A few years ago when I was on holiday, I read a book called A Short History of Nearly Everything. Having read it I came away with the impression that everything was connected and that seemingly minor events occurring today can have far-reaching repercussions in the distant future.

“A short history of nearly everything” is, I think, a very fitting alternative title for the first module of stage two of the Henley executive MBA.

The official title is the “global business environment module”. In the two-day workshop from which I have just returned, we considered the main drivers that are affecting the global business environment today.

National macroeconomic policies, the first driver, dealt with the hugely complex international trade and monetary systems. The second driver, multilateralism and regionalism, dealt with the global political economy. The third driver was technological change and its global impact.

To break this whole complex subject down into three drivers is an achievement in itself, but it soon became apparent that the drivers merged seamlessly into each other and were inextricably linked.

Indeed, the issues we considered were so diverse that during the workshop we delved into geography, philosophy, history, psychology and sociology of nations, peering into the past to deduce the impact of past events as well as trying to glimpse into the future in order to determine what is to be.

It was apparent that the whole input was designed to make us consider things from the widest possible perspective and the timing was spot on because we are counting down to our field trip, travelling to Beijing later this month.

Now that I have got the fearsome management of financial resources assignment out of the way, I am beginning to really look forward to this trip but I also have to keep a weather eye on the looming first exam, scheduled for early June, which means that I am now firmly into the revision phase of the stage one material.

This, and the not inconsiderable matter of having to complete my first-stage learning and development assignment by the beginning of May, means that there is no let-up in the intensity levels.

It's all a bit like spinning plates, running from pole to pole just trying to maintain the momentum. Although I am running faster and faster I am becoming quite confident that I can do it.

Next week: Kate Reiling, who is approaching the end of her first year, reports from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in the US.

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