This course provides a foundation for business sustainability and achieving a triple bottom line – economic success through Environment, Social (Labour/Human Rights) and Governance (“ESG”) actions that current and future leaders can drive and embed within their organizations – established corporations, start-up ventures, family owned businesses, consulting firms, for profit, not for profit, SMEs etc.

Students will take the knowledge and skills of this seminar and use it as a platform for ethical decision making and risk management.

This module explores the link between macroeconomics, financial markets and policy in Asia, drawing on many analytical tools of macroeconomics and international finance. Topics covered include: capital flows in Asia and policy challenges, foreign exchange hedging and speculation, real exchange rate adjustment and macroeconomic imbalances, Asian financial crisis and its legacies, and opportunities and policy challenges posed by globalization, regional integration and cross-border transmission of shocks.

The course aims to provide participants with the basic theoretical knowledge, skills, and sensitivities that will help them deal effectively with key management issues and challenges in today’s global business environment. We intend to explore the major issues and challenges facing companies with worldwide operations as seen by the managers themselves.

Each of these areas poses the multi-disciplinary issues that are the hallmark of the general manager’s job. The course will offer plenty of opportunities for students to: bring their diverseperspectives and experiences;  solve complex business problems; and build on the knowledge acquired in several previous functional courses.

This course aims to explore how microeconomic analytical tools can be applied to business practices from both theoretical and application perspectives. The course focuses on optimal managerial decision makings under various market structures and their implications through a selected set of topics motivated by real-world observations of business operations. Topics to be covered include: fundamental market forces, consumer behaviour, firm behaviour in various market structures, uncertainty and behavioural economics, pricing strategies with market power, game theory and strategic decisions with business applications, information economics and market failure issues.

This course is designed to introduce students to the academic research as well as firms’ best practices related to innovation management. Some key topics include how managers and organisations should adapt to technological change, the process of new product development, business model innovation, digital transformation, the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and entrepreneurship. In the group project students have the chance to develop a new product or service for an established company or launch their own business idea. This involves analysing the potential market, design the optimal entry strategy, develop a prototype and, finally, test the idea on the market with real customers.

This course will equip students with the frameworks and tools that a manager need to convert intended strategy into performance outcomes. The tools and frameworks will cover aspects such as governance structure and resource allocation, organisational structure and control, top management team and strategic leadership, contingencies in the environment performance measurement, risk management and mitigation. Students will also develop sensitivity to the common challenges that hamper strategy implementation in organisation and learn about organisations as a systems and the role culture plays in overcoming the implementation hurdles.

Strategic sustainability has clearly emerged as a core concern for companies and organisations worldwide. This module examines the key concepts and applications of sustainability, particularly along its integration with strategic analysis and innovation. Anchored on the economic as well as Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) dimensions, it develops the business case of sustainability especially with consumers and investors. The module also addresses institutional issues such as jurisdictional regulations and international agreements. The module further covers the strategic information aspects of standards and reportings. Evolving current topics such as climate change, carbon management, green finance and entrepreneurial sustainability will be highlighted.

Technical change is at the root of economic growth. In this course, we investigate product, process, organisational and social innovations and their interdependence in five long waves of technological revolution. We analyse the roles of inventors, R&D laboratories, entrepreneurs, managers, financiers and the state in the evolutionary dynamics of innovations. In addition, we take a close look at creative destruction, technology transfer, diffusion, adoption, innovation strategy and disruption in dedicated lessons. Throughout the course, we employ a variety of historical and contemporary case studies to bring theoretical concepts to life.

This course extends the learnings you have made on Strategy to the case of competing in interlinked, global markets. Even with the rise of populism and increased concerns about the costs and benefits of international trade and investment, business will almost always have international and global components. As in the domestic market, strategy is important for success in international markets. Yet, the complications of the strategy implementation and formulation process are qualitatively more challenging when competing outside domestic borders.

This course builds from the perspective that you have a good understanding of Strategy. We then bridge this understanding of strategy to the global environment through a discussion of foundational features of global markets and global strategy. Next, we move to application by consideration of global strategy issues in the context of present-day challenges to competing globally. Finally, we shift to a discussion of the organization structure and implementation challenges associated with having a regional or global strategy in today’s world.

Major technological innovations and inventions like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, 3D printing and Robotics are maturing to the point where the way we work and the way we live will be changed forever, just like businesses today cannot function effectively without the internet, email and the mobile phone. It is imperative that business leaders keep pace with these waves of change in order to survive and prosper in this new business environment. This course will focus on addressing the strategic challenges faced by digital firms.

Asia is on track to be in the top 50 percent of global GDP by 2040, according to a McKinsey report in 2019. From China to Southeast Asia and India, the most exciting changes of our time are driven by new business models, including in fintech, social networks, the sharing economy, and sustainability-driven consumer transitions. The objective of this course is to provide students with a rigorous foundation for understanding the design and implementation of innovative business models. By evaluating relevant cases, the course will cover business model innovation in both new and established companies, with a focus on market-creating innovations in Asia.

Big data and artificial intelligence have allowed platforms to become the dominant business model in the digital economy. Managers of incumbent organisations need to rethink their own strategies and business models along global data supply lines. This module introduces big data, analytics, data governance, AI, privacy, blockchain, robotics, IoT and edge computing from the ground up and in a non-technical way, focusing on concepts, business applications and real-life case studies. In the last two lessons of this module, we will derive implications for management: how to transform existing businesses and formulate winning strategies in a digital and data-driven economy.

Managerial economics is the science of directing scarce resources in the management of a business or other organisations. This course will introduce you to fundamental principles of microeconomics most relevant to managers. It focuses on analyzing the functioning of markets, the economic behaviors of firms and other economic agents, as well as their economic or social implications. It integrates global business issues and practice and provides students with knowledge about how to allocate scarce resources and develop competitive strategies. It will lay a foundation for your further studies in management, accounting, finance and marketing. The goal of this course is to develop students’ capacity to analyse economic environments, recognize the benefits and costs associated with business activities, as well as the constraints firms face in varying economic scenarios, in order to make the optimal choice to fulfil managerial objectives.

The module is a program initiation for students from diverse disciplines and cultures. It is designed to be a rigorous learning experience characterized by intensive dialogue and networking. It may cover themes and applications for strategic management in the global arena, with a distinctive Asian orientation. Topics may include issues in business environment such as competition dimensions, and resource and institution determinants. It may also include issues in international strategy such as market and collaborative dynamics, scoping and restructuring, governance and control, innovation and knowledge, and corporate social responsibility. The emphasis will be the state of practice in strategy.

The focus of this course is on the principles and practice of managing a venture capital (VC) firm. This module seeks to help students develop a deep understanding of venture capitalism. It will help students understand how venture capital funds are raised and structured. It will also help students understand the interactions between venture capital firms and the entrepreneurs they finance. Lastly, students will also learn about managing the venture capital firm.

In modern business environments, uncertainty and strategic interdependence among rivals surround competitive conducts. Conflict interfaces with mutual dependence naturally, and decision making in such situations requires one to take into account the moves and countermoves among them. This module provides a rigorous non-cooperative game theoretic view for managers to analyse rational decision makings under various conjectural behaviours in such strategic interactions together with strategic moves to possibly influence the outcome for one’s own or mutual gains. Fundamental theory will be well balanced with economic, managerial and personal decision making situation applications. Game experiments will be performed as well.

This course examines the key strategic issues found for companies operating in global markets. All businesses in the present day have some level of engagement with international markets. In this module, we are concerned with the strategies that can be used to build and leverage a firm’s advantages for successful competition in global markets. We focus primarily on competition, more so than the organizational structural and management issues that are typical to firms operating in global markets.

Family firms play an important role in all economies, but especially so in Asia, where family firms not just dominate the small firm category but also constitute the majority of companies listed on most Asian stock exchanges. This course provides students the opportunity to develop a deep understanding of family firms across Asia, with examples from ASEAN countries, India, China, Korea, and Japan. Aside from a focus on how to sustain a family firm from the perspective of the family, the course will also analyze family firms from an outsider’s perspective, including investors, partners, executives, and policy makers.

This course is divided into two parts. The goal of the first half is to help students develop an intuitive understanding of strategy as a process which will be useful in the second half of the module when we apply this process directly in the context of innovations for emerging markets. While we cover a set of strategic tools, the emphasis is not on filling in frameworks and applying standard recipes. On the contrary, students will be expected to challenge recipes, question received wisdom, and exhibit an understanding of how to apply the frameworks to solve strategic obstacles. While the cases and the examples used in the module are primarily based on Asia, the lessons from this module apply more generally to emerging markets across Africa and Latin America. Rather than looking for one “right” answer, this module encourages debates and discussions. In some ways, this module is a cross between an executive education module on strategy formulation and implementation and a module on Asian business. Our goal is to help students develop the strategic intuition and tools they need to succeed in these emerging battlegrounds for tomorrow.

Entrepreneurs must know the business structure which best suits their business plans. Similarly, Managers must understand the decision-making mechanisms in the business structure they manage, to avoid potential personal liability. This module will equip entrepreneurs and managers with the legal fundamentals to propel them in their start-up journeys or new management roles. Through case studies, participants will gain insights into real-life corporate tussles, and acquire skills to navigate their way effectively through different stakeholder relationships.

This class is intended to equip students to think about being future entrepreneurs through applicable knowledge to increase the success in launching and commercialising new start-up ideas. The class will utilise product development methodologies to build out product prototypes and roadmap. It will also provide practical ways to translate product requirements to an initial product launch and then ongoing enhancements. As part of business growth it will teach students how to systematically approach customer identification, acquisition and retention through direct or partnership channels and marketing/sales tools. It will also teach students how to continually build out a product roadmap through customer feedback.

Entrepreneurs face several challenges in identifying opportunities and venture building. Operating in an environment of risk and uncertainty, they must seek relevant human and financial resources and are confronted daily with complex management decisions. This course thus teaches various strategic perspectives and tools implemented to navigate the entrepreneurial ecology to approach success.

This course provides an introduction to business sustainability, its benefits and reporting requirements, covering four components of sustainability, often denoted by EESG – Economic, Environment, Social and Governance. In addition, sustainability from the perspectives of corporate strategy, intellectual capital, best practices, process & risk management, and diversity & fair employment, which in turn are linked to transparency, business continuity and accountability practices of the organization will be reviewed. These components are recognized fundamentals to organizational strategy, operational efficiency and execution.

Technical change is at the root of economic growth. In this module, we investigate product, process, organizational and social innovations and their interdependence in five long waves of technological revolution. We analyse the roles of inventors, R&D laboratories, entrepreneurs, managers, financiers and the state in the evolutionary dynamics of innovations. In addition, we take a close look at creative destruction, technology transfer, diffusion, adoption, innovation strategy and disruption in dedicated lessons. Throughout the module, we employ a variety of historical and contemporary case studies to bring theoretical concepts to life.

Learn to build a sustainable funded new green business venture based on local/global opportunities, partnerships and metrics for success. Within a team setting, you will need to identify a green issue you are passionate about, build a business model, understand the ecosystem, identify investors and pitch for funding.

Sustainability, ESG, inclusion and impact: What lies behind the soundbites and how do they fit together? What do they mean for the practical workflow of role-players in corporations and institutional investors? This course traces developments and milestones in the global sustainability agenda in recent decades, from the perspectives of policymakers, investors and corporations, in developed and emerging economies. Taking a systems approach, it provides context for the plethora of initiatives and interventions underway in the public and private sectors. It explores frameworks, methods and theories of change for assessing sustainability actions including dependencies, trade- offs, and unintended consequences.

Digital transformation is happening to all businesses today. The course approaches this from two perspectives how to build a digital transformation roadmap in a traditional industry as an incumbent and how to disrupt the incumbent by building the business plan as a disruptor. This course dives deep into the following aspects of digital strategy and transformation – Understanding different digital strategies and how to apply these theories as practitioners. – Building and developing the digital transformation roadmap for corporations and understanding the change management aspect across corporations. – Sharing real-life examples of organizations who succeeded and failed in digital transformations of traditional enterprises.

Entrepreneurs face several challenges in identifying opportunities and venture building. Operating in an environment of risk and uncertainty, they must seek relevant human and financial resources and are confronted daily with complex management decisions. This course thus teaches various strategic perspectives and tools implemented to navigate the entrepreneurial ecology to approach success.

Creating a new business is a challenging and complex task. The road to entrepreneurial success is long, winding and strewn with pitfalls, obstacles and blind turns. The risks of starting a new business are high, as illustrated by the high failure rates for new ventures. However, as is always the case, the rewards are commensurate with the risk.