Courses

STRATEGIC BUSINESS LEADERSHIP
Prof. dr. Koen Vandenbempt (Belgium)
This course focuses on how firms can gain and sustain competitive advantage. More specifically, it looks at the dynamics of strategy and management and shows how can companies adapt to emerging market opportunities while simultaneously understanding the need to exploit competitive differentiation in the short term. Elements linking market dynamics, senior management perspectives, market positioning, and organizational dimensions are brought together in a framework that answers fundamental questions about leading strategy development and execution.

Professor Koen Vandenbempt is dean of the Faculty Business and Economics of the University of Antwerp, member of the Board of Directors of Antwerp Management School and professor of Strategic Management at Executive MBA program of AMS. He is guest professor at GIM (Goa Institute of Management, India and Alliance University, Bangalore) and at James Madison University (USA). He is also independent director of HRD, AWDC (Antwerp World Diamond Centre) and Cultuurconnect. Prof. Vandenbempt is researcher, advisor and management trainer in the field of strategy formation, strategic marketing, excellence in management, strategy implementation, business model innovation & organizational mindfulness – industrial markets, supply chain dynamics, service industries, creative industries. Publications in academic journals: Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Human Relations, Technovation, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Advances in Business Marketing & Purchasing, Advances in Applied Business Strategy.


LEADERSHIP
Smita Tharoor (UK)

Modern organizations are operating in increasingly complex and turbulent global environments and should be geared to undertake constant changes. In this context the Leadership course aims to establish the importance of leadership, provide an understanding of effective leadership behavior and enable participants to develop self-awareness and to gain insights into the best practices of how to lead an organization or its division as well as on the impact of different types of leadership styles and decisions. The course will examine different perspectives of leadership and will focuses on personal leadership development. The course provides a process for participants to develop their leadership skills and potential during and beyond the program.

Smita Tharoor is the founder of Tharoor Associates, a training, coaching and organizational development company that understands the importance of the unconscious bias. She provides training for Warwick Universities Executive Leadership Program and is a visiting lecturer for MBA students at Jindal Global University, India. She is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Practitioner, Coach, Mentor and Mindfulness Practitioner. Smita is a motivational keynote speaker and trainer. She is passionate about the unconscious bias and how it impacts on all aspects of leadership development. Her experience working in the UK, India, Europe, Asia and the USA gives her a unique advantage in understanding the expectations and needs of different cultures.



INTERCULTURE MANAGEMENT
Prof., dr. Michael Minkov (Bulgaria)

The objective of this course is to develop a sense of intercultural awareness and analyze the influence of culture on management practices. The focus is also placed on how to manage cultural differences more effectively: how to interpret cultural differences, how to learn from them and how to use them for the best result. The module aims to enable participants to understand and develop the skills required by today’s business to effectively manage internationally, to improve communication across cultures and understand international network. Topics, covered by the course, include: cultural awareness and cultural dimensions, practical application of cultural research, management and leadership styles in different countries, presentations and negotiations with international partners, regional culture differences including in-country regions.

Professor Michael Minkov is a professor of Cross-Cultural Awareness and Organizational Behavior at International University College, Bulgaria. Porf. Minkov is an academic disciple and associate of Geert Hofstede, the father of scientific cross-cultural analysis across modern nations. Some of Minkov's findings have been accepted by Hofstede as an enrichment and update of his classic model. They have recently published a number of co-authored articles as well as the third edition of Hofstede's classic "Cultures and Organizations; Software of the Mind" (McGraw-Hill, 2010). Minkov has also written two monographs on culture, with contributions by Hofstede: "Cultural Differences in a Globalizing World" (Emerald, 2011) and "Cross-Cultural Analysis; The Science and Art of Comparing the World's Modern Societies and Their Cultures" (Sage, 2013), as well as a number of academic articles in journals, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries. Michael has taught seminars at the University of Portsmouth (UK), Erasmus University, Maastricht University, and Stenden University (Netherlands), Bilgi University and Koc University (Turkey), Aarhus University (Denmark), and IBS Moscow (Russia). In addition to his academic work, Minkov works as a freelance teacher and consultant in the area of cross-cultural awareness. His clients include AIMS Human Capital, Air Liquide, Avon, Alpha SOT, Heineken, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Italcementi, Lukoil, Mondi International, Nestle, NetInfo, Shared Services (Coca Cola Hellenic), SDI Group (an Italian consultancy in Tunisia), and Schneider Electric.



INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Prof., dr. Phil Eyre (United Kingdom, France )

This course explores the fundamental concepts and theories of international business. It examines the global business environment, including economic, political, cultural, and legal factors that influence international trade and investment. Students will gain insights into the challenges and opportunities of conducting business in a globalized world. Among the topics covered there are also: International Trade Theories, International Trade Policies and Institutions, FDI, International Business Strategy, Emerging Trends in International Business.
Professor Phil Eyre is MBA Program Director of Grenoble Ecole De Management (France), with responsibility for onsite and offsite programs, including full-time and part-time MBA programs in Grenoble, London and Tbilisi (Georgia). Phil Eyre is Associate Professor to department People, Organizations and Society  Doctorat , International Economics, GEM. Within the field of International Business, Phil teaches the following courses: European Integration, the European Business Environment, Global Trade, Sourcing and Logistics in Supply Chain Management, Business in Emerging Economies. For the MBA program he takes the Business in the Global Environment elective class and the final capstone module or ‘Integrative Case'. Over the years, visiting teaching on the above topics includes short deliveries for institutions at graduate and at undergraduate level in the USA, UK, Singapore, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Serbia. He is regularly invited to lecture in the US on European integration issues. Before focusing on academic activity he gained professional experience in service and manufacturing companies in Britain, France and Italy in the IT, office equipment and tourist sectors. Phil is a British national who has spent most of his professional career working in French business schools apart from short periods in Britain and Italy.



NEGOTIATING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ACROSS CULTURES

Prof. dr.Patrick Rottier (New Zealand)

This international course builds towards understanding and mastering the interrelated skills that contribute to the art of today’s successful business negotiating. The course explores the larger framework that sits over contract negotiation: business strategy, management psychology, legal, intellectual property, marketing, supply chain, etc. Understanding and dealing with ‘Cultural Differentiation’ is integrated throughout the course at both conceptual and operational levels. The course includes multiple negotiation simulations, including live person-to-person format. Negotiations are recorded allowing evaluations by video-analysis. Participants receive mp4 copies of their negotiations for evaluation. The practical implications of alternative strategies and tactics are examined, as are the elements of persuasive power, structuring the process for optimal effect, maximizing potential value, managing power and information, preparing for negotiations, dealing with difficult people, breaking deadlocks, and managing team negotiations.

Professor Patrick Rottiers brings 30+ years of international corporate know-how to this course. Patrick has been teaching international post-graduate programs (EMBA, MBA) since 2005 at universities and management schools in New Zealand, Europe, Russia, China, Australia. He has an extra ‘higher-education teaching degree’ from Antwerp University and is passionate about incorporating the latest pedagogy insights into his programs. Patrick Rottiers is the quintessential prac-ademic: someone who blends academia with being an active practitioner in their subject area: a seamless transition between practicing, teaching, research & consulting, while feeding daily international business development expertise back in to his teaching & publishing.


STRATEGIC MARKETING

Prof., dr. Gachoucha Kretz (France)

Strategic marketing focuses on generating value for consumers and customers. This course intends to detail the value creation process in strategic marketing by taking a closer look at how to build a compelling value proposition in a specific industry and how to translate it to target markets. For the last decade, marketing has been facing significant disruptions (i.e. societal, digital and sustainable). Those disruptions have impacted the way marketers build and develop marketing strategies by introducing new consumer trends that require innovative updates and brand purpose rethinking (societal disruptions), shifting marketing towards customer-centricity and data-driven decision making (digital disruptions), and imposing constraints to create compelling value for consumers, from product innovation to brand portfolio management and communication (sustainability-driven disruptions). The course addresses those disruptions as opportunities for strategic marketers to improve the value delivered to consumers and customers.

Professor Gachoucha Kretz specializes in brand management with a focus on the following areas: digital branding, fashion and luxury brand management and social media marketing and branding. Her latest publications deal with fashion and luxury blogging and its impact on brand management. She is also co-authoring a textbook on luxury brand management to be published by SAGE London. She teaches a wide range of HEC students from Summer School and MSc. to post graduate programs such as MBAs and executive MBAs and transversal audiences such as the Luxury Certificate program. Gachoucha Kretz is also a visiting professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and at Meiji University in Tokyo where she teaches the Netnographic research method (Kozinets 2010) applied to luxury and fashion and fashion and luxury marketing. She is a member of the Association for Consumer Research, of the Association Française du Marketing and of the Consumer.


SALES MANAGEMENT PRACTICE

 Dr.Goran Milenković (Germany)

This course is a practitioner’s take on strategic and tactical elements of leading and managing the sales function within a commercial organization. It is intended to be an exchange of views and discussion forum on Sales, exposing participants to multiple issues and challenges relating to modern sales management, including designing, organizing, and managing sales teams on a day-to-day basis in the turbulent modern world. The insights into key topics will mostly be provided to the participants before the course by pre-reading and getting exposed to the set-up and approach of the sales function within their own companies, while the face-to-face time will be much more devoted to discussions of the current challenges and “living cases” of different companies.

Goran Milenković considers himself a Pracademic, someone who is both a practitioner and an academic. As active executive and business consultant he draws on 30 years of international management experience, having worked for, advised, or collaborated with blue-chip companies such as DHL, Deutsche Post, Henkel, Stihl, and the American Management Association. His most recent assignment was as General Manager of Lekkerland Germany, a seven-billion-euro convenience wholesaler. Goran lectures and facilitates workshops on a broad range of topics affecting international business practice. He leads the Global Strategic Challenges course – an international business module consisting of a series of thematic seminars, each delivered in a different location in Europe, China, the USA, and Africa. Goran resides in Germany but has lived and worked globally.

DIGITAL MARKETING
Thierry Cellerin (France-Russia)

This course aims to show how Digital Transformation changed the ways of how marketing should be conducted in the modern digital environment. Participants will learn how to manage complexity, customer and stakeholder expectations in the context of omnichannel presence, new patterns of clients’ experience and touchpoints, overwhelming digital content coming from the competitors. This course helps to develop skills in integrating components of overall business strategy into the digital marketing development of the organisation, understanding the drivers of purchasing process by consumers, using new management techniques for rapid transformation, managing a project of a web application, understanding the technical issues linked to the digital marketing campaigns and broad organizational challenges in the digital business environment.

Thierry Cellerin, founder and CEO of Buzzfactory, a specialist in digital marketing, President of the Marketing and PR Committee of the Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Moscow. Thierry is also one of the founders of the French Tech initiative in Russia. Arrived in Moscow in 2002, Thierry Cellerin worked in several sectors before returning to his first love: advertising. After 3 years spent in a traditional advertising agency, he launched himself into digital marketing and created Buzzfactory in 2010. Between 2010 and 2019, the company grew and its turnover increased by 30 to 35% per year (and 47% in 2019 alone). It has major international brands among its clients.



FOUNDATION OF CORPORATE FINANCE

Prof. Ben Podevyn (Belgium)

The course is designed to provide participants with a clear understanding of the fundamental principles and practices of corporate finance. First, by pre-reading and preparatory self-learning they get the basics of financial accounting including various financial reports (e.g., income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement) as well as financial analysis (e.g., of liquidity, profitability, efficiency) and various investment standards, such as ROI and NPV. The in-class part focuses on key drivers and tools of corporate finance such as discounted cash flow, project valuation, capital budgeting etc.

Professor Ben Podevyn is professor of finance at Antwerp Management School. Ben holds an EMBA from the University of Antwerp and obtained a Master in Applied Economics from the University of Antwerp. Since 1999 Ben Podevyn has been professor at Antwerp Management School and has been providing management development and training consultancy for corporations as well as academic institutions. Besides lecturing at Antwerp Management School Ben holds visiting positions at the Institute of Business Studies (Moscow), the Center for Management Training (CMT-Warsaw) and the Goa Institute of Management (GIM-India). Ben has taught in numerous executive education programs for companies such as DHL, Levi Strauss, British American Tobacco, Belgacom, South African Post Office, Air Products, Delft Instruments, T-Mobile , AP Möller Maersk, Microsoft Russia.


COMPANY VALUATION & VENTURE CAPITAL

Arsia Amir-Aslani (Iran-France)

This course will provide the students with the fundamental finance techniques used by the company's finance executives when evaluating the company's financial health and assessing the attractiveness of investment projects. Participants will be mastering interest rate, time period, present value and future value calculations. They will also gain understanding of the mechanisms of entrepreneurial finance, ways of managing a rapid growth, evaluating business models and licensing opportunities. The course will cover all steps of the venture capital business, examine challenges that have emerged in the past decade, highlights the financing needs of companies and is illustrated by cases from the biotechnology sector. The course provides perspectives from the investor’s side of the table that will help avoid pitfalls and financing needs through every growth stage.

Dr. Amir-Aslani has more than 25 years of experience in the Hi-Tech sector from a capital market, academic, consulting and industry perspective. After a career in investment banking and healthcare consulting, Dr. Amir-Aslani has returned to the academic world at Grenoble Ecole De Management as a Professor of Management of Technology & Finance for a wide range of international programs (MSc, MIB, MBA and Advanced Master’s). Dr. Amir-Aslani was also the Program Director of the Advanced Master’s “Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Management” Degree at Grenoble Ecole De Management in France from 2009-2019. During his tenure as the Program Director of the Advanced Master’s he implemented multidisciplinary programs geared towards the needs of scientists and engineers. Such programs have prepared graduates for competitive careers and leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies, international organizations, research institutes and government organizations. Before joining Grenoble Ecole De Management in 2009, he had his own market intelligence and investor relations consultancy. Prior to that he was Vice President for Corporate Development and Strategy at Crucell, a dual-listed (NASDAQ, Euronext: Amsterdam) Dutch biotechnology company. Moreover, Dr. Amir-Aslani was an Adjunct Professor of Competitive Intelligence in the M.Sc. "Innovation and Management of Technology" at the University of Paris, Panthéon-Sorbonne. He has numerous publications in both academic and practitioner journals.



OPERATIONS, CONTRACT & RISK MANAGEMENT

Bruno Gomart (France)

This course focuses on protecting the company’s interests through a better Risk Management, the main purpose of is to prepare company resources to face project risks and to mitigate their relevant impacts. Special emphasis will be put on Claim Management during project execution. This course among others covers the following topics: Introduction to Risk Management as a Margin Protection Actions, groups of risks, risks identification, assessment, mitigation and control, Introduction to Claim & Dispute Management as Margin Protection & Recovery Actions, performances criteria, project execution main challenges, roles & duties.

Bruno Gomart has been Senior Adviser in Operation Risk Management since 2002. Previously employed by big international engineering companies, he completed his 30 years career at Senior Executive level: General Manager of a Russian sales office, Executive Vice President of an American company, Vice President of a French company. His field of activities includes: Training & Coaching, Operation Risk Auditing, Defense strategy, Court Expertise (ICC, TC, High Court, OEB). He has an MSc in Mechanical Engineering (Ecole Centrale de Lyon) in 1976 and an Executive MBA (Centre de Perfectionnement aux Affaires, HEC group, Paris) in 1990. Bruno Gomart lived in the USA, Russia, South Korea, Algeria, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Germany, Italy and Turkey. He has been Official Adviser to the French Government Foreign Trade Organization since 1995. He teaches Risk Management and Claim & Dispute Management in MBA/EMBA programs.