Current Global Issues for Business: China, India, Latin America, Europe and beyond

Catalog description

The objective of the course is to deepen students' understanding of current issues of business-government relations. In particular, the course will help students contextualize political, economic or business events and their consequences for conducting business in different parts of the world. The course is organized around the analysis of a series of current events that illustrate specific challenges and opportunities. Some of the main topics include world trade in the current context, nationalism and business in Europe, doing business under single-party rule in China, populism's risks and opportunities for business environments. Students will analyze current news in both developed (Europe) and emerging markets (China, India, Brazil, Mexico). The course will strive to expose students to different points of view on these issues and their implications. This course will give students the tools to navigate the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of the current international environment. It will provide a VUCA and scenario planning frameworks to help students understand 1) The rapid pace of political, economic and business changes in both developed and emerging markets and the connections between both 2) Paradigm changes 3) Risk scenario management 4) Business strategies for different types of markets and 5) Different sources of news/data from emerging markets.