2010 marks the second time that SDM students have participated in the Renault-Polytechnique HEC internship program. Students who hope to work in an international company in the future are able to experience and compare corporate cultures in Japan and France. Prof. Nakano and Prof. Ogi from SDM are mainly involved in the program, with the support of KBS.
As in 2009, three SDM students spent April in Paris, and continued their internship in Japan for three months from May. The program is offered during job hunting season, so only students who already are employed have the time to attend. The participants were highly satisfied and learned a lot. Compared to France, where companies strongly support the internationalization of students' education, it is unfortunate that Japanese companies force students to focus on job-hunting immediately after college graduation, thus hampering their self-development and depriving them of opportunities to study abroad. Hopefully Japanese companies will start this kind of program in the future. To provide more opportunities for our students, SDM will continue to collaborate with prestigious schools overseas.
Comments by the participants
Report by Akira Sato
Akira Sato (left) with co-researchers
Attending Renault-Nissan Multicultural Management and Company Performance Program gave me a glimpse of the engineering culture in France, which I found different from that of the US. I was lucky to have a research opportunity at the Renault-Nissan R&D facility, for my research theme is soft systems methodology. We experienced issues that global companies face, from the inside. Working with the French helped me to identify some issues. Another thing I learned was the importance of improving my system thinking skills by seeing other people's perspectives. When I said "This opinion is based on the difference between French and Japanese," I was told "or it could be individual differences."
Report by Mikito Tateishi
Mikito Tateishi (seventh from left)
SDM students are taught to see trees as well as the entire forest. What I learned as a participant in the program was that people with different cultural backgrounds see the trees and the forest differently. Around two weeks into the program, we had a chance to discuss how to build the process to systematize the information we had obtained thus far. During the discussion, each member felt that the others didn't see trees and the forest, and the discussion continued for three days. This experience helped us to understand each other better and enabled us to figure out how to operate as a team. I frequently noticed different cultural perspectives, not just within our team, but also in general. I am very grateful to have had this opportunity, and I recommend SDM students to participate.