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The long-term prospects for business education in Cuba are undoubtedly bright following the warming of relations between Washington and Havana. But how quickly such opportunities will unfold for those schools with connections to the Caribbean island state is a tougher question to answer.
在美国与古巴关系日益升温之后，古巴商学院教育的长期前景无疑是光明的。但有一个问题更难回答：对于那些与这个加勒比海岛国有联系的商学院而言，这些机遇将多快展开？
For US business schools, the opening up of access to Cuba has been an unmitigated success in one regard, according to professors such as Stephan Meier at Columbia Business School in New York. His school is one of several to have taken advantage of the ability for US-based academic institutions to visit Cuba for study trips. In fact, his biggest headache has been running enough trips to satisfy the demand from students, particularly those with US passports who would not otherwise be able to travel abroad.
据纽约哥伦比亚大学商学院(Columbia Business School)的斯蒂芬•梅尔(Stephan Meier)等教授称，对于美国商学院而言，在某个意义上，打开通往古巴的道路是一种不折不扣的成功。迄今有几所商学院利用了美国学术机构能够组织赴古巴游学的规定，梅尔所在的学院就是其中之一。实际上，最让他头疼的问题就是组织足够多的游学之旅以满足学生的需求，尤其是那些持有美国护照、否则将无法前往古巴的学生。
In three years, Prof Meier has taken 120 students to Cuba. But he could have taken many more, he says. “Cuba is exotic,” he explains.
3年里，梅尔教授已安排120名学生到古巴。但他表示，他原本可以安排更多学生的，他解释道：“古巴有着异域风情。”
Downtown from Columbia’s Manhattan campus, NYU Stern has run a similar programme called Doing Business in Cuba. This was the product of lobbying by Stern’s Association of Black and Hispanic Students, and proved somewhat complicated to organise.
从哥伦比亚大学商学院曼哈顿校区向市中心走，纽约大学斯特恩商学院(NYU Stern)开展了一个类似的项目，名为在古巴做生意(Doing Business in Cuba)。这是斯特恩商学院黑人及西语裔学生协会(Association of Black and Hispanic Students)游说的结果，事实证明，组织起来有些复杂。
To date, the 84 Stern MBA students who have taken the trip to Havana have only been able to do so thanks to connections provided by Ludwig Foundation, a not-for-profit body created to build links between the US and Cuba, primarily in the arts.
迄今，已到哈瓦那游学的84名斯特恩商学院MBA学员之所以能去古巴，只是因为非盈利组织路德维希基金会(Ludwig Foundation)提供的关系，该组织创建的目的是加强美国与古巴的联系，主要是在艺术领域。
Emily Goldfrank is one of these students. She has travelled widely, spending time in Argentina and Australia as part of her MBA studies, but claims Cuba — “the one forbidden place” — offered a particular value because it operated so differently to other countries. “How and what we learnt was of a different variety because the whole business environment was so different,” she recalls, adding that this was in itself valuable in that it showed the challenges of operating in such a different economy.
艾米丽•戈德弗兰克(Emily Goldfrank)是其中一名学员。她游历广泛，作为MBA学习的一部分，曾在阿根廷和澳大利亚待过一段时间，但她称，古巴“这块禁地”提供特别的价值，因为其运作模式与其他国家非常不同。“我们学习的方法以及学到的知识很不同，因为整个商业环境差异很大，”她回忆道。她补充称，这一点本身就极具价值，因为它展示了在一个如此不同的经济体开展经营所面临的挑战。
The pace of change in Cuba, where no business school yet exists, is a subject of debate. Tom Pugel, vice-dean of MBA programmes at Stern, is more confident than many of his academic peers and predicts that the country will have its own business school in five years.
古巴的变革速度是各方辩论的一个主题。目前，该国还没有商学院。斯特恩商学院MBA课程副主任汤姆•普杰尔(Tom Pugel)比很多学者同行更有信心，他预测，古巴将在5年后拥有自己的商学院。
“There are already people who are ready to work with that transition,” he claims. “They are well positioned to be the leaders of a business school.”
“有人已准备好利用这种过渡，”他辩称，“他们处于有利地位，能够成为商学院的领导者。”
Carl Voigt, professor of clinical management and organisation at USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles, who led the first US business school delegation to Cuba in 2000 and has since taken about 1,000 students on study visits, is less optimistic.
在洛杉矶，南加州大学马歇尔商学院(USC Marshall School of Business)临床管理和组织教授卡尔•福格特(Carl Voigt)却不那么乐观，他曾在2000年率领第一支美国商学院代表团到古巴，此后已带领约1000名学生到古巴游学。
“I feel Cubans would be a little bit suspect of plans to set up programmes in Cuba because they would want to know where the money came from,” he says.
“我认为，古巴方面对于在该国开设商学院课程的计划有点疑虑，因为他们想知道资金来自何处，”他表示。
“They are not anyone’s puppet and they do not want to be played.
“他们不是任何人的傀儡，他们不希望被玩弄。”
“Money has been earmarked in the US to help Cuban students study here, but it is felt that there are people in the US government who would use that as a way of brainwashing students.”
“在美国，已有人安排资金，准备帮助古巴学生在这里学习，但古巴有人认为，美国政府的一些人将借此机会给学生洗脑。”
There have been opportunities for Cubans to study freely in Europe and the US, Prof Voigt notes, but there has not been a lot of take up of these schemes because students in Cuba lack the funds to study overseas. Thus for the moment, the traffic is likely to be mainly the other way.
福格特教授指出，迄今古巴人有机会到欧美自由学习，但报名人数不多，因为古巴学生没有钱到海外留学。因此目前主要是外国人到古巴留学。
Those US students lucky enough to gain a place on Columbia’s Cuba programme have been able to meet some of the country’s small but growing population of entrepreneurs, who are currently restricted to a limited number of service sectors such as restaurants and hotels.
有幸获得哥伦比亚大学商学院古巴游学机会的美国学生，可以见到数量不多但与日俱增的古巴企业家，他们目前被局限于数量有限的服务行业，例如餐厅和酒店。
Visiting students have also been able to see first hand what an economy looks like without the capitalist trappings of widespread advertising and credit. “They learn that in a market economy we take a lot of aspects for granted,” Prof Meier says.
访问学生还能直接见证：在一个没有铺天盖地的广告和信贷等资本主义特征的情况下，一个经济体会是什么样子。梅尔教授表示：“他们意识到，在市场经济中，我们把很多东西都想当然了。”
Cuba’s newly empowered entrepreneurs would be target candidates should a school like Columbia open in the country, although Prof Meier does not see this happening in the near future.
如果像哥伦比亚这样的商学院在古巴设立校区的话，新近被给予活动空间的古巴企业家将是目标候选人，尽管梅尔教授认为这种情况不会在短期内出现。
“I guess we are a long way from teaching an executive programme in Cuba to Cuban managers,” he says. “But they could definitely do with some business school education.”
“我认为，我们距离在古巴向古巴的管理人员讲授高管课程还很远，”他表示，“但他们肯定需要一些商学院教育。”
Although the US has by far the most developed business education market, and almost all the top business schools, it faces significant competition, particularly from Europe.
尽管美国拥有遥遥领先的最发达的商学教育市场以及几乎所有最顶级的商学院，但美国面临激烈竞争，尤其是来自欧洲的竞争。
Barcelona-based Esade, for instance, has been working directly with Cuba’s ministry of higher education on Forgec, a European Commission funded project to strengthen the managerial capabilities of Cuban institutions.
例如，总部位于巴塞罗那的Esade正就Forgec项目直接与古巴高等教育部合作，该项目由欧盟委员会(European Commission)出资，旨在增强古巴企业的管理能力。
One of the key goals of the project is to establish long-term co-operation in management education between Cuba and Europe. Whether or not this would mean a school such as Esade opening a campus in Cuba is not clear, however, since the project plans to achieve its aims in part by improving the quality of Cuban universities and the ability to run business education programmes.
该项目的关键目标之一是在古巴和欧洲之间建立长期管理教育合作。不过，尚不清楚这是否意味着Esade等商学院会在古巴开设校区，因为该项目在一定程度上计划通过提高古巴大学的质量以及开办商学教育课程的能力来实现其目标。
Schools in Latin American countries also sense an opportunity to serve Cuba as and when it is ready to allow business schools to open.
拉美国家的商学院也意识到，一旦古巴准备允许开设商学院，它们将有机会为古巴服务，
Carlos Martí Sanchis, academic director at Barna Business School in the Dominican Republic, claims that Caribbean and central American schools like his have expertise in subjects that would likely be of interest to Cuban business students, such as tourism. “Big and prestigious schools will have advantages but I think it will be a great opportunity for medium and small business schools that can have a better fit to the Cuban reality in different dimensions such as cultural, economic, idiomatic and business sectors similarities,” he says.
多米尼加共和国巴纳商学院(Barna Business School)教务主任卡洛斯•马蒂•桑吉斯(Carlos Martí Sanchis)称，像他所在学院这样的加勒比和中美洲商学院，在古巴商学院学生可能感兴趣的一些学科上具备专长，例如旅游业。他表示：“大型知名商学院将具备优势，但我认为，这将是中小商学院的一个巨大机会，它们将在不同方面更加切合古巴现实，例如文化、经济、语言习惯和商界相似之处。”
However, US-based schools are not giving up hope. Brandeis International Business School, for instance, has not just taken students and faculty to Cuba as a part of its Hassenfeld Overseas Fellows Immersion Program. It has also hosted Cuban visitors on its campus.
然而，美国商学院没有放弃希望。例如布兰迪斯大学国际商学院(Brandeis International Business School)不仅把学生和教师带到古巴，作为哈森菲尔德海外研究员沉浸式课程(Hassenfeld Overseas Fellows Immersion Program)的一部分。该学院还曾在本校校园接待古巴客人。
These include the founder of Cuba’s first private MBA programme, run by the Roman Catholic Church, the director of The Center for the Study of the Cuban Culture + Economy and a distinguished professor from the University of Havana law school.
其中包括古巴首个私立MBA课程（由罗马天主教会(Roman Catholic Church)开办）创办人、古巴文化经济研究中心(The Center for the Study of the Cuban Culture + Economy)主任，以及哈瓦那大学(University of Havana)法学院的一名知名教授。
Bruce Magid, dean of Brandeis, is looking forward to the future. “For academic institutions in the US, particularly business schools willing to make the first move, the opportunity exists to have a profound impact on the next stage of US-Cuba economic relations,” he says. “This is more than just an opportunity. It is a strategic imperative for business schools to make this move. Opening Cuba’s borders to trade and investment is the best way to ensure Cuba prospers.”
布兰迪斯大学国际商学院院长布鲁斯•马吉德(Bruce Magid)对未来充满期待。“对于美国学术机构而言，特别是那些愿意率先行动的商学院，目前存在的机遇将对下一阶段的美古经济关系产生深远影响，”他表示，“这不仅仅是一种机遇。从战略上讲，商学院做出此举势在必行。在贸易和投资方面推动古巴开放，是确保古巴繁荣的最佳方式。”
Having said that, Mr Magid believes that efforts to build ties with Cuba are part of a broader commitment that Brandeis needs to demonstrate towards the whole of Latin America.
话虽如此，马吉德认为，与古巴建立联系的努力是布兰迪斯大学国际商学院需要向整个拉美地区展示的整体承诺的一部分。
In the past year, the school has announced two memorandums of understanding for joint degree programmes with Eafit in Medellín, Colombia and Insper in São Paulo, Brazil, all of which have added to the school’s roster of partnerships in the region.
过去一年期间，该学院宣布了两份有关联合学位课程的谅解备忘录，一个是与哥伦比亚麦德林市行政、金融和技术大学(Eafit)，另一个是与巴西圣保罗Insper商学院，这些项目扩大了布兰迪斯大学国际商学院在该地区的合作。
For now, Cuba will have to wait.
就目前而言，古巴只能再等一等。
