Global Leadership and Strategy

Master’s Thesis is the culminating experience in graduate level education for Master degree candidates. It is an individual endeavour of analytical nature, which contains elements of originality and is performed in conformity with general requirements of academic papers and scholarly projects. For the student, the Master’s thesis should be a learning activity that is stimulating and engenders a sense of pride and accomplishment.

The intent of the thesis is to provide an opportunity for Master’s degree candidates to refine, in some cases acquire, a range of skills at an appropriate level to do capable and competent research. A successful thesis is evidence that the candidate has acquired the minimum level of research skills required and can therefore be accredited a Master‘s degree. Skills required of thesis writers are those associated with research design, data collection, information management, analysis of data, synthesis of data with existing knowledge and critical evaluation of the writer’s own ideas and those presented in the literature reviewed. The thesis should be written in English, within a given period of time and comply with commonly accepted principles of academic ethics.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE

This module aims to enable students to apply theoretical leadership and strategy knowledge gained during the programme into a practical, real-life situation. During this module, students are asked to showcase their learning through the creation of an entrepreneurship project. This s entrepreneurship project will integrate and consolidate, extend and augment, and apply the program’s interdisciplinary learnings. As part of this project’s development, students will have to work collaboratively, practise leadership skills while interacting with relevant stakeholders, negotiating for resources and looking for opportunities to create value for business, community or society. Overall, this module aims at providing students with the opportunity to become the new type of leader, putting into practice the knowledge gathered through immersive learning of leadership, strategy, and innovation.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Critically evaluate information and analyse market environment to solve a problem and make business decisions;
• Demonstrate the ability to apply leadership and strategic thinking knowledge in the practical context of the project and scale the project to a global environment;
• Develop the ability to work both independently and collaboratively to achieve set deliverables within agreed timeframes;
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively to audiences in a business context and to work with stakeholders across different contexts and countries;
• Demonstrate entrepreneurial, organisational, communication, critical and creative thinking skills.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE

In today’s fast-paced world, leaders have to possess various skills to enable them to deal with the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment. This course is designed to provide students with crucial skills and capabilities to perform individually and as a team and achieve organisational goals. This module enhances and activates student transition from a follower to a leader by equipping them with the practical skills, tools, and knowledge required to succeed as a global leader. In order to help students to succeed as global leaders, this module also offers each student four individual coaching sessions throughout the semester to help students to embed their skills and achieve their career goals.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Apply critical analysis to evaluate complex information, problems and concepts;
• Identify challenges and resolve global problems as an innovative leader;
• Develop core leadership skills required to generate value to your organisation;
• Develop the ability to build, motivate and manage intercultural, high-performing teams;
• Assimilate, process and disseminate business data to different audiences in a compelling manner.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

 The purpose of this course is to provide project management knowledge with the on international project management complexities. During this module, students will develop their project and risk management skills and improve their capabilities to deliver international projects to a successful completion. Key themes of the module include project creation and planning, scheduling, analysis, cross-cultural resource management, control of projects during their development and execution phases, risks pertaining to the international project delivery and leadership in the context of international project management. The focus of this unit is applied learning of best project management practices.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Demonstrate and apply critical understanding of the international project management knowledge and application;
• Gain skills how to analyse project management processes and identify areas for improvement, in alignment with the company’s global strategy;
• To provide a thorough grounding in the skills required to lead an international team and a project with an outcome of adding value to the organisation;
• To provide a critical overview of project management principles, frameworks and processes, and apply this knowledge across various countries, contexts and cultures;
• Develop personal and professional abilities, critical thinking, and organisational skills.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE

This is an introductory course created to introduce the students with no financial or accounting background to the main concepts of managerial finance required for occupying a leadership position. The course intends to provide students with an overview of business finance concepts, terminology, and principles. It covers both theoretical and empirical aspects of financial analysis, capital investment, valuation, and financing decisions. The course develops understanding of the business organization as a value-maximizing entity, and introduces students to the necessary theoretical models as well as practical tools for financial decision-making. The course is designed to develop the insights and skills that are necessary to analyse and structure financial information of a business firm, to value investment projects, and to support value-adding business decisions.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Demonstrate and apply critical understanding of the main financial measures of the value and its elements;
• Compare different long- and short-term financing decisions;
• Gain skills to perform financial analysis of a business company using its financial statement data and applying financial ratios;
• Apply the concept of time value of money in solving various financing problems, and evaluate investment projects using different methods (NPV and its alternatives);
• Adhere to the principles of professional ethics in financial decision making.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE

The role of corporate responsibility and sustainability has gained momentum in the last decades. This advanced course focuses on a deeper understanding of the interaction between organizations, society, ethics, corporate responsibility and sustainability. The dominance of US based literature has suggested the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility as the main doctrine. However, considering the historical, economic and political context – the situation in Europe is fundamentally different. Unlike in the United States, the question of philanthropy plays only a minor role in Europe. On the other hand, the question of social, legal, environmental, and economic responsibility – within the context of a welfare state – dominates daily business life. The course will therefore take a more holistic approach – and concentrate on the question of how Corporate Responsibility has to be handled in an international context. Moreover, the course will also explore the role that the stakeholders play in ensuring business sustainability and growth. Therefore, a focus will be on stakeholder theories, as well as on the role of NGOs, consumer perception, and the government. The aim of the course is to raise awareness for the participants that corporations have a responsibility towards all stakeholders – not just towards increasing shareholder value. The drivers of CSR and sustainable development will therefore be discussed in an international and intercultural context.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• To understand the forces which are driving CSR and Sustainable Development in a European Context;
• To understand the impact of the government and the capitalistic system which drives the role of the corporation in a society;
• To analyze the role of stakeholders in sustainable business creations and understand stakeholder theories;
• To apply CSR, sustainability and stakeholder concepts in practical global business situations;
• To develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Global business strategy and corporate governance is a critical component of business success. Identifying, setting and following long-term direction for any business is essential to marshal limited resources in the most effective manner. Important aspects are not only the company’s competitive position in a market but also many internal and external issues, that company’s management must successfully navigate.

The course serves as an opportunity to develop skills for global environmental and market analysis, understanding of the major business strategy issues, formulating business strategies and tactics. During this course, participants not only learn about theoretical concepts but experience first-hand issues of managing a business in a competitive landscape.

Students are going to discover knowledge and apply skills enabling them to help organizations to meet and manage significant threats and challenges. Students will learn how to analyze the global environment and company’s resources, generate strategic alternatives and select the most appropriate strategy for particular circumstances. Students will learn and apply provide students the fundamental knowledge of strategic management concepts and techniques; to enable students to identify the key problem in complex, comprehensive situation. The major responsibility of students in this course to make objective strategic decisions and present well-supported recommendations for future action while justifying them through oral and written communication.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Demonstrate the ability to apply decision making and problem-solving skills in the global strategic management process;
• Ability to analyze micro (market) and macro environments, implement an industry analysis and be able to apply strategic evaluation tools to understand business environment;
• To be able to develop a digital strategy for the company, assess digital risks and defend the proposed recommendations;
• Ability to work in and lead a team virtually and in-person, to present work results in written or oral form, to be able to argue decisions;
• Develop personal and professional abilities, critical thinking, and creativity.

THE AIM OF THE COURSE:

Enabling a context in which other people can achieve their mission is the central purpose of leadership. This module is designed to enable participants to reflect on their identity, capabilities, and behaviours as leaders that are required to lead in a global environment. It seeks to help participants respond to three questions:

(i)           Where am I in my leadership journey?

(ii)          How do I react to evolving externalities?

(iii)          What changes will I need to make the transition from a follower to a leader?

Through self-reflection, participants take the first step towards charting a leadership journey. Dealing with evolving externalities, ethical dilemmas, decision-making and communicating direction in the face of rising global uncertainty, aligning diverse international teams to exceed performance and working as a global change-agent to create new value for organizations are some of the challenges novice leaders have to grapple with today. This module will provide participants with a rich understanding of the various leadership models which will further enrich their self-reflection and activate their transition from a follower to a leader. In addition, each student in this module will have an opportunity to receive individualised mentorship by a senior, more experienced leader. This aspect of the module will be delivered jointly with the Executive MBA (EMBA) programme at ISM university.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: 

• Distinguish between leadership and global leadership and critically analyze the relevance of leadership models to the organizational and individual context;
• Explain basic global leadership perspectives and cultural competencies in an ever-changing global society;
• Contextualize the knowledge of leadership models in creating your leadership plan and identify the behavioural changes that need to be made to execute the personal leadership plan;
• Analyze and compare behaviours of effective multicultural leaders and evaluate your leadership skills in relation to them;
• Develop personal and professional leadership abilities through mentorship and gain awareness of your global leadership capabilities through constructive reflection.

Course Description

An activity course involving practical experience in planning a research project, designing questionnaires, sampling, interpreting results and preparing a research report. The course provides an introduction to research methods used in business and management. It covers qualitative and quantitative methods, using primary and secondary data. The course is designed to provide students a solid foundation for conducting their own research and for critically evaluating and reading prior academic research. The course presents the fundamentals of the research process. The knowledge and competencies acquired in the study process will enable students to make methodological decisions in designing and planning research. The overall goal of the course is to equip students with the skills necessary to perform research.

Learning Outcomes

During this course, you will:

• Understand the relevance of research in managerial decision- making.
• Have a critical awareness of research issues, methodologies, and methods used in business and management as well as an understanding of potential ethical problems of the research
• Obtain skills to identify a business problem/need, translate it into a research question, and design an appropriate way to answer it.
• Develop skills to identify and understand the main qualitative and quantitative strategies of research, of their advantages and disadvantages and of appropriate application areas.
• Develop skills to design a research project and collect data.
• Obtain skills to analyze data and draw reasonable interpretations as well as communicate research findings in a clear and well-organized way
• Develop skills to critically evaluate the quality of other researchers’ findings and the process used to obtain them.

Course description

The course explores determinants of industrial competitiveness and successful economic development viewed from a bottom-up, microeconomic perspective. While sound macroeconomic policies and stable legal and political institutions create potential for industrial competitiveness, wealth is actually created at the microeconomic and firm levels. The sophistication and productivity of firms, the vitality of industrial clusters, and the quality of the business environment are the ultimate determinants of the productivity and innovation capacity of nations, regions and industries.

This course examines both advanced and developing economies and addresses competitiveness at multiple levels – nations, subnational units such as states or provinces, particular clusters, and neighboring countries. The course is concerned not only with government policy but also with the roles that firms, industry associations, universities, and other institutions play in competitiveness. In modern competition, each of these institutions has an important and evolving role in economic development.

The course explores not only theory and policy but also the organizational structures, institutional structures, and change processes required for sustained improvements in competitiveness

The Microeconomics of Competitiveness is a distinctive graduate course offered in cooperation with prof. M. Porter and a team of his colleagues at Harvard Business School (HBS). It is designed to be taught to second year MBA students at HBS and affiliates of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School (http://www.isc.hbs.edu/moc.htm).

Learning outcomes

During this course, you will:

• Analyse and evaluate the major elements of competitiveness
• Analyse, compare and evaluate the role of clusters.
• Analyse and evaluate the interaction between the micro level (entrepreneurial activity), meso level (regional clusters) and macro level (national policy).
• Analyse the complex relationship between government activity and business activity within institutions for collaboration.
• Apply knowledge in the framework of a concrete research project for a concrete country and cluster.