International Business

McKenzie Herman

My name is McKenzie Herman and I grew up in Grand Rapids, MI. I have lived in our family home my whole life and I never moved until I moved up to Mount Pleasant. Moving to Mount Pleasant was not easy or fun. I am definitely more of a home body so being away was definitely a challenge. When I arrived at CMU I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was just as clueless as the person next to me. I was always interested by athletic training, so I decided to start freshman year in that major. This is not particularly the easiest major to join right out of high school. Not being a school person in the first place, this made it even more tricky. I wasn’t really sure how to do college yet. So, after about a year of that I decided it wasn’t for me so I moved onto business and landed on general management. Since I still had no idea what to do in life, I think management was my best choice because you can get mostly any job with a business degree. After being in business for about a year I decided to take on a minor and I heard leadership is an amazing minor to have with a management major. That’s how I landed with a general management major and leadership minor. 

I don’t have any experience living outside of the country at all or even out of the state of Michigan. I have never had the chance to live anywhere else and I never really wanted to. I am more of the traveling type to go and visit places instead of staying for long periods of time. So that being said, I have never left the country. I haven’t visited anywhere other than in the U.S. The only language I am fluent in is English, but I have been taking Spanish since kindergarten and I was thinking about having a Spanish minor but changed my mind. I have always liked the fact of knowing another language. Know a language other than your first is a big deal because that can open so many doors for you and your network. 

International business is a part of everyone’s career in some way. Living in the world we do now, there are products and ideas going all around the world every day. There are deals going down constantly for all different products and services. By having a connection to these transactions, this could help move my career into another field I know nothing about. I would love to get into the purchasing side of the chain because it is very fast paced and really close to merchandising. I have always loved fashion merchandising and would love to start a career in that field after college but also purchasing sometimes has a take on merchandising. By seeing these transactions go down from overseas would be awesome because they could help me get new opportunities that I wouldn’t experience just from U.S. business. International business can also affect people in a bad way. Some being cultural differences, returning products, and language barriers. These are all major ones when thinking of doing business overseas. Being knowledgeable of their culture will help in a big way because maybe a handshake to Americans is something rude to Japanese people. Language barriers is a well-known one because there are so many different languages out there so making sure to always have a translator with you. Being with international companies helps open so many doors to expand on your career and that is what I want to do, go above and beyond.

Michele Howard 

Hello,

I am a general management major with a double minor in finance and information systems. My hometown is Whitmore Lake, Michigan. My main interest is anything horror related, I love watching horror movies/shows and I love to read horror books (mainly Stephen King).

I expect this course to give me a basic understanding of how other countries conduct business and how the United States with sed other counties. 

I do not have any experience living or working outside of the United States. I have not traveled to any other counties either. In-fact I do not have much experience out of Michigan, I have only visited Ohio and Mississippi. 

The only language I know is English. I took three years of Spanish in High School and one semester in College. I do not claim to be bilingual, however, I have an understanding of the language.

At the moment international business has little to no effect in my near future plans, however, I hope it can have more of an effect later in life. Maybe another minor when I attend grad school. 

I am not educated enough in the opportunities/benefits and challenges/disadvantages of international business for companies and national economies to have this discussion or an opinion. I hope by the end of this class I will be able to answer this question. Based on what I believe I know, I believe operating internationally has more challenges and disadvantages for the home county’s economy, but has more opportunities and benefits to the company.

I hope all is well,

-Michele Howard

Sarah Bellinger 

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Hello everyone, my name is Sarah Bellinger. I grew up in Shepherd, MI--just 10 miles south of Mt. Pleasant. My mom is a teacher at my high school, so she taught a lot of my business classes. I played softball, volleyball and basketball growing up, but found my passion for cross country and track in high school. Fun fact, I was a pole vaulter in track and won a state championship as a team in cross country. I love to do outdoor activities, whether its hammock or go camping in the summer or go snowboarding or ice fishing in the winter.

I am a 5th year senior working on my accounting degree. I hope to get my CPA certification, which requires I receive 150 credit hours. I hope to work in a company's accounting department some day, so I thought it would be useful to get a management minor. I expect to learn a lot about international business. I am interested to see how the borders between countries are broken down due to globalization. 

I have had no experience living or working outside of the United States. I have not traveled outside of the United State very much or very far. My family and I went to Canada to visit the Niagara Falls. It was a great experience. We went out on a boat tour to get closer to the falls and saw them lit up in lights. Being a tourist attraction, there were a lot of people from different countries talking all different languages. I took two years of Spanish in high school, but I do not really remember a lot. If I work for a company, they might have locations in other countries, outsources products/services or do business with international customers. 

The opportunities/benefits to international business are that countries are able to trade natural resources and be able to specialize in making certain products or providing services. The companies can reduce costs by outsourcing to other countries. This can also be seen as a challenge or disadvantage. Adding to this, countries can impose tariffs and quotas on imported goods.

I think international business for the most part gives the US benefits and opportunities. It has allowed us to advance further as a society by outsourcing menial labor jobs. We have created a great many knowledge jobs. However this can present as a challenge when a rare thing like the recent pandemic has happened, Everything was shut down, so there was no way to get products from overseas. What was not made at home felt the effects of a long shortage for certain goods. 

I think the US government should promote international business because it allows for the free flow of ideas which could lead to great advancements.  

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Brandon Bydalek 

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My name is Brandon Bydalek and I am a management major in my senior year. I transfered here from Macomb community college after completing my general education and started pursuing a business degree. I am excited to learn about how to conduct myself in international situations with people who have a totally different world view than myself. I really like meeting people who have a vastly different view on things than mine so I think it will be great learning about how different cultures conduct themselves in a business sense.

I have worked many different positions inside the U.S.A but i have never worked or lived outside of America. I have been a chef and have had a few different sales positions. I currently work at Dicks' Sporting Goods as a firearm salesman and am applying to other jobs for when i graduate. The only place outside of America that I  have traveled is Canada, and I stayed on an Indian reservation for a few weeks there. I currently only know the English language but I would like to learn Spanish one day.

International business affects my future career plans because I plan on growing with any business I get hired into. Therefor, eventually I will be dealing with companies from outside the U.S and will like having a baseline of knowledge that I can use to conduct myself while in interaction with foreign firms. I believe that international business is a vital aspect of any business persons' mentality and that a solid understand of how to conduct business across borders is vital to any firm that wants to expand its' reach or reduce cost in the supply chain. This is an obvious advantage in any modern firm because, as we can see, most American firms' save (make), a lot of money by utilizing off shore production techniques. This primarily includes outsourcing but can be many other things including; expanding the reach of your mission with the business, understanding how to market and sell to foreign locations, and establishing relationships with offshore businesses that will ultimately help you drive down costs. I believe the U.S  should regulate international business in order to reduce and eliminate the exploitation of foreign labor and to prevent firms from using questionable management tactics in order to lower the bottom line.

Off shoring and working internationally definitely saves firms money and reduces costs but I think that there needs to be strict regulation and communication with the home country in order to create a work environment that is up to par with U.S labor standards. International business creates many opportunities for American companies but it also challenges us to apply the same moral compass to foreign markets than we do with our own laborr force. I think that promoting international business practices is good as long as the firm stays up to par with the previously established labor standards of America.

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