PSU - School of Business Administration

Free Market Business Development Institute (FMBDI)

"Helping managers, faculty, and students in transitional economies succeed through education, skill training, and business contacts."

Overview

The Free Market Business Development Institute (FMBDI) was founded in 1989 in response to the global movement toward market economies. FMBDI operates within the School of Business Administration at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

FMBDI was a pioneer in the emerging market countries of the former Soviet Union and East Europe before expanding its programs to Asia and Latin America. FMBDI recognized early that to successfully make the transition to a free market economy, business managers needed training and university faculty needed retraining and curriculum assistance. In addition, both groups needed exposure and linkages to Western businesses, universities, and other institutions.

FMBDI’s initial offerings were Executive MBA certificate programs. Beginning in 1995, FMBDI expanded operations to include a variety of executive programs, faculty development programs, and programs for English-competent undergraduate business students in more than 20 emerging market countries. Today, FMBDI is a major force in international executive education, with many diverse programs around the globe funded by tuition and other fees paid by foreign businesses and governments for their managers and by U.S. government grants.

Mission

FMBDI’s mission is to help managers, faculty, and students in transitional economies succeed through education, skill training, and business contacts.

In pursuing this mission, FMBDI also seeks to align its activities with the business development and international trade objectives of Oregon business and governmental institutions.

To meet its ambitious mission, FMBDI maintains the following four strategies:

Establish FMBDI business training programs and university partnerships in transitional economies throughout the world.
Develop individual and institutional exchanges and linkages of managers, entrepreneurs, business students, business educators, and other professionals.
Provide business education by presenting seminars and workshops in transitional economies throughout the world.
Organize international conferences and trade missions focused on specific industries and transitional economies.

Funding

FMBDI funding comes from U.S. government and foundation grants, program tuition and trade mission fees. Granting agencies include the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, , U.S. Information Agency, U.S. Department of Education, The Meyer Memorial Trust, Rockefeller Family & Associates, US Bank, and various corporate sponsors.

Programs

FMBDI operates the following programs. A more detailed description of each of these programs follows:

Executive Certificate Programs
General and Industry-Specific Trade-Training Missions
Industry-Specific International Conferences
Emerging market university business faculty development programs
General and Industry-Specific Trade-Training Missions
Special Business Seminar Programs
International Business Certificate (IBC) program for English-speaking undergraduates

History

Business Education and Schools in Russia

FMBDI’s first program was The Russian American School of Business Administration (RASBA), founded in 1989, and the leading nationwide business school program in Russia in the 1990’s, having offered Executive MBA and Executive Certificate and Trade Mission programs at nine Russian sites.

Expansion to Latin America

In 1995, FMBDI expanded its programming to transitional economies in Latin America. Certificate programs have been offered in Mexico, Chile, Columbia, Peru, and Honduras in cooperation with local universities. Currently, FMBDI is working to expand PSU’s Internet-based eMBA program in Latin America.

Expansion to Asia

In 1996, FMBDI expanded its programs to Asia. In China, FMBDI established working relationships with universities, World Trade Centers and provincial international chambers of commerce in Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Shantou and other cities. FMBDI also developed program partners in Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Central and Eastern Europe

In the early 1990s, FMBDI conducted a variety of instructional and institution-building programs in the transitional economies of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania.

Arab/Islamic World

FMBDI is currently working to expand its programs with university partners in Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East.

Program Detail

FMBDI currently offers two separate certificate programs for transitional economy managers: and Executive Management Program (EMP) and an International Business and International Trade (IBIT) program.

FMBDI’s Executive Management Program (EMP) certificate, designed for countries just moving to free markets, provides the basic knowledge and skills to compete in a free market economy. FMBDI selects experienced American professors to visit program sites to teach four to eight practical executive-level business courses designed for the current country situation. The EMP courses include:

How to Develop a Business Plan
How to Manage People & Organizations
Marketing: What it is and how to do it
International Business and Trade
Finance, Budgeting, & Cost Control
Managing Modern Business Organizations
Business Strategy
Supply and Logistics Management

The International Business and International Trade (IBIT) certificate is a five-course program designed for companies that are beginning to explore international business and trade opportunities with particular emphasis on the US. The courses assume basic knowledge of business practice in market economies. The model ITIB program consists of five courses:

International Marketing
International Negotiation
Doing Business with U.S. Companies
International Finance and Trade Mechanics
International Business Strategy and Planning

At the completion of each program, the managers receive a Certificate from Portland State University.

Program Staffing

FMBDI recruits and selects instructors who are experts in marketing, banking, management, government, international business and other business areas. Most of the faculty have taught overseas and are considered experts in helping companies and managers in transitional economies. The faculty consists of professors from Portland State and other universities, and experienced business professionals.

Program Course Structure

All courses are taught with English lectures, bilingual overheads, and continuous or simultaneous translation. All students are provided with side-by-side English and local-language copies of lecture notes, Powerpoint slides and overheads. Materials are adjusted to reflect current economic realities in each country. Each course is taught from a practical, “real-world” perspective.

Teaching methods include discussions and country-based case studies. Experiential learning is used to help develop management skills as well as business knowledge.

General and Industry-Specific Trade-Training Missions in the U.S.

Since 1989, FMBDI has hosted over 400 graduates of its foreign programs in Portland, Oregon, mostly from Russia, Poland and Hungary. These General trade-Training Missions are designed for foreign managers looking for a unique opportunity to meet interested businessmen, learning about Western business practices, and gain a first-hand understanding of American culture and society.

FMBDI also offers Industry-Specific Trade-Training Missions tailored to meet the business interest of foreign managers within one particular industry. These missions combine interaction with American managers, visits to companies, and seminars on current industry topics.

During the visit to Portland, managers meet with American industrial counterparts interested in doing business with their country. Industries that have been the focus of pervious missions include Food Processing, Banking, Commercial trade (Import and Export), Government Administration, Wood Products, Fisheries, Water, and Gold Mining.

Through company visits and intensive seminars, the managers have a unique opportunity to gain practical knowledge, learn new skills, and meet with experienced American managers. During the visits, American managers discuss their business practices and the foreign managers see firsthand how Americans design, manufacture and market their products. More than 200 American companies have participated in these programs.

International Conferences

Frequently, FMBDI organizes industry-specific conferences with multinational presenters to coincide with trade missions.

Overseas Business Seminar Program

In addition to its certificate programs, FMBDI presents specialized seminars and workshops on business in a free-market economy to university faculty, enterprise executives, single enterprises, government officials, and entrepreneurs.

Portland State University, School of Business Administration

Portland State University is one of three major state universities in the state of Oregon. It has an enrollment of 22,000 students. The School of Business Administration is the largest in the state. Each year, it graduates more than 650 undergraduates, 125 Master of Business Administration AND 45 Master of International Management students. See www.sba.pdx.edu

FMBDI

Earl Molander, FMBDI Executive Director and Professor of Business Administration at Portland State University, founded FMBDI in 1989. He has been actively involved in international programs since 1982. His area of specialization is business-government-society relations in transitional economies. Professor Molander has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MBA from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Business from the University of California-Berkeley. He is author or co-author of 5 books, 25 articles , and 35 academic papers on various subjects relating to business-government relations, business ethics, international relations and international business.

Contact Information

Mailing Address:
Dr. Earl A. Molander
Portland State University
Free Market Business Development Institute
School of Business Administration
Po Box 751
Portland, OR 97207

Phone: 503 725-5094

FAX: 503-725-5850

email: emolander@yahoo.com

School of Business Administration, Portland State University