International Corporate Strategy

Master 2 in International Business and Corporate Development (MR13403A) or Master 2 in E-Business and Digital Marketing (MR11802A)

The course deals with strategy for firms in their international environment. Its content can actually be extended to other forms of organizations (not for profit, public bodies, hospitals, coops, etc.). The course aims at grasping the various ways to analyze the competitive position of a firm on its worldwide markets to build a strategy, i.e. a path forward in a world where internationalization of firms, if not globalization, has reshaped the competitive environment.
The intent is to help students develop some familiarity with complex strategic issues, step back and untangle complexity using analytical frameworks, concepts and tools to build scenarios and assess strategic options. This leads to selecting a viable path into the future and elaborating plans to deploy the strategy, allocating resources accordingly. This is about designing a business model and crafting a business plan despite the many uncertainties of the world.
Hence the course is primarily focused on strategic analysis: industry structure, market analysis, strategic segmentation, competitive dynamics and anticipation of potential moves from competitors, technology and regulatory changes, identification of key success factors, sources of competitive advantage, assessment of key resources and core organizational competence, business models and business plans, with some introduction to foresight concepts and techniques and scenario building.

At the end of the course, students are expected to:

• Understand the theories and concepts presented during the course
• Be able to use the concepts and tools discussed
• Assess, document, synthesize and present a case of a company serving its customers on its markets worldwide and facing its competitive international environment