New MBA course crosses borders

Visiting Professor Murray Davidson leads his Dalhousie MBA class in the analysis of U.S. export regulations as they apply to their case study on Cross-Border Trade and Selling.

Murray Davidson’s curiosity was piqued by Faculty of Management's approach — an approach dubbed "Management without Borders."

Convinced by Ray Klapstein, Director of the Faculty’s School of Business Administration, Prof. Davidson signed on as guest lecturer for the Dalhousie MBA program, even though it requires him to commute from New York. He's  a "Professor without Borders."

“Cross-Border Trade and Selling and Regulatory Issues – Canada and the USA” is an unusual course for reasons other than the fact that it is taught by a professor who flies from New York. It's a single-case course written by Dr. Davidson with input from a U.S. lawyer and a health policy graduate student at Dartmouth College. Students do directed research to solve an actual case acting as though they are upper-middle management team members at the pharmaceutical giant, Merck.

The case is still evolving. It fits with the Management Without Borders focus of the Faculty as it crosses both geographic and political boundaries while dealing with weighty ethical and societal issues.

In addition to presenting an unusual case, this course is noteworthy for its unusual teaching arrangement. Dr. Davidson flies to Halifax once a month. Arriving on a Saturday, he arranges to meet with his students informally before the six-hour class on Monday. He also maintains a high level of contact by e-mail and phone with each of the students. Together, they track and discuss the current case-related news on a weekly basis.

And, next spring, the course will become truly international when selected members from the class will become advisors to Boston University MBA students who will be doing the same case-study.  The Dalhousie students will travel to Boston at least once to meet with their U.S. colleagues to provide orientation in the geography, politics and civil government of Canada.

“They will be providing valuable insights into the case and into Canada as most Americans see our country as a great big Massachusetts in the north.” said Dr. Davidson.

He's found some advantage to being a travelling professor, “The students don’t want to be a disappointment to the 'Fly-in from New York' and I don’t want to disappoint them as they are such a very good group of bright students.”

To date, he has nothing but praise for his students and the Faculty of Management; “One of my businesses is a L.A.-based consultancy in presentation skills and I rank communication skills as being essential to success in business. So I was overwhelmed when my students made their first in-class presentations — they were of such high quality. I am excited to be contributing to a world-class MBA program and I give a lot of credit to the Dalhousie School of Business for undertaking a course as innovative, experimental and costly as this one.”

“In my role as director, I'm always on the lookout for talented presenters with life experiences relevant to the students of our Commerce Co-op and MBA Programs," says Dr. Klapstein. "Professor Davidson brings his experience as the owner and chairman of a holding company in New York and Los Angeles, with principal businesses in investment management, commercial real estate, specialty consulting to the financial services sector, health care, and pipelines and power utilities to the classroom.  Our students are indeed fortunate to have this opportunity.”

Murray Davidson has been a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, Columbia University, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Vermont.  A graduate of the Dalhousie School of Public Administration, he served for a few years in his Halifax days as a special lecturer in both the School of Business Administration and the School of Public Administration.