Overview
This course takes your existing background in strategy and focuses on the challenges and risks managers face in setting international business strategy. Thinking globally about strategy happens in large transnational organizations, but also when individuals in smaller organizations establish global networks in an entrepreneurial way. International business and strategizing globally have become a space where each of us is empowered individually to push for distant horizons, and the proactive initiative and innovative thinking we bring to bear when we cross borders. For those who persevere in charting an international course, often in the face of unlikely odds, the personal and professional rewards can be significant. Equally, such bold and adventurous thinking is fraught with uncertainties which need to be understood and managed.
A departure point for this course is an interest in globalization. Now a part of our daily vernacular, globalization means different things to different people. In the last several decades, globalization was associated with a frenzy of outsourcing, exploiting untapped markets, and addressing the rise of countries such as China, India or Brazil. It seemed that no corner of the globe was unexplored or untested for its market potential, nor immune from development or exploitation. Yet, more recently in our post-pandemic world, the flattened world of free markets saw nation states reassert their boundaries. The intensity of globalization is now questioned, as are free markets. There may be increasing tension between national and global contexts, with attendant risks for business strategy.
Global strategy is ‘internationalism 2.0’. The 1.0 version was about international business and strategy, disciplines that through rigorous scholarship have created the foundation on which global strategy stands. Internationalism 2.0 extends the previous analysis by recognizing that even when we apply highly specialized global strategy tools, improvisation, ingenuity and even luck play a large role in how businesses cross borders. As with strategy generally, global strategy is a messy and risky affair where there are few clear answers, but hopefully this course will inform your perspective on strategy when we go global.
The future of globalization will require unique insights into the deep contexts of geopolitics and history around Global South growth. As global managers, heightened knowledge of deep contexts will improve our strategizing.
Outline
Weeks 1-7: During the first seven weeks of the course, enrolled students will be assigned readings and book chapters in addition to participating in group discussion databases and completing individual and group assignments. Topics include human rights and business, corruption and business, being of fundamental importance to global business.
Week 8: The in-residence week will consist of inter-active seminars with leading global institutions, guest speakers who share experiences and advice for engaging in problem solving related to the understanding and management of international business risks. Students can expect to spend most days engaged in seminars at leading global institutions, and interacting with guest speakers at various venues.
In-Residence Highlights: Previous years’ in-residence weeks have been in Washington, DC, and have included the rare opportunity to visit and engage in interactive seminars with global organizations such as World Bank agencies, US Department of State, Canadian and Mexican Embassies and TRACE International. The in-residence week for 2020 is scheduled to take place in D.C.
Weeks 9-10: Further readings and online discussion to synthesize the learnings during weeks 1-7 with the in-residence experiences.
Objectives
As a result of this course, students will have the ability to:
- articulate the meaning of global strategy, extending previous knowledge of business strategy.
- understand and apply a managerial toolkit for global strategy including CAGE framework AAA triangle, ad global business plan template.
- present an argument for a company's global strategy using the managerial toolkit, both as a group and an individual.
- understand the nuances of global strategy in terms of firm size: how is it different for large companies as opposed to entrepreneurial born globals, and how do strategy and organization structure interact?
- understand the context of global strategy in terms of the future of globalization, and historical legacies of post-colonialism and Global North-Global South relations.