Business Culture and Customs

I would love to be able to say that my LSE classmates and professors have been a wealth of knowledge on the subject of doing business in London and the greater UK, but unfortunately for my readers you will have to settle for some thoughts based on academic readings from my classes and my personal anecdotes and observations. You see, LSE's masters programs have a funny characteristic in that the vast majority of the students have never worked before and come straight from college. If you have work experience, I'm told you're more likely to go for the MBA since it's "better," for getting a job I'd presume - although all the banks and consulting co's recruit from LSE as well as LBS. The school is definitely a different feel from a business school however, both in character and student body. Nearly 90% (according to the exchange student coordinator here) are from countries other than the UK, as are most of the professors (I do not have a single British professor or TA). This makes for an incredible experience that mixes depression over how old I am, with excitement over hearing 10 languages on the street before lunch.
My fellow students are mostly from Europe which makes courses like "European Models of Capitalism" absolutely awesome. Last week's seminar was a presentation of the chummy professor's portfolio of 'let's make fun of your country next' jokes, and of course the USA suffered a few. However, this week's seminar on labor and the firm (or "labour" and the firm) was mostly, at least from my unbiased seat, a tutorial on how the USA is the absolute best country in the world to do business in, and we should all thank our lucky stars for choosing it as the launching pad for our careers (recession or no). I'm also certain that the mood in the room was a bit friendlier to the US today being the day after Obama-rama, and that the students now know that Fiona, Radhika and I are in the room, and we're trying to look as intimidating as possible... which is hard when I need to ask 'dumb American' questions on things like the German system of apprenticeship and what a centralized and controlled market economy really means: yes, there are countries where the entire work force gets together and actually sets the wage rates with all the employers in the country, it's not a union, it's not a temporary contract, it's a way of life... and they study us for our competitive hire/fire at-will 'market sets the wage' ways. The US is always the benchmark for the utmost liberal and free example of a market economy in our readings and discussions, and the UK gets lumped in with the US as another example. The UK, I'm told by my sage Danish professor, is like the US, but has very centralized/controlled tendencies (read-"socialist" in USA-speak). Many of the UK's liberal US-like economic and business policies are relatively new and were introduced by Margaret Thatcher. For our parents' generation of UK laborers, there seems to be, as suggested by my prof, a bit of a push to "call it what it is and make the UK a centralized market" - but this is one academic's opinion, and I cannot substantiate it at all yet. Given the UK's bent for very centralized and all-inclusive policies toward citizens and workers (think the healthcare system, welfare, etc.), this could make sense, I just don't know yet.
What I have seen is that London is a city catering to tourists, recent immigrants working round town (construction and retail, from what I've seen), and very well-dressed and briskly-paced professionals. LSE is in the heart of the legal center of town, and many of the main consulting firms have offices on the Strand nearby. Banking and finance has pretty much moved to Canary Wharf, a newly developed area a few miles down the river, which looks much like a shiney big glass wallstreet. The arts are alive here, and according to Fiona, the UK is a great place for artists to come and live because they can qualify for welfare and have a wonderful life creating in town. The UK also has a rich manufacturing history (duh, think industrial revolution) and from what I've eaten and seen on TV, an idyllic agricultural tradition (I'm picturing rolling green hills with sheep and cows munching around all over the countryside somewhere).
I have planned a few business investigative trips and interviews which I hope to have completed some time in February, including a trip to a self-sustaining organic farm (think Polyface Farms if you've read "The Omnivore's Dilemma"), the UK's leading smoothie-making company called "Innocent", and a surviving hedge fund (no, it's not a joke.)