Back to Business..

Well its been a week since our plane landed in DIA from a long but worthwile 5 weeks in France. Since I have been back, the free refills, my car, and most importantly the lack of French speaking has reminded me that I live in such a great country. Being in a country for a month and a half has really made me appreciate everything we have here in the United States and also given me ideas of how I and others can make this country really "the best country in the world".

Paris it was NICE knowing you...

Well all good things come to an end. Studying in Paris for 4 weeks will be an experience that I will never forget. From when you get up in the morning to rush off to school to roaming the Paris streets late at night, the education doesn't stop. Being there for an extended time let you really see how life in another country works. From a business standpoint and just a citizen standpoint. As the CEO of Nissan motioned in his discussion on CNN the other day, one of the biggest qualities and skills an employer is looking for is there international experience, ability to understand different cultures and business environments. This is what I certainly gained from my stay in Paris and eventually my short stay in Nice, France on the Mediterranean sea.

As I anticipate my first few weeks at home, I will be bombarded with questions such as "what did you learn in Paris"? I must ask myself this, what did I learned? The answer to me is very simple, I learned to adapt to a new culture and lifestyle. Its no different than adapting a new product to a new market such as France. If you don't know how to adapt and understand different cultures you will not be successful as a global marketer.

To close it off I had a really good time. I met tons of new people, some were Americans others were French, Canadian, and Irish. Social interaction is an important part of education and listening to others and learning how they live their lives compared to you is so valuable. So long Paris...

We could of used a monster energy drink..

Developing an export plan for Monster Energy drink became more of a task than what we envisioned. As a graduating senior at the Monfort College of Business, projects are something I lived and breathed at my time at UNC. It would not be uncommon to have 3-4 marketing projects a semester, all taking lots of time and effort. Like everyone else we pushed off the project to the weekend before, only really brainstorming ideas prior. It was quite an experience trying to enjoy our last week in Paris while trying to produce a quality product for class. Specific research needed started to become hard to get our hands on and with time running out, 3:30am the night before marked the end of the monster project. We kept saying to each other a "BFC" a huge Monster Energy drink would be nice while working late hours of the night. The project really couldn't have gone any better, it looked very professional and out plan was certainly realistic. I do sure hope that Monster taps into this market. Red Bull is good but for anyone that has had Monster, well there is no comparison...

Where have I been....

Over the past week we all have been so busy working on our projects and trying to take every little thing in before we go our separate ways Sunday. I was on a blog role for a while but have came to the conclusion that there is so much to write about. I guess the one thing I can say is about this trip is the education lies outside the classroom. This is in no means a discount to the EBS school and its administration, but rather a complement to the city and country and how it can change perspectives on lives and create more opportunities professionally and socially. Every day you learn something else, usually something that can be attributed to business or behavior of people. You can't go one day without noticing something astonishing. Whether its French driving, weird advertising, people interaction, you name it.

Traveling in small groups

Alright, in my opinion traveling is not really a team sport. As we have tried and continue to do on somewhat of a regular basis is travel in a big group. This does not work!!!! You spend all your time waiting to make sure everyone got on and off the subway creating havic and adding extra stress. Nobody can ever make a decison about where and what they want to do, I don't know isn't an answer. Keeping groups under 4 or 5 is ideal, easier for cabs, getting into restaurants and pubs, and easier to please the parisians, meaning NOT LOOKING LIKE A TOUR GROUP. The smaller the better...........

FINALLY A REAL MEAL

It has gotten to the point where we all needed a real American meal in an American city. The only answer to this was Hard Rock Cafe. The no free refills on soda and small portions had to be put on hold, even if it was only for a couple hours. The whole experience of eating in a Parisian restaurant is much different than any American restaurant, service sucks in Paris, where in the States the idea is to get you in and out. Eating at the Hard Rock Cafe provided a mid-ground, we got the great tasting, large portioned American food but were stuck with the slow customer service. I guess you can't export everything. Regardless the food was amazing and provided us with some good energy to take on Napoleons tomb for the rest of the day.

Parisian Parking Part 2

Ok, I couldn't let this one go by without talking about it. So the other day we were waiting for a few of us to use the ATM and in the meantime we decided to watch this lady park her car into a spot barely big enough for a golf cart. Bare in mind slightly bumping into a car isn't completely unheard of here in Paris, but what she did was absolutely insane. She proceeded to back into this car several times until she was able to fit her car into the spot. A few of the times it seemed like it could of damaged one of the cars, but it did not even phase her at all. Do they have any respect for others property. We actually made eye contact with her a few of the times after she hit the car in back of her and showed no sign of concern, it was like almost she had no idea why we were even staring at her. I guess the moral of the story is, don't drive nice cars in Paris.