When their classes began a year ago, the Israeli students claimed they were bad negotiators: They were too impatient. Arabs are better at it, they said. No, replied the Arabs, you Israelis are real tough bargainers.
Such were the memories recounted last week by students and faculty of the two-year executive MBA program set up last year by Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and Tel Aviv University’s Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration.
While Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was lamenting the dismal state of the Arab-Israel peace process on her Middle East visit, the folks involved in the MBA program were relatively upbeat about their innovative effort aimed at Arabs and Jews.
Three years ago, when the planning was under way and the Arab-Israel peace process was still limned with hope, “We thought this was an ideal time to do this,” recalled Donald Jacobs, dean of the Kellogg school. It was the first of several new overseas programs planned by Kellogg.
Out of 40 people taking part in the program, which includes a week of living together at Kellogg’s campus facilities in Evanston, there are six Arabs–three from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and three from Jordan.
The Israelis pay about $16,000 a year for the classes, while all of the costs for the Palestinians are covered by two large Israeli companies, Koor Industries, and a subsidiary, Mashav Co.
There have been personal differences and problems, for sure. At the last minute last year, several prospective Egyptian students dropped out, stirred by Arab-Israeli problems. Jordanian newspapers refused to carry advertisements for the program last year and only one agreed this year.
A real challenge has been keeping the Arab participants up-to-date when Israel closes its borders, sometimes for long periods, after an Arab act of violence.
The solution has proved to have greater significance than just professional, businesslike acumen, explained Gad Ariav, who directs the Tel Aviv part of the program.
With the program divided into small study groups, each group had the responsibility of updating the blockaded Arabs by telephone, fax or whatever means possible. And the groups did their jobs, Ariav said.
For Palestinian businessman Walid Najjab, taking part in the program has meant visiting the homes of Israeli colleagues, though he had never been to an Israeli’s home. Noa Shacham, an Israeli in the program, had a parallel discovery in the last year.
But the things that most concern Najjab and the other Arab professionals in the program were the same mundane issues always on Shacham’s mind: her job, her career, her day-to-day doings.
That was very reassuring to Shacham, who has rarely met Arab professionals on a normal, workday basis. It told her that they have the same very human drives and similar goals.
An affirmative act: Others may be hesitant, fearful of the long-brewing controversy that haunts affirmative action efforts among U.S. firms, but not Northbrook-based Allstate Insurance Co.
The company recently sent out its latest figures for minority and female hiring and staffing levels, showing it ahead of national averages in every instance.
These are not numbers that often fly from company fax machines. Getting them can sometimes take months of legal wrangling.
Allstate also trumpeted its diversity index, a twice-yearly survey conducted among its 50,000 employees nationwide. The survey asks how workers are treated on the job, and how they treat customers of different backgrounds.
The results are used to help managers learn what takes place on the job, and they are also a measure of how well managers meet company goals, said Joan Crockett, senior vice president for human resources at Allstate in Northbrook.
“We are not trying to get inside of somebody’s head,” she said. “What we are trying to relate is that when you deal with our customers and fellow employees, this is what we expect of you.”
Allstate’s openness is not all altruistic, however. It not only doesn’t have to hide behind its numbers, but says that having a diverse work force is one way to reach customers.
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Steve Franklin can be reached at hourlywage@aol.com.
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