DEFINING AND ASSESSING POTENTIAL RISKS FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS IMMERSIONS
Are you sending your students on a global business immersion?
Imagine traveling to a foreign land for an academic or business immersion and then facing unexpected challenges. That’s where our team comes in knowing how to navigate through obstacles.
Exploring and discovering the world is one of life’s greatest joys. Still, when it comes to business schools’ international immersions, it’s important to understand how best to assess and manage potential risks.
With more than 18 years of experience in academic travel and business immersions, we have learned a lot, from navigating the intricacies of cultural differences to facing social unrest and dealing with health crises.
Our safety and risk management team has a systematic approach to assessing and mitigating any potential risks, and we have response strategies if the unexpected does happen.
That’s where our Risk and Safety Manager, Monica Villanueva, comes in. If you don’t know her, Monica is a key team member behind our academic travel programs. Her expertise and guidance ensure that we maintain the highest standards of safety and security for our traveling students and faculty, as well as our staff, even while facing demanding high seasons of academic travel, like our peak weeks of spring break.
With an impressive 50 successful travel programs across four continents delivered in March alone when Universities went on Spring Break, it’s clear that our safety department needs to be laser-focused and global-minded. We are committed to keeping our operations safe and smooth no matter where they take us.
Let’s look at some of the unexpected circumstances we had to deal with during the first quarter of 2023.
JANUARY 2023 - Social unrest in Peru (Lima & Cusco)
”I loved both Austral guides they were both amazing and so much fun to get to know! Overall, Austral. exceeded my expectations going into this trip I was a little worried at first, but everything came out so fantastic, and I had an amazing time”
Madison, a Student participant from the University of Oklahoma MBA January 2023
This program was supposed to travel to Lima and Santiago and had to pivot to Santiago and Viña del Mar.
“We had to pivot away from Lima, Peru, at a very late stage in planning. Maria did a fantastic job setting up the new itinerary for Costa Rica. The proposals were prepared efficiently”
Jonathan Dart
Associate Director of Executive/Graduate Programs
Saint Joseph University.
This program was supposed to travel to Lima and Panama City and had to pivot to Panama City and San Jose, Costa Rica.
FEBRUARY 2023 - Sudden Airline operations shut down
FEBRUARY 2023 - Flooding in San Francisco
“Both David and Eugeny were amazing coordinators of the whole experience. They made sure all our needs were met and all our requests answered, and they did all this with a smile. They were able to make us feel safe and taken care of. It was an incredibly difficult trip to organize, especially with the airline company going bankrupt in the middle of the trip. They showed resiliency and adaptation in difficult times of change. And overall, they were fun to be with. Thank you so much”
Tatiana, EMBA Candidate participating in the Concordia University February 2023 Colombia Global Learning Experience.
March 2023 - Strikes
MARCH 2023 - Terror attack Tel Aviv
MARCH 2023 - Earthquakes
MARCH 2023 - Terror warning Vienna
Amidst the bustling high season during University’s Spring break travels in March, our program managers and local teams were met with an array of incidents across four continents, adding a layer of complexity to our operations. Vigilance and quick action were paramount to ensure the safety and the ultimate successful outcome of all of our programs.
From unexpected disruptions to unforeseeable circumstances, our programs continued successfully with minor disruptions thanks to monitoring, carefully designed contingency plans, and constant communications between our university partners, program managers, and the risk and safety team.
As an organization with a global reach, vigilance is paramount to ensure the safety and welfare of participants in our programs. Our risk management team leaves no stone unturned, watching unfolding socio-political events, unanticipated natural disasters, and potential health hazards. We adopt a proactive approach by continuously reviewing our internal policies and protocols, conducting training for our personnel, and exploring different scenarios to be prepared for any situation.
Our systematic response plans help us handle unforeseen challenges confidently and effectively.
Our program coordinators and managers know not to overlook any incident. We trained our on-the-ground teams to meticulously capture and document every hiccup with accuracy so that we can take advantage of all the critical details we learn.
Effective risk management and maintaining high-quality client standards go hand in hand and require ongoing learning and training. That’s why our team has invested significantly in developing our internal LMS platform. Led by Bernardita Henriquez R., our job function training help transfer knowledge and promote continued learning and knowledge sharing throughout the organization. By learning from incidents and investing in periodical updates and other ongoing training, we are better equipped to mitigate risks and uphold the excellence that our clients know and expect from us.
What our internal LMS platform looks like
Over time, this helps us build a comprehensive database of incidents that we can review to uncover trends and identify potential threats. All incidents get reported and stored efficiently in our system, and our managers take a meticulous approach to reviewing and analyze this data so that we can finetune our risk management strategies, take preventive measures and prepare responses to different scenarios in future programs.
Statistic report and breakout by type from the incidents reported by our operations teams on the ground from 50 programs running during the month of March 2023
Most incidents we document may seem mundane – usually minor health complications or commonplace accidents. Luckily, the more severe safety concerns are a rarity in our records. However, delving deeper into the data allows us to pinpoint which regions demand heightened attention regarding specific incidents. By segmenting the categories, we can effectively strategize and plan for any potential risks on the horizon.
When embarking on an academic travel program with us, you can be sure that Monica and her team have been monitoring and walking our local operations teams through what these risks may be—so that everyone is prepared for unexpected events and program participants can enjoy a dynamic learning experience no matter where your academic travel group is headed!
