Exec-ed courses to develop your global market insights

In our increasingly interconnected world, organisations increasingly want leaders who can expand their company’s global footprint, underpinning the importance of global market insights.

Leaders, for instance, face a myriad of challenges amid the pandemic by having to lead change, address conflicts, and create new strategies amid a volatile environment while being under pressure to enhance value for the organisations they represent.

Those involved with business strategies or who want to expand their operations across borders must understand events that could affect their businesses to make strategic business decisions and thrive in volatile business environments.

More than merely keeping abreast of current events, a deep understanding of how issues such as policies, trade conflicts, technological disruptions and changes in global supply chains can  affect businesses serves as a valuable tool for business professionals involved in international business.

Upskill in global market insights to stay competitive

Online certificate courses and executive education programmes are helpful for professionals who want to beef up their skills and knowledge in the field without taking too much time off from work. Many of these courses can be completed within a few weeks, making it easy for executives to apply their newfound knowledge and skills at work.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for instance, offers Understanding Global Markets: Macroeconomics for Executives, a five-day course that is designed to help business leaders better understand monetary policy and central bank decision making and how these factors impact the countries in which they operate.

This popular programme explores international monetary policy and how the economies across Europe, Asia, and the US affect one another, especially in times of crises, notes its website.

Participants can expect to gain a deeper understanding of how central banks function, the dynamics of comparative advantage, how contagion occurs, sources of international conflict, and the varied responses of economies to crises.

Executives leave the programme with a better understanding of the current global economic environment, its future, its effects on their companies over the mid to long term, and how to assess and navigate macroeconomic challenges.

Columbia Business School offers Macroeconomics for Executives (Online): Navigating Global Risks and Trends, a 10-week online programme.

“Its foundation is the three-step Macro Scenario Playbook, which provides a framework to help make these big-picture concepts applicable for your business situation,” notes Columbia.

“Through the successful completion of this programme, you will learn how to improve your strategic decision making in today’s global economy and steer your organisation toward a brighter future.”

The London School of Economics (LSE) offers Business, International Relations and the Political Economy, an online certificate course that can be completed within eight weeks.

It focuses on the core concepts for understanding globalisation and global change, from international relations, political science, political economy and macroeconomics, and addresses real-world problems using historical reflection, conceptual discussion and in-depth case studies.

Executives will also analyse, in particular, how corporate organisations are impacted by events such as the 2008 financial crisis, changes in global supply chains, global power shifts and the emergence of China as a global economic power, instability in key areas of the developing world, technological and environmental disruption from automation and robotics to cybersecurity and climate change, and the rise of populism in the western world.

Ultimately, an understanding of global market insights can benefit many professionals, be it C-suite executives, investment professionals, entrepreneurs, to policymakers, with the tools and information they need to analyse and interpret the effects of global events on businesses.