I was impressed by Mathew’s presentation for a couple of reasons.  First, it was a very smooth presentation.  Mathew had a slick presentation of his life and current job position, and he also flowed well with any questions that were asked during.  He had a lot of helpful insight into the “Real World” and was altogether quite positive and hopeful for our futures.

I was hoping to see Casey speak and was somewhat let down that she was unable to make it to Sioux City.  Mathew managed to do a decent job at speaking on her behalf. I was skeptical going into the presentation.  Honestly, I saw it as two individuals from uber wealthy and well connected families come in and talk about how they advanced their careers.  While those aspects weren’t really discussed, I feel that they may have played a factor in the success of both Mathew and Casey.

This is a classic tale of the rich preying on the poor for monetary gain.  Nothing new in our modern society.

This film shows the true corruption and how it is felt all they way down the chain.  Rich pharmaceutical companies issue testing of experimental drugs on the expendable masses of Africa.  This is accomplished with one thing in mind: Money.

The powerful pharmaceutical companies offer what they call “free medical assistance” to the 3rd world county.  A PR facade shades the true motive:  free testing.  The pharmaceutical companies have enormous cash flows and are protected by governments and big buyers alike, free testing on Africans means reliable products for the 1%.  The truth is known by too few, with little resources (connections and again, money) to make an effective effort against the pharmaceutical companies.  Any valiant attempt ends in silencing of said individuals.  The struggle for power was won long ago, ye who hath all the money can haveth whatever they please.

Now in the case of this movie, Justin uses what connections he has as a diplomat of the U.K. to make a dent in the pharmaceutical consortium cover up.  He lacked significant monetary funds but was able to make the evil deeds of KDH publicly known.  Unfortunately it cost him his live, and his wife’s.

Onto a ligher note.  Some aspects of the movie tying into what we have discussed in class are as follows.

There was a significant amount of “saving face” happening throughout the film.  Moments like Justin and Sandy viewing Tessa’s corpse, to the various times where one character found out the dark secrets of another and simply pretended to never have heard it in the first place.

The notion that women do not belong speaking business among men was made apparent towards the beginning of the film when Tessa was confronting the African and British associates about KDH and their drug dypraxa.

Bribery and blackmail was consistent throughout the film as well.  This is how business is done not only in Africa but in Europe too.

The Mother going to the Yu residence to figure out some information about the killer of the police man.  As she sits down with Mrs. Yu and her daughter, she very quickly realizes that  the thief who took the sword is in fact the daughter.  The female mercenary subliminally tells the daughter that she knows it that she stole the sword, and that there will be consequences.  This was all happening while Mrs. Yu was sitting there, blindly drinking her coffee.

Women have been constantly raising the bar when it comes to business success.  Here in America and some European countries, businesswomen thrive.  This notion is encouraging to say the least, but success does not come without conflict.  There are still many countries where women are held to a lower standard compared to men.  Some are restricted in the work place, some countries do not even allow women to hold a similar paying job as any man.  With this in mind, it would be foolish to think that a MNC could find success in any part of the world with a female doing the negotiating.

Many countries in the Middle East have harsh laws/regulations for women in general.  In some areas, women are not able to work in the same department as men.  These ‘rules’ are a part of a long religious tradition, and it doesn’t seem willing to change anytime soon.  Other areas of the world have less harsh rules, but the message is the same:  Women are not equal to men in the work place.

American working  culture even has its setbacks for women.  Business culture can be very sexist towards women.  Whether it be expressed in subtle harassment to a blatant sexual assault, sexism is everywhere in the USA.  Our country has made strides in the battle for equality, however.  The ‘Secretary’ title has all but disappeared, replaced by ‘Administrative Assistant’.  While America is a great place to work and be successful for women, the world is just not there yet.

I absolutely think MNCs should be able to decide whether or not women belong in certain countries doing business.  There are many places in our world where women can be successful, it should not be seen as a slight to ones pride or person if a company feels you won’t be the right answer for the Japan account.  What it comes down to is just doing good business.