University of Michigan

Cultivating Local and Global Leaders

Support for global explorers of the Corporation in Society

A video highlighting the students’ reactions to the latest visit to Asia will be available later this year. View the video from an earlier trip.

Over the last five years, Professor Jim Walsh’s class, “The Corporation in Society,” has helped undergraduates examine the purposes and accountability of the firm in society. Questions about a corporation’s responsibility to build a better society at home and abroad figure prominently in the class.

The course -- recently ranked by students as one of the best on campus -- has served as an ideal prelude to Walsh-led, donor-supported student trips to Asia. There, students have seen first-hand how business is conducted in another part of the world and have gained an appreciation for just how business links and affects different cultures. In a compelling video, students shared what they learned following a recent trip.

The trips have been made possible by the generosity of donors. The David B. Hermelin family established the David B. Hermelin Endowed Fund for the study of Corporate Social Responsibility in 2006 to support international learning opportunities for Ross School undergraduates. Inspired by Professor Walsh’s class, the family made the gift in honor of the late David Hermelin (BBA ’58, HLLD ’00), former U.S. Ambassador to Norway and a devoted U-M fundraising volunteer. The travel has also been funded through the commitment of Tom Jones (BBA ’68, CERTT EDUC ’70, MBA ’71), whose 2005 transformational gift provides resources in support of action-based learning opportunities for undergraduates.

This spring, Walsh traveled to Hong Kong and mainland China with 25 students. Among their stops, students visited such businesses as China’s largest social networking and internet gaming company, its leading supplier of household white goods, as well as a global manufacturer of such clothing lines as Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie and Fitch and a leading construction hardware company. They met the companies’ managers and asked questions on topics ranging from leadership and corporate governance to global competition and social welfare. The U-M delegation also visited the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as well as a number of social enterprises in the Hong Kong area. A large and enthusiastic alumni group welcomed them to Hong Kong.

“It’s a privilege to be able to take our students inside these incredible businesses on the other side of the world , to let them see their operations first-hand and to give them the opportunity to ask any question that comes to mind,” said Walsh, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and the Gerald and Esther Carey Professor of Business Administration. “I am convinced that this experience will help them lead with compassion and wisdom in the years ahead.”

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