Check out this cool pic and adventure activity on the world’s second largest steel towner in Harbin — located in northeastern China, which is not close to where we will be or travel in China). Erik Slayter forwarded me this link (thanks Erik!).

Having typed the above, let’s tie this into business and your MBA studies. The following was a common experience in my prior life as a practicing attorney in working with business clients ….

CASE STUDY:

Business client spends hours and hours, if not days, shopping around for the best price on an insurance policy for his/her business. Then, after buying the policy, sure enough, some type of bad event (called an “occurrence” in insurance parlance) occurs that causes the client an economic loss.

Business client then submits his/her claim to the insurance company under the policy they purchased. However, the insurance company then proceeds to deny the claim and/or coverage.

Client is pissed off at the insurance company because he/she “thought that is why I bought the damn insurance coverage in the first place and I want you to sue those bastards.”

So, the client comes to me for help to try and fix their mess, and he/she in turn also pays to me the money they may have saved in obsessing over finding the cheapest policy they could find. (Thank you client!!).

The client could have likely avoided this problem altogether if they had taken just a few minutes to read over the policy once they received it to get a good feel for what activities or events were covered/not covered under the policy, and then adjust their business practices and behavior accordingly to conform to what the policy does and does not cover.

BUSINESS TAKE-AWAY:

Re: this adventure activity, it looks fun, right? I am sure it is.  As is this world’s tallest bungee jump in Macau near Hong Kong, which several years ago when I took students to Macau in southern China several students asked me when we drove by if I would stop the bus and let them give it a go (it was a quick and easy “no” for me) - was not going to be a class sanctioned bus stop or activity).

So as you might expect this is not an activity that we will do as a class or on Cal Poly time. This would the type of activity that is a “completely on your own time” activity, and where you assume any and all of the risks in the event you decided to go for it and were somehow injured.

I.e., back to the business point — this is NOT an activity that is covered by your travel insurance policy for this trip, nor is any loss or injury you incur that is connected with drinking, drug use, etc.

Gotta be careful what you do/don’t do in China/India and always use good judgment. It’s not Iraq or Afghanistan, but is also isn’t Disneyland.

You will receive your travel and medical insurance policy from Cal Poly Continuing Education sometime during late Winter or the Spring quarter. READ IT!! Or risk being like the client/customer I describe above. This part of business is not rocket science, and competitive advantage in part goes to those firms and managers who take a few minutes to actually read and try to understand their friggin’ personal, auto and business insurance policies.

Who would have thought the China/India trip would teach you a fair bit of what you need to know about insurance policies and their tie in to business? If you read, understand and take to heart the above, you are now well ahead of the vast majority of corporate America on this issue …

Prof. Carr March 1, 2009 addendum:  Check out this related post that Dan Harris of the China Law Blog just made that gives you a different angle on this unappreciated but very important issue: China Law. What’s Insurance Got To Do With It?