International Strategic Management

Teacher(s)

Biga Diambeidou Mahamadou;

Language

English

Prerequisites

Because this is an advanced course in strategic management, this course is pitched at a level that assumes some familiarity with the foundations of strategic management.

Main themes

• Business-level strategy
• Corporate-level strategy
• Alliances, joint venture acquisitions   
• Internationalization stratégies

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	During their programme, students of the LSM Master's in management or Master's in Business engineering will have developed the following capabilities : CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP Decide and act responsibly,  while taking into account the social, economic and environmental sometimes antinomic, outcomes in the short, medium and long term, for the various stakeholders. KNOWLEDGE AND REASONING Activate and apply the acquired knowledge accordingly to solve a problem. WORK EFFECTIVELY IN AN INTERNATIONAL AND MULTICULTURAL ENVIRONMENT Position and understand the functioning of an organization, in its local and international socio-economic dimensions and identify the associated strategic issues and operational decisions. TEAMWORK AND LEADERSHIP Work in a team :Join in and collaborate with team members. Be open and take into consideration the different points of view and ways of thinking, manage differences and conflicts constructively, accept diversity. COMMUNICATION AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS Express a clear and structured message, both orally and in writing in their mother tongue, in English and ideally, in a third language, adapted to the audience and using context specific communication standards.

Content

This course is a Transdisciplinary Capstone Project, an integrative based approach of collective learning, active stakeholder engagement and collaborative research. The educational program has been developed to integrate disciplinary knowledge through practice-based and problem-focused learning at graduate level. It will also bring insight on a better understanding of why the persistent global problems such as current sustainability issues (e.g. climate change impacts), digital transformation (e.g.), geopolitical tensions (e.g. social inequality, economic crises), health issues (e.g. COVID pandemic) that plague nations around the world today will not be solved through siloed disciplinary thinking alone. Further, the fast-changing dynamics of industries caused by pressures of globalization have made it essential for companies/ change agents to adapt quickly. As a result of the intensification of those pressures, it is important that the next generation of leaders/managers understand how they can relate local, national and global perspectives, apprehend the macro environment, prioritize their actions for facing environmental changes and uncertainties, and adjust the organizational structure of their companies accordingly. The course aims to provide learners with a better understanding on the way companies or change agents can create and sustain competitive advantages from local to the international scene. To this end, theoretical tools and frameworks are introduced and applied to real-world situations. The centrality of transdisciplinary approach to future skill development and problem solving for society, adopted in this course, will help learners to gain real life experience in terms of how an educational ecosystem of students, practitioners and academics can jointly navigate intervening spaces of traditional scientific knowledge and societal knowledge as a levers to more effectively deal with our world most pressing issues.

• This course is a blend of class lectures related to multiple mandatory readings, dialogue with and among students, and intensive group-project works.
• This course is organized around 3 mean blocs: BLOC I- Bootcamp Early Growth Acceleration, BLOC II Fast Track and BLOC III Workshops.

Teaching methods

International Strategic Management embraces global strategic challenges over 5 weeks, punctuated by regular delivery of deliverables around 3 mean blocs: BLOC I- Bootcamp Early Growth Acceleration, BLOC II Fast Track and BLOC III Workshops.
BLOC I - Bootcamp -EARLY GROWTH ACCELERATION (EGA). Through computer simulation, we will place you into a very realistic international business setting where you will run a company for two years in compressed time (rounds of decision-making). You will work closely with a team of fellow students to manage a highly complex and integrated business. Personal leadership and strong interpersonal skills will be necessary to succeed. Throughout the exercise, you will receive guidance and feedback from the instructor. He will challenge your business thinking and help you to become a good team player and business manager. The collaboration and team spirit are at the center of the pedagogic approach and provide a strong proximity to the reality of ‘born global’, from startup to scale-up. Multi-cultural and pluri-disciplinary, mixing complementary personalities and young talents. Interacting with the professors, coaches and experts brought together around the various activities. Next, the attention to the sustainability of business models discussion, embarking not only environmental sustainability, but also consideration about responsible innovation, sustainable finance and governance, and an alignment to Sustainable Development Goals outcomes as a key opportunity to develop next generation leadership for sustainability.
BLOC II Fast Track. speed dating work sessions approach with entrepreneurs and economic development agencies in search of change. Integrating disciplinary knowledge through practice-based and problem-focused perspective, Bloc II provides a framework that will help collaborative team to quickly gain high-level understanding of why the persistent global problems such as the current climate change impacts, social inequality and economic crises, digitalization transformation challenges, health issues (e.g., COVID) that plague nations around the world today will not be solved through siloed disciplinary thinking alone. Using a case-based approach and focusing on a particular world's most pressing issues, Bloc II Fast Track will also help collaborative teams of students to identify opportunities that can make a real difference to their bottom line.
BLOC III Workshops combining Grand Jury/ Poster sessions is designed to help you reflect on skill sets required on topics of interest in this transdisciplinary project. Focus will also be on the ability to communicate findings to lay audiences.

Evaluation methods

A. Examination: First session
1-Team Evaluation (70%)
1_1. Continuous assessment :20%

• Oral defenses: Executives Briefings (Bootcamp):15%
  
• Written: Reporting Delivery of deliverables (Bootcamp): 5%
  

1_2. Final assessment : 50%

• Simulation performance  (Bootcamp) :30%
  
• Oral : Poster Session (Fast Track):10%
  
• Final: Report to the Board : 10%
  

2. Individual evaluation (30%)
2_1. Continuous assessment (active participation: Bootcamp Fast Track) : 10%
1_2. Final assessment : 20%

• Written Final: Report to the Board (Individual Reflective part): 10%
  
• Self Evaluation + Peer Evaluation: 10%
  

B. Examination: second session 

• Written : Case study/ Research paper 
• If too few students are registered for the second session examination, the Written will be replaced by an oral exam (Case study/ Research paper) in English.

Other information

Additional information on calendaring will be provided during the course.

Online resources

Course Material: A course pack containing the minimum required readings for each session, online platform licences and the cases are provided. All interactions on teaching materials, references and processing of case works and presentations is managed on Moodle.

Bibliography

• Reference list : distributed during the course.
• Lecture slides : available on Moodle

Faculty or entity

CLSM