A key concern in business education is creating solid and sustained bridges between school and career. Career readiness remains a central focus and challenge. Recent studies by Pew Research points to the lack of preparedness of college graduates for the workplace and the need for novel approaches in what we teach, and how we teach it, to address the skills gap. In international business, partnerships and virtual exchange are increasingly valuable ingredients in developing the skills required of todays global managers. Using selected virtual exchange projects with partners in North and South Africa, we discuss how global competencies, cultural awareness, and international virtual-teaming skills can be imparted as integral aspects of an international business curriculum. The three panelists representing academic and business groups will describe their roles in designing and implementing these collaborative cross-border projects, their value to different stakeholders, including students and employers, and propose ways to assess and sustain these career readiness, impactful initiatives. Key Takeaways Conceiving, implementing and assessing team-based, virtual exchange projects, involving international partners. Leveraging academic-business partnerships to ensure career relevant virtual exchange initiatives for students. Identifying funding sources for signature international business projects.

When Martin Richenhagen joined AGCO Corp. in 2004, it was already a $3 billion publicly traded firm. But sixteen years later, when he retired from his posts as chairman and CEO, it was a Fortune 500 powerhouse combining some of the biggest brands in the business of agricultural equipment. With $10 billion in sales, it doubled in size during his tenure to more than 20,000 employees around the globe. This extraordinary growth story, rooted in metro Atlanta, is linked with Mr. Richenhagens vision to expand aggressively via acquisitions while peering constantly around the corner to see future trends in food and farming. Key Takeaways: -How multinational corporations should navigate a strategy of growth through acquisitions versus organic sales -Lessons on hiring, training and deploying executives in various emerging and developed markets and across functions, from management to marketing to manufacturing -How leaders can use embrace cultural differences as an advantage rather than a hindrance

FREE and open to all, but registration is required. Recently, the nature of entrepreneurial activity has gone through tremendous change with entrepreneurs designing business models challenging even the strongest global players, and responding to urgent calls such as sustainability. Fashion industry have showcased numerous striking examples of how new ventures change the rules of the game in a well-established industrial domain. This has been traced in the rise of several international brands founded by fashion entrepreneurs (i.e., ACBC Shoes, Reformation, Everlane, Patagonia), in the increasing number of collaborations between incumbent firms, new ventures and NGOs (i.e., ACBC shoes collaborating with luxury brands like Missoni and Chloe, Gucci collaborating with Wordrise and Artolution, Adidas collaborating with Parley for the Oceans), as well as in criticisms towards the current business models of established global brands (i.e., fast fashion companies like Zara). With the purpose of providing insight both from the academic domain and practice, this webinar will present a discussion to highlight following questions: - How does a strong orientation towards sustainability transform the playground of big multinationals in the fashion industry? What kind of opportunities have emerged for international new ventures? - How do digital technologies change the nature of fashion entrepreneurship and affect the achievement of sustainability-oriented goals? Is technology a part of the problem, or is it the solution? - In the face of these changes, what are the high priorities on the agenda of practitioners? What are the striking research questions for academics? Key take-aways: Hearing about the personal experience of a fashion entrepreneur with international coverage. Gaining a viewpoint on various business model implications of sustainability orientation with a special focus on how entrepreneurs change the face of international competition in the fashion industry. Learning about new research questions and strategies

Are you looking to offer an education abroad program? This webinar will provide you with the knowledge, experience, and resources you need to design an education abroad program at the two-year college level. The workshop is specifically targeted towards educators and will focus on all aspects of education abroad and international internships. View program flyer in the File Upload Please click the website link to register.

The Lansing Regional Chamber Economic Club, in partnership with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Mid-Michigan will welcome Donzaleigh Abernathy, actress, author, and civil rights activist on Thursday, Feb. 2. Sponsored by LAFCU, Abernathy is the goddaughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the daughter of Rev. Ralph Abernathy, who was a leader in the civil rights movement with Dr. King, and will focus her talk on the business case for diversity, equity and inclusion, economic justice, and civil rights.

A new world order is in place. Globalization is taking a different turn and evolving further. Businesses operate in a deeply interconnected yet polarized world, facing disruptions at multiple levels. Local relevance is one of the pillars for companies to maintain resilience and to thrive during times of turbulence. How do multinationals win with local consumers, customers and stakeholders? What are some of the critical enablers for success in the face of a VUCA environment and scarcity of resources? Where do you centralize and how much do you localize to create scale and maintain focus? What is the impact of talent, organizational structure and culture to drive global scale and local relevance? Todays radical change in context requires us to review and refresh past learnings on some of the questions which have been discussed for decades. Recycling our knowledge might be helpful as we design the next phase of global business where the dichotomy of local and global is becoming both blurred and further contrasted. Key take-aways: Gain insights into how multinationals operate in local settings Learn about different approaches in adapting global value propositions Obtain learnings on talent, structure and culture in leading and executing multinational operations

Diversity, equality, and inclusivity (DEI) concepts are gaining a critical role in teaching. DEI is particularly topical for International Business (IB) studies that are explicitly interested in managing and benefiting from various market, firm, and individual differences. But how to ensure that diversity goes hand in hand with equality and inclusion in IB teaching methods and content? The webinar will take a critical view on DEI in IB education discussing inclusive teaching practices, diverse materials to be adopted in the classroom, and teaching DEI as a topic in IB programs. The webinar takes a broad view on DEI (considers diverse abilities, socio-economic status, religion, age, sexual orientation, etc.) and therefore will go beyond traditional diversity dimensions such as gender or race. The webinar will shed light on some simple ways of putting DEI principles into practice when teaching IB and DEI topics in IB programs. Moreover, webinar will explain how DEI issues link with the social sustainability and the pressing need to adopt Sustainable Development Goals in the IB curriculum. This is a free webinar, but registration is required.

For this webinar, we invited three well-established international business/marketing scholars. Our panelists will discuss the use of meta-analysis as a methodological tool in international business and global marketing research. Specifically, panelists will cover contemporary conceptual and methodological best practices that need to be considered when they conduct meta-analyses. This webinar will include short presentations followed by a discussion moderated by the co-hosts. Time listed in EST KEY TAKEAWAYS Learn areas of research opportunity that can best be explored via meta-analysis Gain insights into the best practices for different stages of the meta-analytic research process Tips related to best practices for designing and executing meta-analyses for publication in the international business/marketing literature After the webinar, please return to this page to access a recording of the event.

The March Lansing Economic Club will feature a panel of distinguished women leaders who will discuss their leadership insights including the importance of having a mentor, what it takes to be a great leader, and how to inspire others to become leaders. The program will be moderated by Jessica Tramontana, community affairs specialist, Consumers Energy. Panelists include: Jill Marlan, founder and CEO, Peak Performance Physical Therapy Re'Shane L. Lonzo, co-founder and CEO, DRM International Learning Center Jo Sinah, president and CEO, Peckham Inc. State Senator Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing)

The supply chain has been one of the most studied and researched areas of business due to its criticality for the continuity of manufacturing and the flow of goods. The disruptions experienced globally within the last few years such as those labeled as the container crisis, the chip crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, etc. further reminded everyone the importance of effective supply chain management. As it is critical for all industries, the topic has some specific peculiarities when we focus on tightly controlled and highly technical aerospace, space, defense, and industrial markets. How do companies operating in highly technical and tightly controlled industrial markets manage their supply chains? What are the key external factors and how do they come into consideration? What are the key traits that they would be looking for in selecting key supplier partners? How do they find sources to supply these key/critical technologies and how do they manage those suppliers? How do they attract customers and how does this impact their operations? What is the impact of advancements in manufacturing technology, digitalization, cybersecurity, environmental and societal concerns on supply chain designs? Our highly experienced executive speaker will delve into the world of such industries and provide valuable insights in understanding the dynamics of global supply chains through the lens of hi-tech and tightly controlled industries. This is a free webinar, but registrationis required.