My name is Amy Quate, and I am CEO and founder of InterMedia Arts, a creative design, multi-media production, and corporate communications consulting company (http://www.intermediaarts.com/).

Texas Woman’s University School of Management offers an outstanding education, and I especially value the MBA program’s international study opportunities. By spending time in other countries, we go beyond the textbooks and see the human face of global business issues.One of great joys of being in Mexico is its lively color—the colors of its great natural beauty, the countrysides, towns, people, and of course, the brilliant and omnipresent art. This is a place where vivid hues have a tangible impulse, and life is a graphic experience.

No other artistic tradition has such flair for simplicity, color and form in its modern art. Yet the rich heritage of tradition—from ancient Mayan and Aztec through ornate, baroque, Churrigueresque and colonial styles—also create the unique Mexican aesthetic.

Whether touring an art gallery, browsing in a shop, walking through a cathedral, visiting an ancient site, or watching craftspeople at work…Mexico’s artistic sensibilities tell wonderful tales of old and new, both historical and futuristic.

I have always considered Mexico to be a land of vibrant contrasts — incredible riches but desperate poverty, deep traditions of philosophy and history but a sublime simplicity in daily life, profound connections to the past combined with a focus on the future.

Because I have spent time in different areas of Mexico previously, I may have set out with more background knowledge about this country than some of my peers in the MBA Study Tour had. The main purpose of our mission, however, was to gain international business education; and none of my earlier experiences provided the broad spectrum and personal approach to learning that this program offered.

The business leaders who welcomed us into their companies did much more than give us a tour of their operations. They shared their professional experiences, discussed business directions for both their particular companies and for the country of Mexico in general, and engaged in candid and meaningful conversations about their work, lives and aspirations.

Companies in both countries face a host of market pressures, the need to stay abreast of fast-changing technologies, and an uncertain business climate. The similarities are common to the nature of specific industries; the differences are mostly a matter of degree and reflect each nation’s economic environment.