APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016

GRA 8206 Asian Business Trends

Responsible for the course
Benedicte Brøgger

Department
Department of Innovation and Economic Organisation

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
Recent economic growth in Asian countries (e.g. China, India) has forced companies to re-evaluate their strategies to take advantage of these opportunities. What are the current financial and human capital costs of doing business in Asia and globally? What might future challenges be? How do firms compete to capture emerging business opportunities? How should firms strategically position themselves today to take advantage of key developments in the Asian and Western economies to sustain high corporate growth? These fundamental concerns will be addressed by the proposed Asia EMBA Programme, specially designed for BI Norwegian Business School, to be conducted by the Nanyang Business School.

Learning outcome
Knowledge
Gain insights into Asian perspectives on leadership and strategy. Gain insights into the tensions between stakeholders in multi-business corporations, and the implications for improving corporate governance. To gain understanding of marketing and branding in Asia as well as mergers and aquisitions in the Asian context.

Skills
Develop middle management strategic leadership competencies that are crucial in the changing and competitive global business environment. Build cultural intelligence as a strategic leadership capability that will help manage global/local issues in a multinational work environment, create a global mindset that will help extract value from cultural differences and build alignment with global corporate strategy.Develop the capability to analyze, understand, and adapt to the behaviour of people from different societal, generational, or organisational cultures.

Reflection
Reflecting on the difference between Asian business culture and business cultures in the rest of the world.

Prerequisites
Granted admission to the EMBA programme.

Compulsory reading

Collection of articles:
Collection of cases and articles

Recommended reading

Course outline
Asia in the emerging global order and leadership in Asia

Business journey to the East and applying Sun Zi Bingfa to strategic management and thinking
Sun Zi Bingfa (also known as Sun Zi’s Art of War) is the most well-known Chinese military classic written more than 2000 years ago. Its value in influencing business warfare has never been disputed and it is must read text in all major military academies of the world. Of equal significance is its relevance to strategic thinking, business and marketing strategies and practices. This course seeks to relate the military philosophy of Sun Zi to the corporate world by providing new and different insights on topics like strategic leadership, teamwork and teambuilding, military and business intelligence, choosing battlegrounds and areas ignored by the enemy, strategy development and formulation, strategic controls, ethics, and management of human resources. It takes an oriental perspective in dealing with the various issues pertaining to strategy and seeks to broaden students’ creative and analytical thinking skills in relating and applying Chinese philosophical concepts to the modern world of business, with focus on strategic and marketing issues. With the increasing importance of China as an economic superpower and its entry into the WTO, more and more multinational corporations are interested to understand the mindset of the Chinese strategist. Sun Zi Bingfa provides a useful reference. This is because, to many Chinese businessmen and corporate strategists, the business world is likened to that of a battlefield.

Leading with cultural intelligence
It is a challenging job to motivate a workforce that is made up of people from different cultures. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this difficulty. Management methods that work well for one culture may not work as well in another. To manage performance well, we need to pay attention to how cultural differences impact performance attributions, self-construal, employee motivation, and performance-related feedback behaviour.
Suggested topics:
(a) Common cultural dimensions
(b) Cultural intelligence
(c) Performance attributions
(d) Self construal
(e) Employee motivation
( f) Feedback behaviour

Asian branding
This part of the module is dsigned for executive students with some degree of marketing and branding knowledge/experience. However, the range of concepts and materials we will be using should provide a challenging experience even for those of you who have branding backgrounds. The overall focus will be how branding and brands fit into the overall management structure, and how it drives value for businesses.

Mergers and acquisitions
In this part of the module we explore the reasons and motivations for mergers and acquisitions, and will examine the strategic considerations in planning and implementing a merger or acquisition, in either a friendly or hostile environment. The tools and techniques of valuation, including leverage buyout transactions will be reviewed. The acquisition process will be discussed in detail, including the confidentiality agreement, bid process, due diligence, closing and implementation. The aim is to provide an understanding of the strategic, cost, valuation, structure, financial, legal, accounting, negotiation and implementation issues associated with mergers and acquisitions.

Examination
The course evaluation will be based on:
40% individual class participation.
60% individual assignment.

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course.

Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation
Examination code(s)
GRA 82061 - Continuous assessment; accounts for 100 % to pass the course GRA 8206, 6 ECTS credits

The course is a part of a full Executive MBA and all evaluations must be passed to obtain a certificate for the degree.

Examination support materials


Re-sit examination
Re-takes are only possible at the next time a course will be held. When course evaluation consists of class participation or continuous assessment, the whole course must be re-evaluated when a student wants to retake a exam. Retake examinations entail an extra examination fee.

Additional information