International Business Trends
In a global context, businesses must adapt to continuous changes and trends. This session introduces some key aspects in international business, helping students to understand the main components firms use to make decisions when expanding operations abroad. Departing from the idea of strategy, participants will understand how strategic management is extended to international contexts. It presents some basics on global business trends, geopolitics, digital transformation, amid the pivotal importance of sustainable business practices.

Management Strategies in the Global Environment: Towards a Sustainable and Competitive Model.

The session explores how businesses can combine sustainability, social responsibility, and competitiveness in the global market. The session is highly dynamic, combining theoretical aspects with case studies, debates, and even some simulations. Thus, students will be able to see how to apply these concepts in the real world and leave with useful strategies for their future professional or academic endeavors.

International Organization Structures
This session describes the ability of multinational companies to effectively coordinate their headquarters and international subsidiaries, critical to their success. Students will understand why this coordination is a central challenge in international business and how it can become a key source of competitive advantage. Different organizational models are examined —centralized, decentralized, and hybrid—and their impact on global performance. The session focuses on aligning strategic goals, managing inter-unit communication, and building trust and cohesion across culturally diverse teams. Real case studies are used to illustrate how leading firms manage these complex relationships to optimize innovation, responsiveness, and control.

Conflict Management.
Conflict is an inherent aspect of human interactions, manifesting within individuals, groups, and across various domains, including business. Recognizing the inevitability of conflicts, executives must develop adept conflict management skills to navigate through them effectively within organizational dynamics. This session adopts a practical approach to explore key facets of conflict management, which will be applied through a business conflict simulation. Participants will examine the concept and characteristics of conflict, analyzing conflict behavior, exploring diverse conflict management strategies, and engaging in role-play scenarios to reinforce learning and application.

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems.
Entrepreneurship is defined as the interaction of entrepreneur and opportunity.  That traditional approach fails to explain why the same entrepreneur and the same opportunity will have different probabilities of success, depending on the ecosystem where they are based.  The session provides an understanding of the notion of entrepreneurial ecosystems and its elements (entrepreneurs, investors, government, institutions), discusses several public policy measures to boost entrepreneurship in different cities, and explains how entrepreneurial ecosystems emerge and evolve.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Entrepreneurship is defined as the interaction of entrepreneur and opportunity.  That traditional approach fails to explain why the same entrepreneur and the same opportunity will have different probabilities of success depending on the ecosystem where they are based.  The session provides an understanding of the notion of EE and its elements (entrepreneurs, investors, government, institutions), discusses several public policy measures to boost entrepreneurship in different cities, and explains how EE emerge and evolve.

Global Corporate Governance: Challenges and Best Practices.
This session introduces and highlights the relevance of corporate governance as a discipline. The topic is illustrated through brief case-study discussions of some of the most typical cases of corporate collapses internationally. Differences in corporate governance systems worldwide and the existing taxonomies that can help us to understand the dynamics and complexities of stakeholder relationships are explored. Students will further understand the role of the board of directors as a one of the most widely used mechanism for control, collaboration and resource provision, ensuring that the right strategic decisions are made. Finally, codes of best practices for improving corporate governance of companies are discussed. The session includes a practical exercise and resources for international comparison.

International Expansion Strategy.
Foreign contexts are diverse, complex, dynamic and changing; thus, businesses must carefully evaluate and select the right markets to ensure successful international expansion. This session combines theory and practice to help students develop skills in country selection and entry mode choice. In the first part, key concepts and frameworks for assessing economic, political, and cultural factors are introduced to support market evaluation and entry strategy development. In the second part, students will apply this knowledge in a platform-based simulator, making key decisions on expansion, market adaptation, and risk management in a dynamic and evolving environment.

Emerging Trends in Business: AI, VR, AR, Metaverse, Blockchain.
The session encompasses exploration into five primary topics: Artificial Intelligence advances and tools; Virtual Reality, comprising various virtual environments, components of VR systems, including CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment), and virtual worlds; Augmented Reality, focusing on its diverse applications; Metaverse; and Blockchain, covering the fundamentals of blockchain technology, the origins of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, an overview of top blockchain platforms, and insights into Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). This comprehensive discussion aims to provide participants with a holistic understanding of these emerging technologies and their potential implications across different sectors and contexts.

Critical Skills for Managers of the Future.
To effectively navigate through disruptive changes, managers must acquire essential business skills as their role significantly impacts fostering seamless collaboration, motivating subordinates, tackling emerging technological challenges, facilitating problem-solving, enhancing decision-making, and nurturing creativity within their teams. This session adopts a practical approach to delve into critical skills necessary for success in this dynamic landscape. Participants will explore problem-solving techniques, hone critical thinking abilities, foster creativity, master people management strategies, facilitate collaboration, develop emotional intelligence, sharpen decision-making process, prioritize customer orientation, refine negotiation skills, and embrace flexibility. Through this comprehensive curriculum, students will gain a global perspective and acquire the tools required to adeptly manage the multifaceted challenges posed by the disruptive era.

Intercultural Competencies.
This session provides a specific understanding how culture affects behavior, communication, and decision-making in different environments. Students will learn how to identify cultural codes and understand cultural differences. We will also allow students to understand, evaluate and apply models related to intercultural management. The session will make use of rea-world examples, learning how explore own culture while avoiding common cultural misunderstandings.