International Business Policy

The module offers a critical, theoretically-informed review of the practices of international business management. The underpinning principles and concepts are examined with particular emphasis upon their practical application in different national and organisational cultures. It’s delivered by highly experienced teachers and practitioners WIUT’s 1st Deputy Rector Alan France and Rowan Wagner.
Studying this module, you will learn and understand:

• Why study business policy? The importance and characteristics of strategic decisions.  Organisational strategies. Assessing the impact of the global political/economic environment upon business. The PESTEL technique.

• Analysing each business’s industry, the Five Forces and life-cycle models. Industry segmentation and maximising market share, the global dimension. Using the SWOT analysis. Opportunities and challenges. Ansoff’s matrix. The Value Chain and Project Management.

• What resources, strategic assets, core competences and distinctive capabilities lead to success? Ratio analyses for assessing relative financial performances. Leveraging resources. The contributions of all these to benchmarking strengths and weaknesses.

• The generic competitive strategies. The 4 building blocks of competitive advantage, especially innovation. Importance of organisational structures and architecture. Applying modern management concepts such as the learning and the knowledge organisation.

• Business cultures within different industries, and their interaction with national cultures. The McKinsey 7S model and the cultural web. Developing the diversified corporation and the fall of synergy. The portfolio management of businesses and products.

• Internationalisation, the business trend from local/national to global. The evolution of multi-nationals and transnationals. Methods of growth; organic, acquisitions and mergers, joint ventures and strategic alliances. The involvement of the stakeholders.

• Do the current strategies work, are new ones needed, has the core business changed?  Matching internal resources and assets, competences and product ranges to external conditions. Defensive or offensive options, and linkages to life-cycle stages.

• Process of strategy selection. Evaluation criteria. Assessing suitability and consistency, feasibility and acceptability. Screening options. Assessing the potential for resistance by stakeholders. Differing styles of leadership to manage change, the role of the changemasters.

• Will the new strategy work? Creating appropriate structures for implementation, and overcoming cultural resistance and resource constraints. Managing strategic control and reward systems. Monitoring strategic performance and success.

• The evolving PESTEL forces impacting on the management of change in the global environment, e.g. international legislation, electronic money transfers, business ethics and corporate social responsibility, the Internet.