Global trade in gray matter: CETAI helps managers and organizations in developing, emerging or transition countries improve their performance. (Global View).

HEC Montreal's Centre d'etudes en administration internationale (CETAI) was established in 1975 by HEC professors who wanted to create new teaching programs with an international focus, perform original research on international themes and gain field experience through international projects. The result of such work is essentially a program that feeds itself with better, more thorough knowledge of the world. And it can't help but be a great boon to Quebec students.

"The expertise that we gain can be transferred to both our research and teaching activities," says Martin Coiteux, CETAI's associate director for teaching and research.

CETAI is but one example of how management schools are benefiting from engaging in international affairs. Similar centres exist in most other provinces under the designation of Centres for International Business Studies (CIBS), and each of them is based in a university.

Through the various international projects its associates have been a part of, CETAI has increased its know-how while fulfilling the needs of its international clients. "This creates a synergy," Coiteux notes. "Our teaching becomes increasingly relevant and our research more and more attuned to the specific demands of international business."

CETAI has a mandate to coordinate the international curriculum offered under its various study programs and to train its students. It's also responsible for designing and implementing research and publication activities in international management and economics. Since its inception, CETAI has published more than 600 documents (research journals, monographs, special studies, colloquium proceedings, etc.) and performed many studies for national and international businesses, governments and organizations.

The Centre's final mandate is to set up and manage international projects and initiatives for companies, governments and university management institutes. These focus on various management functions and quite often involve training or improving the proficiency of senior managers. CETAI is active in more than 40 countries and in about a dozen industries, including energy, metallurgy, the environment, transportation, public administration, port management, banks and financial services, as well as in trainer training, institutional development and network management. The Centre has some 50 members, most of whom are professors at HEC Montreal.

While Coiteux focuses on teaching and research, CETAI is primarily responsible for the international component of the master's program in management. "We have a large number of activities, cooperation initiatives and agreements with other universities and with the business world," Coiteux adds. Furthermore, the Centre is a member of the PanAmerican Partnership for Business Education, which is headquartered in Manhattan. The Partnership conducts research and organizes seminars and conferences, in addition to developing courses, with a single focus: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the business challenges of Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The Centre's research covers anything related to international management and administration. "We do research that is strictly management oriented," Coiteux explains. "But much of our work also emphasizes themes such as marketing, finance, economics, human resources, strategy, and implementation."

In the field

CETAI often works hand in hand with organizations like CIDA, the World Bank and the African Development Bank, in addition to foreign private clients (that fund some of its international projects) and universities.

Such projects may involved organizing a three-day seminar to explain change management to the senior executives of a private company, or a 15-year commitment to install a comprehensive business administration program.

Such a business administration program was developed in Cameroon. Claude Desranleau, CETAI's director of operations, was deeply involved in the venture. "I spent three years over there helping to set up an MBA program, a copy centre and a modem library, and training librarians and providing refresher courses for professors," he notes. "Though a scholarship program, we were able to support a new generation of Cameroon professors who came to Canada to study." This kind of institutional support has long been a priority of CETAI, which has bandied similar projects in other countries and continues to do so.

Until very recently, French-speaking Africa has been the focus of the Centre's initiatives. Today, CETAI has a diversification strategy to strengthen its presence in Asia--especially in China, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Centre is active on four of the five continents.

In addition to institutional support projects, the Centre is also involved in training senior corporate executives. Desranleau likes to cite the example of Morocco, where CETAI is currently working with the Office de l'exploitation des ports du Maroc (Moroccan Port Authority, or ODEP). A full range of activities have been organized for 300 senior managers and executives, including training workshops and seminars provided both in Morocco and North America, organizational consulting services and the establishment of a large professional network linking them with North American port authorities.

The objective is to reorganize Morocco's local port authorities in an effort to decentralize operations and acquaint Moroccan executives with the industry's best management and operating practices. CETAI's partners for this project are Ports Canada, the U.S. Port Authority, the University of Montreal's Centre des transports and MIT.

As the ODEP will eventually be privatized, Moroccan managers trained in Canada are also being introduced to companies that have nothing to do with port management. In this way, they can learn all about such skills as human resources management. 'We take them around to Cascades, for instance, to show them a very special form of human resources management that is a far cry from the classic model," explains Desranleau. The North African managers can then improve the effectiveness of their own organizations by implementing some of these practices. This project is funded by the Moroccan government.

Most major contracts designed and managed by FETAI last from three to five years. When asked why some initiatives take longer than others, Desranleau points out that, during these large-scale projects, some objectives may be achieved, but new needs may arise in the process. The Centre often continues to monitor operations it helps develop at the request of a partner.

Once students have been trained, CETAI also carries out follow-up missions to monitor conditions and ensure that all has gone according to plan. Assessment forms are used to determine whether managers are applying the techniques they have been taught.

Desranleau admits that, because of these projects, the Centre is in a constant learning mode. His greatest satisfaction, however, comes from realizing that these projects provide his HEC trainers with a truly global laboratory. "These people don't only provide training, since they also learn about different cultures, of both the ethnic and corporate varieties" he concludes, adding that the meaningful experience is mutual.

And what trainers learn is also reflected in their research and in the examples that they provide students. "What we are doing, basically, is importing and exporting brainpower," Desranleau points out. "And I find that utterly fascinating."

Julie Demers ([e-mail]) is associate French editor of CMA Management magazine.