9 days in Paris & Beirut with Stanford MBAs
Last December, 4 intrepid Stanford MBA students led a global study trip across Paris and Beirut. Their theme focused on learning about the special relationship between France and Lebanon—symbolizing one of the closest ties between a Western and Middle Eastern country in the world.
Luckily, I found a spot on their trip, which is now one of the most memorable experiences of my life:
Day 1: In the morning we met with Joe Saddi, worldwide Chairman of Booz and Company at their Paris Headquarters. Joe is of Lebanese descent and a dual Lebanese-French citizen. He shared an insightful overview of the history, partnership and cultures of the countries across industries.
In the afternoon we visited the office of Christine Lagarde, the French Minister of Economic Affairs, Industry and Employment and discussed issues of the French economy on the world stage in detail.
In the evening, our group had dinner with journalists from the International Herald Tribune at the home of one of the trip participant’s parents.
Day 2: Met with Didier Lombard, CEO of France Telecom, most famous for developing the Orange brand telecom services across Europe. He discussed the global challenges telecom companies face as they compete with both content and infrastructure providers.
Then we toured a Renault factory outside of Paris chosen to produce new Electric Cars. The factories featured a remarkable degree of automation, with manual labor doing only a very small fraction of the work—in my mind, an IP-driven manufacturing model supporting in-sourcing vs. off shoring.
Top right photo below: I make plastic safety glasses look good.
After lunch, we headed back to Paris to meet with senior execs from Areva, the world’s largest Nuclear Power Company. We discussed issues on the safe reuse of nuclear bi-products, issues with proliferation, and the role of the French government (controlling 90% of equity) in Areva’s international expansion.
Late afternoon, we attended a reception with Stanford alums in Paris, hosted by Bain & Company. Below right photo shows my friend Shoraez, who worked for Noble Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus before coming to Stanford.
Then off to small group dinners in the city center, where I got to try French truffle soup and eat foam for dinner:
In the evening, we went to Favela Chic, a dance club that hands out flaming torches with drink orders
Day 3: Had breakfast with Claude Bebear, the founder and former CEO of AXA—an absolutely amazing speaker–who is founding a policy think tank in Paris, Institut Montaigne. Particularly interesting in the discussion was the close relationship French businesses had to the national government. Related to this dynamic was the concentration of France’s power class at the country’s small number of elite universities. It’s a culture where everyone knows everyone.
Late morning we visited the Élysée Palace and met with Jean-David Levitte, future head of the UN Security Council and advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy. We discussed commercials ties between France and Lebanon, US-French relations across administrations and even a significant amount of French history. One particularly striking point Jean-David made: On September 11 when the US was attacked, all of France became Americans in joining its ally.
Though France and US differ on political views occasionally, for me the underlying strength of the relationships became remarkably clear in this meeting.
We again broke into small groups for the rest of the day, visiting cafes, monuments and various galleries and museums across Paris, hoping the local strikes (“en greve”) would be over—and if not, at least we had pictures of some interesting signage.
Day 4: The private tour of Laurent-Perrier Champagne House blew me away. The passion, craft and science that goes into champagne production was striking—as well as the generosity of the company. Each of us left with a beautiful bottle of Brut.
On the drive back from Champagne, I found the density of bird nests in the wine country notable. I guess they like to eat grapes…
After lunch we boarded a bus, then a plane, then another plane, then another bus to arrive in Beirut.
Day 5: In the morning we visited Baalbek, 9,000 year-old historical site with immense Roman ruins. Below left is me with my roommate Emir, who led classmates on a side trip across Turkey later that week
To reach Baalbek, we entered Hezbollah territory. Hawkers mobbed us as we got off the bus, trying to sell us Hezbollah T-shirts bearing the same logo as dozens of yellow-green Hezbollah flags flying across the community. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is a political party with 2 representative seats in the national parliament.
Came across a car with some interesting stickers as well:
Next came lunch at a Lebanese winery, Caves de Ksara. There we celebrated the birthday of our classmate, Lauren, who was previously a grade school teacher turned management consultant.
In the evening, we had dinner with Lebanese entrepreneurs hosted by Christine Assouad Sfeir, owner of Lebanon’s largest Dunkin’ Donuts franchise. Dinner in Lebanon is an exercise in insane generosity. Food just keeps coming and coming and you regret taking any more than a small bit of anything, because it keeps you from trying whatever new dish has just come out. Very fun.
Day 6: We visited the headquarters of Solidere, a real estate development company chosen by the Lebanese government to help rebuild Beirut after 17 years of civil war. The general manager showed us spectacular plans for renovating the heart of the city.
In the afternoon, we took a bus, tram and cable car up to the Jeitta Grotto, an immense and gorgeous limestone cave. It’s a finalist to become one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
We had some free time to relax at the hotel before dinner. A bunch of us went to a nearby mall. I had “Malak Al Tawouk” (chicken kabab, fries, mayonnaise, and pickles wrapped in a pita). Christmas decorations were everywhere. So was Lebanese Santa Claus and elves. Acrobats performed for shoppers. I saw the movie AstroBoy at a local theatre with French and Lebanese subtitles.
That night we visited notable local night clubs. First was Element, famous for patrons dancing on tables. This was a lot of fun, until one of our classmates fell off a table (she was okay).
Next club was BO18. The creator of the club used to own a chalet numbered “BO18” during the civil war. He threw epic parties there for people who wanted to escape reality. When the war was over, he founded a night club to continue the tradition. Each night, the party rages until morning, when the roof of the club opens to reveal the sun, symbolizing rebirth.
As with Element, most of the dancing happened on chairs and tables.
Day 7: We had lunch at Byblos in Jbeil, with a fantastic view of the Mediterranean sea across an ancient harbor. After we toured ancient ruins from Phoenician, Roman and Crusader times.
At Byblos, civilizations built on top of one another. Below left shows a tower built by the Crusaders using Roman columns to fortify the tower walls. On the right are foundations from original Roman settlements.
In the evening, we had dinner with Michele Sison, the US Ambassador to Lebanon, who discussed the latest meetings with Obama and his views on the Lebanese region.
Day 8: We began the day in a meeting with Michel Suleiman, the President of Lebanon, at the Presidential Palace.
Next we met with Ghassan Moukheiber, a member of the Lebanese Parliament. He took us on a tour of the Parliament buildings. I got to pose as speaker of the house. We also saw Roman ruins of an ancient town square preserved beneath the Parliament buildings. Later than night in my hotel room, I saw Ghassan speaking on the national news.
After the parliament buildings we had time to take photos in the city square:
From there we visited Riad Salameh, governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon. He received acclaim during the recent financial crisis for no only averting disaster but creating a banking system where deposits went up by 20% as banks in other countries completely crashed.
Riad spoke with remarkable intelligence, modesty and humor. When I asked why he thought Lebanese business people were so successful around the world, he replied: “Here, you either work or you starve. There is no safety net. And you have to do everything while holding a gun in one hand, because every 6 months you get attacked. Such an environment will make you successful wherever you go.”
Reminder’s of Lebanon’s history since the civil war floated in the streets outside, metal detectors in buildings, military checkpoints, and full scale tanks parked by the side of the street.
As a continuation of Lebanon’s unending hospitality, we had dinner at the home of one of the trip leader’s Lebanese friends. Anthony Abou Nader (blue shirt in left photo below) studies electrical engineering at one of the top universities in Lebanon and shared a fantastic meal with us at his parent’s home.
Day 9: Early morning we met with Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir of the Maronite Church. The local TV and newspaper media covered out meeting for the evening news.
We then visited Berytech, a high tech incubator for Lebanese companies. I was impressed by the engineering and creative talent in the companies, they’re developing some exciting stuff.
In the afternoon, we met with the Dean and some senior professors at the American University in Beirut. The meeting presented yet another opportunity to be impressed by Beirut. I asked the professors their opinion of teaching Global Management at an MBA school (something Stanford has been trying to get its head around).
I thought the best response was “you can’t”. Having global perspective requires connecting with cultures outside your own. It can’t come just from a textbook. There is no India. There are a thousand Indias. You need to travel to see the world with your own eyes.
For the final meeting of our trip, we me with Prime Minister Saad Hariri, at his home next to the parliament buildings—which had the biggest living room I’ve ever seen:
Saad had never wanted to go into politics. However, after the assassination of his father in 2005 he inherited an obligation to his country he’s set to fulfill. Gracious, charismatic and humble, Saad was the perfect host with whom to complete our 9 day adventure.
At the final group dinner before the end of the trip features a comical roast by student participants—highlighting peculiarities and funny stories that had happened during our travels.
At the Beirut airport, our delegation said our goodbyes as we went our separate ways. For the rest of the winter holiday, members of our group toured Turkey, India, Greece, France, South American and what seems like an endless list of other destinations, finally returning to Stanford on January 4.
Undoubtedly, the trip has transformed my views on international business. In my previous careers, I’d travel the world over-focused on completing a set agenda for my company—too time starved to invest in understanding the history, culture or politics of the nations I entered.
Now my mindset is reversed.
