Just as in the Matrix Movie Series, this SMU-X course transitions you from the simulation of reality that you have been living at SMU into the real-world of industry. Watch the University Matrix Series (https://vimeo.com/showcase/7245960) and sample your dose of reality as it prepares you for the real-world. The course delivery combines:
(a) Content delivery through a daily spoonful of knowledge through LinkedIn which not only makes the course material easier to absorb but also has the side effect of enhancing your business social media profile that you will use in your job search in the real-world;
(b) In-class opening video sequences aligned with the key content messages, role plays, confessions of an expatriate, open discussions with a former Global Management Consulting Partner, among other student centric teaching techniques to engage and motivate you;
(c) The award-winning X-Culture Global Virtual Team (GVT) experiential learning exercise to help you learn the skills of working effectively in a multinational (80% of graduating Singaporean students will be employed in an MNC) while assisting a real-life SME somewhere around the world to enter a new country.
This course develops your knowledge, skills, and experiences in understanding the diversity of people and market economy characteristics throughout Asia (including, contrasted with Western characteristics); the process in formulating an international business strategy; and the working environment and interrelationships within a MNC across corporate headquarters, regional management centres (Singapore being the largest hub in Asia), and country subsidiaries. Basically, how to do business throughout Asia. You also get exposed to management consulting techniques, approaches to manage foreigners within multinational teams (learn now rather than make the mistakes when you start your full-time job), and writing business reports that business executives will read rather than toss in the bin.
Your X-Culture GVT will be globally assigned. But you can select members of your Local SMU Team who you will work with during the term on in-class exercises, your MNC Case Presentation as well as sharing insights and perspectives amongst your local team of your individual Global X-Culture experiences. The course workload is front-end loaded allowing you to apply effort while your other courses are workload light, then completing the heavy lifting with the submission of your final client report in end of Week 9 before the demands of your other courses' kicks in. After the successful completion of the X-Culture project, in addition to the normal SMU grade, students will receive a Global X-Culture certificate, an Individual Global Team Performance report, an Individual Cultural Intelligence Assessment, and a Recommendation Letter reflecting your performance - all helpful collateral to differentiate you from your competition for that important job search.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Assess the topology of differences in operating environments across different countries of Asia and their implication for multinational strategy and operationalisation.
- Evaluate the source of a multinational's competitive advantages and its capability to exploit them in foreign markets.
- Evaluate alternative strategies of a multinational to ensure sustained engagement across and within foreign markets.
- Understand the role of the constituent entities that comprise the global operating model of a multinational.
- Analyse the administrative structures of a multinational as to its ability to mediate the forward and reverse transfer of complex knowledge so as to sustain multinational commitment to foreign markets.
- Appreciate the challenges and develop technique for working internationally within MNC cross-cultural teams.
- Integrate learnings from other business and management courses into the international context as one devise a market entry solution for an actual company.
- Most importantly, understand the different expectations between the protective bubble of university and the Real World of industry across a range of dimensions so you will have a greater probability of performing more effectively "out of the gate" when entering the workforce.
Working in virtual teams with other students from various institutions organised by X-culture, students proposed go-to-market strategies to a variety of organisations based overseas.