• Cotutela con mondo esterno

The “INVEST IN FOREIGN MARKETS LAB” aims at providing students with theoretical and practical skills to set up, manage and expand a foreign venture.

To reach this goal, students will be involved in theoretical lectures, exercises, case studies, business talks, role plays and simulations provided by professors from Politecnico di Milano and by Business Executives from Multinational and Consultancy Companies, who will directly transfer their expertise and experience to the Lab participants.

Additionally, students will gain practical skills by taking part to real project works on internationalization provided by Alibaba, which will allow to directly apply the knowledge and capabilities developed during the Lab to plan a real international business project for a real company (a backup solution will be the participation to the global competition “X-culture”, http://x-culture.org/, where students will work on the international business plan of real companies with the students of other universities at distance)

The course fits into the overall program curriculum pursuing some of the defined general learning goals. In particular, the course contributes to the development of the following capabilities: 

- Design solutions applying a scientific and engineering approach (Analysis, Learning, Reasoning, and Modelling capability deriving from a solid and rigorous multidisciplinary background) to face problems and opportunities in a business and industrial environment. 

- Develop new ideas and solutions in business and industrial scenarios evolving over time

- Interact in a professional, responsible, effective and constructive way in a working environment, also motivating group members. 

At the end of the course, students will learn to:

• Select the international business strategy that is consistent with the global competitive context;
• Design the international business plan of a company that aims to invest in foreign markets;
• Negotiate an international takeover and use the appropriate tools and methods to develop an accurate and effective international business plan;
• Minimize the cross-border (country and currency) risks through international finance;
• Planning a global (out) sourcing venture and managing a strategic partnership;
• Organize a cross-country logistics and implement a global supply chain;
• Set up an international pricing and digital marketing strategy;
• Design an architectural organization that is consistent with the international business strategy;
• Manage the international human resources and deal with the multiculturalism;
• Understand how to launch and finance a “born-global” start-up;
• Face an interview and a recruiting process in a multinational firm;
• Negotiate the legal framework of an international outsourcing contract;
• Interact with the top managers of multinational enterprises and learning from their experience; 
• Cooperate and compete with peers to solve an international business project.

The “Invest in foreign markets Lab” is composed of six modules:

 1)International business and global sourcing strategies. Main topics:

• International business strategies
• Business plan for international business 
• Offshoring and global (out)sourcing 
• International marketing strategy 
• Cross-border e-commerce
• International pricing
• International entrepreneurship 
• Legal framework for international business contract 

 2)M&A: International takeovers, corporate finance and risk management considerations. Main topics:

• Applied corporate finance for investment bankers
• Investment principles and analysis
• Valuation methodologies for cross-border M&As
• Cross-border M&A modelling and business plan combination
• Managing international country risks 

 3)International logistics and global supply chain. Main topics:

• Types of service of the main transportation modes
• Customs clearance process and classification of duties
• Role and impact of “special” warehouses: VAT warehouses, bonded warehouses, free trade zones (FTZ)
• Managing a global supply chain 

 4)International organization and human resource management. Main topics:

• The organizational architecture of multinational companies and the Agile methodology; 
• Managing international human resources: staffing, talent and development, performance management and compensation, labour environment
• Multicultural management 
• The recruiting of human resources in multinational companies

 5)Meet the managers and visit the company:

• Meet top managers of MNEs 
• Visit the Headquarters of Multinational Companies 

 6)Group Project work:

• Participation to real internationalization projects of companies provided by the e-commerce platform Alibaba, which will actively organize and assist students from Politecnico di Milano to design the businness plan for the internationalization of some of its customers;   

(A back-up solution will be the participation to the international competition named “X-Culture” - http://x-culture.org/ - involving more than 5,000 students from 130 business schools in 65 countries; students are included in teams composed of 5-8 people from different countries working on a real business project presented by X-cultures’ corporate partners at distance)

• A final presentation of the project is required.  

None, but it is recommended that you attend the courses of the International Business stream.  

The final exam of the “INVEST IN FOREIGN MARKETS LAB” will be composed of three different parts:

• Project work evaluation. 

• Presentation of the project work. 

• Short final exam on the content of the class lectures. 

The course material will be uploaded either before or immediately after each lecture (based on lecturers' requests). The book is optional.