Short Story II
During my internship at RIAS in the summer of 2012, I studied Dutch cultural perceptions related to America’s Progressive Era in 1900. Truthfully, not an everyday subject for someone that decided shortly after his internship that he was not going to pursue an academic career. Still, aside from the amazing practical experiences I gained at RIAS, even this case study maintains some relevance today.
When at RIAS, I was finishing two bachelors: one in History and one in Philosophy. Not long thereafter, I realized that I wanted to work in business, preferably for a big multinational corporation allowing for international experience, which led me to do a Master in General Management and an exchange with a university in Hong Kong. Following two years of working as a Project Manager at various companies, I joined Shell as an HR Manager back in 2016. This is the company I’ve worked for ever since.
I have held various HR roles that saw me exposed to a plethora of different businesses, regions and countries. In my current role, I work as the HR lead on big Shell Acquisitions & Divestments – a challenging yet very exciting space. Shell has a large footprint in the US, and I work with American colleagues on a daily basis. Admittedly, the Progressive Era is not a go-to conversation topic, yet writing this piece made me reflect on the fact that traces of the typical ways of thinking the Dutch had about the Americans back then – and vice versa – can still be seen today. Whether it is only my RIAS internship or having studied History at large I don’t know, but I firmly believe that deeply appreciating cultural differences and understanding where they stem from, makes you an ever more effective leader in even the most corporate environment.
So there you have it. Even for someone that went on to do something completely different, RIAS has helped hone relevant skills and capabilities!
Short Story I
After my internship at the Roosevelt Study Center in the summer of 2012, I gradually started to get the feeling that I was looking in the wrong direction. My research at the RSC was about the perception of notable Dutchmen around 1900 on America’s Progressive Era. Though I still think America is one of the most interesting countries in the world – I still follow the American news intensively – I realized the other side of the Pacific might be at least as interesting.
That is why I was very glad when I heard about the Netherlands-Asia Honours Summer School – a privately and publicly funded initiative, it was originally initiated by McKinsey & Company and Delft and Utrecht universities. Once accepted, I spent seven weeks in Asia in the summer of 2013 with seventy-five other students. We received the task to develop different projects according to our interests, and I – as part of a small group – was able to write an in-depth article for the Dutch Financial Times on China’s economic developments and re-shoring manufacturing. This is something particularly relevant to the U.S., in the context of the Reshoring Initiative. I had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shanghai and talk to several important CEOs and policy-makers about Chinese and Asian developments. In addition, we had the chance to follow summer courses at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
It was truly amazing to obtain these glimpses into the Chinese society of today. America, just like Europe, has its fair share of large cities – but having Chinese people tell you that Hong Kong is not really a large city because it only has seven million inhabitants is quite a shock. Not to mention the fact that Shanghai, with its twenty-three million people, accounts for one-and-a-half times the population of the Netherlands. However, the real Asian experience began when I visited the inland city of Chengdu (14 million people) with two other students. Not a single person spoke English – not even basic words like ‘airport’ or ‘taxi’, or even ‘yes’ – and the locals in this impressive ‘world city’ (honestly!) were so unused to the sight of tall Dutch people that instead of trying to communicate, all they wanted was to take pictures of us, either surreptitiously or right in our faces.
One of the aims of the project is to bring more Dutch students to Asia, and to China in particular. I think the general impression most of us gained is that China – though something of a cliché – is not a threat but an opportunity. There is so much still to be done, and Westerners can do a lot to contribute.
Having finished my BA in History (International Relations) and Philosophy I have now taken on a more practical Masters, namely Business Administration. In the future I would still look forward to working in the United States for a few years, but being employed in China now feels like an even more interesting challenge!
