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Intermediate · free

Doing Business Across Borders: The Global Environment for Managers

Learn how culture, politics, economics, trade rules, currencies and ethics shape the choices of companies that operate in many countries, and how managers turn those forces into strategy.

For mBA students and early-career managers who need a working command of how international business operates and how to make sound decisions abroad.

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The Global Playing Field

Start here

1 lesson
  1. Welcome to the course: what you will learn Welcome 5 min

Module 1: Globalization: Forces, Gains and Discontents

4 lessons · 1 available
  1. What globalization really means and why business drives it Lesson 1 8 min
  2. Cheaper, better, more varied: who gains, and how global is the world really? Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Seven forces that keep pulling the world closer together Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. The case against globalization: sovereignty, environment and the people left behind Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 2: Why and How Companies Go International

3 lessons · coming soon
  1. Sell more, source better, spread risk: the three motives for going abroad Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Goods, services and investment: the ways firms operate abroad and who does it Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Objectives, strategy and means: a map for every international decision Lesson 3 coming soon

Module 3: Reading a Foreign Operating Environment

3 lessons · coming soon
  1. Institutions as the rules of the game abroad Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Mountains, storms and demographics: the physical side of markets Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Same company, different fight: competitive position country by country Lesson 3 coming soon

Culture and the Human Side of Business

Module 4: Understanding Culture and Its Building Blocks

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. Culture, subcultures and why the nation is only a starting point Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. How culture is learned, how it changes, and how to study it without stereotyping Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Cultural collision: deal-focused meets relationship-focused Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Language as identity and the world's business languages Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Religion, class and group membership in the marketplace Lesson 5 coming soon

Module 5: Culture at Work: Motivation and Management Style

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Why people work: leisure, materialism and the masculinity-femininity index Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Different needs, different rewards: Maslow and the individualist-collectivist divide Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Who decides? Power distance and the right management style Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Risk-taking across cultures: uncertainty, trust and fate Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 6: Communicating and Adapting Across Cultures

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. High context, low context and other ways minds process information Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Lost in translation and the silent language of colour, space and time Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. How much to adapt: culture shock and company orientations Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Bringing change into another culture without a backlash Lesson 4 coming soon

Politics, Law and Economies

Module 7: Political Systems and Freedom

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. Why every investor must read a country's politics Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Individualism, collectivism and what political freedom means for firms Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. From democracy to totalitarianism: the political spectrum Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Free, partly free, not free: how today's regimes are classified Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. The Third Wave: how democracy spread and why Lesson 5 coming soon

Module 8: Political Risk and Legal Systems

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Political risk: four types from the boardroom to the battlefield Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. How legal systems work: common, civil, theocratic and customary law Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Rule of law versus rule of man in emerging markets Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. From contracts to patents: the legal issues firms face and how easy business really is Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 9: Economic Environments and Economic Freedom

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. Why managers analyze economies and what makes analysis hard Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Developed, developing, emerging, frontier: classifying economies Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. What speeds or slows development: economic, political and cultural moderators Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Economic freedom: its conditions and why it drives prosperity Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. From free to repressed: the five tiers of economic freedom Lesson 5 coming soon

Module 10: Economic Systems and Measuring Performance

6 lessons · coming soon
  1. Market, command and mixed economies Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. State capitalism and the spectrum from invisible hand to central plan Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. GDP, GNI, GNP and the adjustments that make them meaningful Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Size versus prosperity, and measures beyond GDP Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Warning lights: inflation, debt, inequality and the misery index Lesson 5 coming soon
  6. Judging potential with competitiveness and innovation indexes Lesson 6 coming soon

Ethics and Responsibility

Module 11: The Multinational and Its Stakeholders

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Five stakeholder groups and the problem of measuring impact Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. What multinationals give host countries, and the balance-of-payments test Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. How people reason morally: stages, duties and consequences Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Why ethics pays, and whose ethics apply abroad Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 12: Hard Choices: Law, Bribery, Planet and Workers

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. Legal but wrong? When the law is and is not an ethical guide Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Corruption and bribery: causes, costs and the FCPA Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Sustainability, climate change and the Paris goals Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Fair work in global supply chains and the ETI base code Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Building a code of conduct that works and reporting it Lesson 5 coming soon

Trade: Theory, Policy and Integration

Module 13: Why Nations Trade: The Classic Answers

3 lessons · coming soon
  1. What trade theory answers, and the mercantilist mindset that still survives Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Adam Smith and the power of specialization Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Comparative advantage: why even the best at everything should trade Lesson 3 coming soon

Module 14: Modern Trade Patterns and Moving Factors

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Country size, factor abundance and why rich countries trade with each other Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. The product life cycle: how production migrates around the world Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Why capital and people cross borders, and who wins from migration Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Trade and factor movement: substitutes or partners? Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 15: Why Governments Intervene in Trade

4 lessons · 1 available
  1. Protectionism, its stakeholders and the institutions behind it Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Saving jobs and growing infant industries, and what it really costs Lesson 2 9 min
  3. Export limits and the race for relative position Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Beyond economics: security, influence and culture as reasons to protect Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 16: The Trade-Control Toolkit

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. Tariffs: specific, ad valorem and compound Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Subsidies, tied aid and quotas Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Embargoes, buy-local rules, standards and red tape Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Keeping foreign service providers out Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Facing import competition: four ways a company can respond Lesson 5 coming soon

Module 17: Global Trade Rules and Institutions

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Integration at three levels and the GATT story Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. The WTO: rules, exceptions and settling disputes Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. The United Nations system and what it means for multinationals Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Commodities, producer cartels and OPEC Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 18: Regional Trade Blocs Around the World

7 lessons · coming soon
  1. Free trade areas, customs unions, common markets: trade creation and diversion Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. How integration reshapes investment, scale and competition Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. The European Union: origins, members and institutions Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. The euro, Schengen, Brexit and what the EU means for strategy Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. From NAFTA to USMCA and the logic of rules of origin Lesson 5 coming soon
  6. Latin America and the Caribbean: CARICOM, Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance Lesson 6 coming soon
  7. Asia-Pacific and Africa: ASEAN, CPTPP, ECOWAS and SADC Lesson 7 coming soon

Money Across Borders

Module 19: Inside the Foreign-Exchange Market

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Exchange rates, the FX market and the players in it Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. From trading floors to screens: how currencies change hands Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Why the dollar rules and the rise of the yuan Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. London, New York, Tokyo: the geography of currency trading Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 20: FX Instruments and Quotes

3 lessons · coming soon
  1. Spot, forwards, swaps, options and futures Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Reading a dealer's quote: bid, offer and spread Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Locking in a rate: forward premiums, discounts and alternatives Lesson 3 coming soon

Module 21: The International Monetary System

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Bretton Woods and the mission of the IMF Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Gold, the dollar and the end of fixed rates Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. IMF quotas and the special drawing right Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Hard pegs, soft pegs and floats: today's exchange-rate arrangements Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 22: What Moves Exchange Rates and Why Firms Care

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. Central banks, reserves and the limits of intervention Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Convertibility, black markets and purchasing power parity Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Inflation, interest rates and the International Fisher Effect Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Forecasting currencies and the biases that fool forecasters Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. How currency swings reshape sales, production and financing Lesson 5 coming soon

Strategy, Location and Market Entry

Module 23: Building a Strategy for a Multinational

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Strategy, vision and mission in a global firm Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. From the environment to planning: where above-average returns come from Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. The planning cycle and turning resources into core competencies Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Cost leadership, differentiation, or both? Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 24: Value Chains and Global Strategy Choices

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. The value chain: primary and support activities Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Where to perform each activity: configuring the chain Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Global integration versus local responsiveness Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Four corporate strategies: international, localization, global, transnational Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 25: Choosing Where to Sell and Produce

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Why location decides success and what managers must decide Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Scanning countries and the steps of a location decision Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Reading demand and the true cost of resources Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Weighing opportunity against political, currency and disaster risk Lesson 4 coming soon

Module 26: Committing to Countries Over Time

3 lessons · coming soon
  1. Location strategies and the trouble with country data Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Go slow or spread wide: commitment, reinvestment and harvesting Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Go or no-go: why firms judge proposals one at a time Lesson 3 coming soon

Module 27: Exporting and Importing

6 lessons · coming soon
  1. Why exporting is the first step for so many firms Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Step by step or born global, direct or indirect Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Why firms import and how arbitrage works Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. The barriers exporters hit: money, marketing and management Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Paperwork and helpers: documents, agencies and intermediaries Lesson 5 coming soon
  6. Writing an export plan and trading without cash Lesson 6 coming soon

Module 28: Entry Modes Beyond Exporting

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. When to produce abroad and the menu of entry modes Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Licensing, franchising and management contracts Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Turnkey projects, joint ventures, equity alliances and leasing Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Going it alone: why own it, and buy or build? Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Comparing entry modes: control, cost and risk Lesson 5 coming soon

Module 29: Making Alliances Work

3 lessons · coming soon
  1. Why companies team up at home and abroad Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Five strains that break partnerships Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Choosing partners, controlling, evaluating and adjusting Lesson 3 coming soon

Running the Global Company

Module 30: Designing the Multinational Organization

6 lessons · coming soon
  1. Why organizing across countries is so hard, and the three building blocks Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Structure, hierarchy and who decides: centralize or decentralize Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Functional, divisional, area and matrix structures Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Networks and virtual organizations: beyond the hierarchy Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Keeping dispersed units in step: coordination and control Lesson 5 coming soon
  6. Organizational culture as a management tool Lesson 6 coming soon

Module 31: Marketing Across Borders

6 lessons · coming soon
  1. Marketing orientations from production to social Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Choosing segments and adapting products Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Setting international prices, escalation and negotiation Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Push, pull and advertising that travels Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Brands, country of origin and getting products to buyers Lesson 5 coming soon
  6. Finding lost sales with gap analysis Lesson 6 coming soon

Module 32: Global Supply Chains and Operations

7 lessons · coming soon
  1. Supply chain, logistics and operations as one system Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Operations strategy: compatibility, configuration, coordination, control Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Sourcing decisions: where to buy, make and assemble Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Make or buy, clusters and responsible suppliers Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Information systems that connect the chain Lesson 5 coming soon
  6. Quality, lean production and just-in-time Lesson 6 coming soon
  7. Kanban, Six Sigma and ISO standards Lesson 7 coming soon

Module 33: Global Accounting and Finance

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. The finance team and why accounting differs by country Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Secrecy, optimism and the road to IFRS Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Foreign-currency transactions and translating subsidiaries Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Capital budgeting and managing cash across borders Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Three kinds of currency exposure and how to hedge them Lesson 5 coming soon

Module 34: Staffing the Multinational

5 lessons · coming soon
  1. What international HR does and why it is harder than at home Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Expatriates, inpatriates and third-country nationals Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Shorter assignments and new faces abroad Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Ethnocentric, polycentric and geocentric staffing Lesson 4 coming soon
  5. Matching executives to strategy Lesson 5 coming soon

Module 35: The Expatriate Journey

4 lessons · coming soon
  1. Picking the right person: qualities and selection criteria Lesson 1 coming soon
  2. Preparing and supporting expatriates and their families Lesson 2 coming soon
  3. Paying people abroad: goals, packages and methods Lesson 3 coming soon
  4. Coming home, reverse culture shock and why assignments fail Lesson 4 coming soon