This course is designed to cultivate, challenge, and enrich a ‘global managerial mind’. Numerous conceptual and theoretical frameworks will be introduced to help the students explore and internalize the various complex organisational structures and processes facing all managers operating in today’s turbulent global environment. Both theoretical and applied approaches will be adopted. Given that Asia is and will be the driver of global economic growth for the next few decades, we will adopt an Asian perspective as we explore ongoing global management and organisational issues.

This course 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.

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 organisation will be reviewed. These components are recognized fundamentals to organisational strategy, operational efficiency and execution.

Information and communications technologies have brought fundamental changes to the business world. Being digitally smart and able to harness the digital technologies to effectively interact and engage with ever-changing consumers has become necessities for businesses to survive. The course takes the view that digital technologies have reshaped not just advertising, but all aspects of marketing. Students will first learn how digital technologies affect key elements of marketing strategy: segmentation, targeting and positioning. They will then be exposed to how product management, brand management, pricing, promotions and channel management, are all fundamentally changing in a digital era.

Executives, professionals and business people will continue to face the challenge of operating across borders as well as interacting with cultural others, as companies large and small, established and entrepreneurial, strive for global competitiveness. The challenge of managing successfully, self, and others, in an increasingly complex and global environment is the focus of this course. The course leads students to develop a deeper understanding of how management practices and processes can often differ across national and regional boundaries, and why. Students are also led to consider the social identities that they and cultural others bring to cross-cultural interactions. Leveraging on such understanding, students will learn to explore strategies and tactics for navigating these differences to develop global management capabilities

This course develops a conceptual framework for corporate decisions, focusing on the responsibilities, concerns, and methods of analysis for the chief financial officer. Topics include capital budgeting, financial modeling, M&A deal structures, syndicated loans, public equity offerings, and dividend policy. The impact of major external constituents, such as private equity and hedge funds, on corporate decisions are also considered.

In business, everybody negotiates. Every strategy and transaction will have to be implemented through strategic negotiations with other stakeholders. In fact, holding any executive position is essentially about the identification and management of different interests, which also requires an understanding of negotiation, mediation, and persuasion processes. The course is run as a series of interactive seminars and negotiations exercises, combined with reading and reflection assignments distributed throughout the course.

This course uses the “Models, Data, Decisions” framework to develop an analytical mindset and prepare participants to tackle business problems in a data-rich era. Focus is on sound model development and practical problem-solving rather than software technicalities.

This course develops financial literacy for professionals who need to understand and act on accounting information without necessarily producing it. We examine what financial statements actually measure, where those measures come from, and why they sometimes mislead. The course is built around real cases. Expect to spend a fair amount of time arguing about what numbers mean rather than just computing them.

The course assumes no prior background in accounting or finance. Students with engineering, medical, or scientific training will find that the logical structure of accounting is not especially difficult. What takes effort is building intuition about how business decisions translate into financial outcomes. That intuition is the point of the course.

By the end of this course, students should be able to read and interpret a set of financial statements with reasonable confidence. They should understand how managerial decisions affect reported numbers, and they should be able to identify when reported numbers are likely unreliable. Students will also develop enough vocabulary to have productive conversations with accountants and financial analysts.