Tag Archives: digitized economy

Gear Up for a Role in International Business

  By hmteam • November 12, 2015 , ,

In today’s world economy, almost every business career is an international business career. And you are an ambitious, tech savvy person who is ready to be a part of this diverse scenario. There’s a lot of cultural exchange and business knowhow involved in every business interaction these days. Do you have the drive to succeed in this challenging environment? If you answered in the affirmative: Does your skill set include what it takes? Here’s your checklist.

01_International_Business

  • Be culturally sensitive

If you want to succeed in international business, staying stuck in your local cohort will not get you very far. You don’t have to travel to Spain to know that a business dinner could go well into the wee hours of the morning because the mealtime commences so late. You also don’t have to spend time in Japan to find out that the Japanese don’t think twice about asking people what they earn. Taking out the time and interest to talk to international students on your campus is good enough to teach you a long list of things like this. Extensive reading helps too. Or you could end up offending an elderly Japanese individual by offering to shake his hand. Some cultural customs may even irk you, but the more you know, the better for your growth.

  • Work on your language skills

Simply reading books often is one way to improve your language skills. Getting As in English classes throughout school and college doesn’t say anything about your conversational skills. Work on your communication. Push yourself to talk to more people and to develop good conversational skills so that you can build lasting relationships. Plus, knowing multiple languages is essential. Chinese languages have become popular for B-school students since the country has a booming international business environment. The truth is that people are comfortable talking in their local language, so remove that barrier.

  • Stay abreast of world affairs

There is a reason that there are so many newspapers and magazines in the market; you need to stay in touch with what is happening around you and elsewhere. When you are working in an industry, staying in a vacuum is just not and option. You need to read the news, watch the news, sign up for online alerts and know what is happening across the globe. Daily events affect stock prices and the prices of raw materials. Rapid changes like a terrorist attack in a safe city result in changed business processes and demand and supply. For example, somebody working in the hotel/tourism industry would need to know about the 2015 Bangkok temple blast because it obviously affected business. Knowing what is happening enables you to change and adapt your strategy accordingly.

  • Learn about governments/political relations

In the current business space, organisations work with colleagues and clients in various countries. Develop your knowledge of international politics and economics of the nations and cities that you work with. Find out about the chief minister/president and the ruling party. Then do your research and understand where things stand between the government of your country and that of those places. Also understand the relationship between the ruling party and its opposition. That could help you avert trouble if you are offering goods or a service in their location. For instance, a multinational company that runs cab services globally will study each location, learn about its trade unions and understand how supportive or unsupportive political parties are when it comes to welcoming foreign business.

The Nanyang Fellows MBA programme

The Nanyang Fellows MBA programme nurtures candidates who go on to succeed in the international business world. From top experts teaching you to time carved out for a visit to a top US B-school, there are multiple elements to bring you closer to your career goals. Whether you want to start your own entrepreneurial venture after years in the workforce or join the coveted C-suite, the entire experience will help you build the skills and mind-set needed.

As a representative for your company in the global arena, you’ll enjoy new experiences each day. Even if you aren’t always on a plane, you’ll be going places as you continue to excel as an international communicator.

Managing the Enterprise of Tomorrow

  By hmteam • October 26, 2015

03_Enterprise

Future enterprises will be immersed in an even more digitised economy. Every individual in a company will have a bigger impact on business. Whether you are managing a team of two or five, you will have more influence in your company. Daily working conditions will be different and your day-to-day schedule would be affected by these, but tomorrow’s admin guy is going to learn to be much more versatile than somebody in his current profile. Regardless of job titles, everybody is going to have to throw themselves into the new environment.

More Complexities

Tomorrow’s enterprise is more complex. If you think that knowing fluent English and being able to talk to foreign clients is good enough, think again. In the future, more internationalisation will create a thin line between the global and the local. That means that businesses will need to know when local trends and culture cannot be overshadowed by a globalised view. Imagine starting company operations in a country where the people prefer to lead more traditional lives relying heaving on cultural norms but you try to force an American office environment on them. So sensitivity and the ability to simplify things will be important. If communication is a priority today, it will be the topmost feature distinguishing enterprises in the future. A good manager needs to integrate market strategies, activity and long-term policies with the shareholder expectations, customer aspiration and colleague mindset in focus.

New Profiles

Enterprises in the future will have to rely on their capacity to attract talents and on digital world skills. In other words, the human resources and information technology departments will be highlighted. New job profiles will be created; for example, data scientists – not a description that we are very familiar with. Individuals who are capable of predicting trends and tastes will be in demand because change will be so frequent and solutions so customised.

Leadership Qualities

A changing business environment has brought on a change in expectations of behaviour. The topmost person in an industry has always been known as someone who knows almost everything about everything in his or her field. This will become rare as enterprises start equating authority with attitudes, personalities, charisma, the capacity to make others adhere to ideas, and above all else, the talent to encourage others to work well in collaboration. The new leaders will be mobilisers and facilitators. You have certainly already seen things moving in this direction.

Vital Responsibilities

Digitisation brings with it new forms of competition and risk, so future company leaders will have to focus on corporate strategy and cost reduction. Decisions will be taken to comply with the need to differentiate a business from its competitors. You need divergent strategic plans to achieve this and cost reduction. The management will still have to continuously demonstrate to shareholders that the decisions taken are increasing the value of their assets. That happens today as well, but the future will see such decisions being made more frequently.

Training Needs

Costs for training associates will increase. Enterprises will want technically qualified employees who are fully operational on day one. Earlier, companies would spend a lot of time and effort on training new entrants, in hope of retaining them for a long duration.

Today, the global economy is volatile. Escalating costs, changing technologies, complex regulations, unpredictable markets and record deficits are affecting businesses around the world and have created new challenges in meeting expectations. Enterprises that possess the ability to anticipate needs, will adapt more easily to change. A business needs to be globally effective in terms of addressing various markets and running operations optimally. It also needs to be innovative, adaptive and ready to face certainty and uncertainty.