he says. More than being a line in his curriculum, this experience created awareness of how a certain business model, in effect in that region, was essential for his development as it has become quite influential all over the world.

The School has plans to go to Vancouver and Toronto, the Canadian Silicon Valley. This coming visit will be particularly focused on entrepreneurial management and startup development and will feature more hands-on activities.

Culture of region

The curiosity in learning more about the business ecosystem at the Silicon Valley and aspects such as innovation and business dynamics there, drove the student Marcos Bettanin to join the international mission, in an effort to be better equipped to apply in his company the knowledge he gained. He worked on activities related to self-knowledge and personal skills, in class, including a personality-mapping test. “After that, our instructors would give us information that was essential for each profile. She would also help us with our personal goals, by sharing articles and videos and connections with people who would be of interest to us. In my case, as I was interested in R&D, I got information from people who worked in laboratories in the San Francisco Bay Area. These people were aware of the best and largest laboratories in the Silicon Valley”, he said.

In Bettanin’s view, the workshops were geared towards the culture of the region. They were delivered by business accelerators professionals, native professors and a Google staff member. “The most striking experience was the conversation I had with the Google employee. With him, I had the chance to learn about the company’s policies that are not so common in Brazil, but which helped me understand why that is such an innovative company. They give a tremendous amount of attention to research and innovation”, he adds.

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