Global Sourcing & Logistics
Course Syllabus for the program of Excellence in Export and Logistics Management
Global Sourcing & Logistics
Course: The Excellence in Export and Logistics Management
Organizers: M6/EABW/Export Academy
Start Day:
Open Entry Duration: March and April / April and May 2022
Meeting Days/Time:
Online / Hybrid Number of Modules: 7
Study/activity time: 75 hours per Program ???
Teaching Method: Lecture, discussion and case study
Tuition: ?????? EUR
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The Excellence in Export and Logistics Management course has been uniquely designed for this region in order to include highly recognized foreign experts in international trade with both long academic and practical experience coming from Germany, Steinbeis Global Institute Tübingen and Export-Akademie Baden-Württemberg. In addition, the course includes several well-known local speakers of prestigious companies from North Macedonia and the region that will present the success and challenges of international trade. The course contains practical lessons in global trading which deal with the most important aspects of SMEs internationalization process, including managing overall international business, international sales and marketing, intercultural management and international HR, global sourcing and logistics, international financial management and international law and regulatory. The course is based on the following key principles: – scholastic approach, integrating all the significant aspects of the internationalization process; – usage of the best practical experiences and theoretical research; – an international team of lecturers, proven experts, each in their own field of expertise and – case study work on live companies and cases (each participant will develop an export case for his/her company project if possible) The course will be held online and hybrid, depending on the covid situation. This hybrid module will enable networking and transfer of knowledge between the participants.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
After completing the course, participants will have an excellent understanding of how to discover the difficulties and opportunities of international markets, from a strategic and operational point of view. This course will examine the issues involved when companies enter foreign markets and/or are involved in all other internationalization operations. Participants’ basic understanding of the principles of international sales, marketing, finance will be segmented by additional exposure to the problems export managers’ face in the global marketplace. Special attention will be given to the process of export planning, creating own competitiveness in the global market, modern global sourcing concept, cross-cultural differences impact, importance of international legal business frameworks and full understanding and flawless realization of internationalization procedures and techniques. After this course, the participants will feel confident to successfully contribute to the internalization process of any company regardless whether it is on its start of its internalization or has already long experience in exporting products / services. This added knowledge will greatly assist local companies to start exporting or export more, but also will help individuals that want to pursue a career in international business.
COURSE MATERIALS AND APPROACH
The highly experienced lecturers in international business will use a combination of written materials that they think best treat the given issue, and examples from their own experience. Lecturers, in a frame of given module, are completely free to express their own point of view and to present those elements of the analyzing topic that they consider to be the most important, the most essential for the listeners. Only in that case their expertise will come to the full expression and successfully will be transferred to the listeners. They will use a variety of readings, cases, and software simulations. The most important readings and cases are contained in the course program. The lessons are designed to introduce strategies, operations, techniques, and procedures for conducting international trade. Cases will allow us to examine, in detail, the application of exporting and overall internationalization approaches and frameworks. The simulations are designed to give you hands-on experience with international trade concepts. Concrete solutions to the real dilemmas and problems are the course’s most significant concept.
COURSE STRUCTURE – MODULES
MODULE 1 – International Business Management
An understanding of international business and managing internationalization activities is essential for professionals in today’s highly globalized world. This module will provide participants with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to understand the global economic, political, cultural, and social environment within which firms operate. It will examine the strategies and structures of international business and assess the special roles of an international business’s various functions. This module will prepare participants for a huge variety of business roles in a global context, whether they’re interested in entrepreneurship, export managers, corporative strategy, global innovation, consultancy of multinational management. It will also prepare participants to formulate and execute strategies, plans, and tactics to succeed in international business ventures.
MODULE 2 – International Sales
This module covers: development of international personal selling skills, market research in context of planning international sales, analysis of international research data, invention and development of company international USP, competitors’ analysis, selection of entry modes, selection and development of international sales channels, organization of international sales forces, development of adequate international sales policy. In addition other topics that will be included are: brand vs private label strategy, understanding the role of cross cultural dimension, designing and price brands to appeal to different international market segments, developing and managing export sector, coordinating of company’s cross-sectoral operations, exporting technique, certification and documents, planning and managing international promotional campaign and advertising, negotiation technique with multinational companies, international trade terms (Incoterms).
MODULE 3 – International Marketing - Elena
Whether actively seeking opportunities to export in foreign markets or only feeling the pressure of global influences in a home market, international marketing strategy has strong impact for all of us, everywhere. International marketing in process of internationalization has crucial mission to explain the difference between global and domestic market, to learn about cross-cultural challenges in international operations, to help us in process of market segmentation, targeting position, international branding, creating international marketing strategy, identifying foreign markets potentials, overseas market research, strategic and tactics promotional technique, product planning and adaptation and new product development. In addition, communication with professionals and consumers and creating of image and reputation will also be covered. This module will provide an answer on how to generally market your products/service to successfully compete in the global market.
MODULE 4 – Intercultural Management/International HR
In today’s globalized environment, it is imperative to understand what happens when people with different culture backgrounds meet each other and do business together. This will have a decisive influence on the success of business. It is essential for large multinationals or startups, for owners or managers. The basic aim of the module is to give a deep understanding of the cross-cultural management. The participants will be equipped with the knowledge and tools they need to lead and communicate across cultures. This module continues to explore the human resource management and employment relations within the context of the complex internationalization of business. Hiring and motivating employees from the global market is the crucial success factor in the times of rise of multinational corporations’ activities and foreign direct investment. The module also deals with negotiations across national borders which are also very important for effective establishing of win-win partnerships.
MODULE 5 – Global Sourcing and Logistic
In the pandemic, many companies have seen once again the great importance of well-functioning international sourcing and logistics system. The factors which have to be considered for the evaluation of in- and/or outsourcing will be touched on. The participants will deal with issues of global sourcing and deepen their knowledge in logistics systems and processes. Types of logistics, international transport routes, planning of logistics processes will be discussed. Another crucial aspect to consider is what components transport costs consist of and how they can be calculated. The next integral subtopic, networks of logistic service providers will be also covered in this module.
MODULE 7 – International Commercial Law and Regulatory
In an increasingly globalized world, almost all businesses operate internationally, exporting, or meeting foreign competitors at domestic market. Trade, hiring labor, investment, and finance cut across national boundaries and are regulated by a complex splice of transnational laws and regulations. It implies that export professionals need to be armed with a rich understanding of how law and business operate at a global level. International commercial contracts, international intellectual property law, employment law, international banking, insurance and financial law, international trade and commercial law, are all parts of this module.
MODULE 6 – International Financial Management
Decision-making process in the field of financial affairs during companies’ international activities has crucial success role, especially for small companies that are not well experienced for quality involvement in this field, and has limited resources different than the multinational corporation. This module treats types of export financing, features of pre-shipment and post-shipment financing, methods of payment, role of commercial banks in export financing, measuring and managing currency exchange risk, forms of securing the collection of foreign claims, financial risks. Therefore, the module will give a profound introduction to international finance and will include topics such as: the foreign exchange market: currencies, exchange rates, parity; international equity and bond markets; interest rates and monetary policies and derivatives: futures, options and swaps.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
The basic goal of this training is to enable fully skilled export professionals that after completing this training could be immediately involved in the processes of international business battlefield and successfully, with high quality performances, answer to the internationalization challenges, as entrepreneurs or export managers. An international team of lecturers and proven professionals in their field of expertise, will transfer the practical knowledge to the training participants. The participants will receive certificate of attendance or certificate of participation by a world recognized institute from Germany that has more than 30 years of experience in academic education. Certificate of participation will be awarded to the participants that will work on their own export project and will develop export business plan, feasibility study. From the beginning of the course all the cases will be presented on the last module in consultation with their assigned mentor. SGIT Steinbeis Global Institute Tübingen is a part of Steinbeis University Berlin, which is the biggest scientific private non-profit university in Germany. As a part of the ‘Steinbeis family’ SGIT has access to the infrastructure and network of more than 900 organizations involved in the Steinbeis-conglomerate worldwide (i.e., institutions, research centers, educational organizations, companies, and enterprises). The institute cooperates with Export-Akademie Baden-Württemberg with which global leadership programs are jointly implemented, especially putting attention on practical case study education. The Export-Akademie located in Tübingen was founded in 1984 by the state government of Baden-Württemberg. With a staff of 10 people, it carries out educational, consulting and research activities at the interface of management and technology. Since 2008 it has been operating as a private company. One focus is the development and implementation of project-integrated blended learning concepts for the training of specialists and executives. The Export-Akademie establishes “Centers of Excellence for Green Technologies” in strategic markets such as Argentina, Kazakhstan, Russia, South Africa, Uganda and Uzbekistan. These centers support German companies in their international business activities. The GreenMLA®- benchmarking project for sustainable business management complements these activities.