Asia Compact in International Management

The 1st edition of Asia Compact: International Management took place at SGI-HSG Singapore Campus from Sunday, Nov 6 to Friday, Nov 11, 2022. The course is part of the Master in General Management (MGM) program and was taught by Prof. Dr. Björn Ambos. 

This course focused on international management in the Asia Pacific Region, including topics such as institutional environment and culture, global competitive advantages, market attractiveness in the Asia Pacific region, and regional headquarters-subsidiaries relationship. The course also featured case discussions on global strategies & challenges in implementation, institutional voids, reverse innovation from foreign subsidiaries, and market competition from local players. Students learned to lead the discussion on ten selected countries in the region. In addition, they had opportunities to meet and listen to guest speakers from Grab Asia, Google APAC, Campbell Shipping, and Novartis. 

A large group of 24 students traveled from Zurich to Singapore for the course. This highly interactive course started with a guest lecture about Singapore to deepen students’ knowledge about the country. Besides that, students took part in a city tour, visited the Singapore City Gallery Museum, and enjoyed BBQ on the East Coast. On the last day, they had a site visit at Novartis’s regional headquarters to learn about Novartis and the pharmaceutical industry, discuss Asian business culture, and exchange ideas about Novartis’s market access to the low-income segment. The role of Singapore as a regional hub to coordinate resources and facilitate knowledge sharing among different markets in ASEAN was highlighted throughout the sessions.