The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on global businesses are still felt in almost all sectors of work and across every country in the world. Globalization, as a concept, has been around for many years, but the digital revolution with AI, the use of Digital twin modeling, and most recently ChatGPT has vastly increased the ability of organizations to relate to each other in ways that were just until now, inconceivable, raising Globalization to a far more important issue that needs to be fully understood by both today’s and tomorrow’s business leaders.
Whilst the increased adoption of digital tools has - to a very large extent - transformed the ways in which business is conducted, it has also brought into focus issues that arise from different cultural norms and different uses of language.
Prospective undergraduates considering which programme to take need to take account of the future demands that businesses will impose upon them and ensure that they are fully equipped to deal with those demands.
How can IBM courses help students?
International Business Management (IBM) undergraduate courses, partly studied in a different country, provide students with the academic underpinning they need, and – through their year abroad in a different country – acquire critical thinking skills with an appreciation of cultural variations and how to surmount them.
Such programmes are really valuable to participating students from India as they offer them an opportunity to study in a university abroad, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.
Giving them great insights in their time in those Universities into how business culture practices operate in the western environment, with the added benefit of their study abroad year being in a third country – which could be in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, or most European countries.
Future employment prospects for IBM
The year abroad studies are always at Universities where the teaching is in English. A further year after the study abroad can be added to IBM programmes through a placement year, when the student is employed by a company which can be in their student’s own country, in the study abroad country, or in the country where the IBM course is being studied.
These placements can be well paid (salaries between £18,000 and £25,000 are common) and give the student excellent experience putting their academic learning into practice.
Such students are in high demand from employers across the globe, and if the IBM course is taken at a University that assesses the year abroad (such as is the case at Sheffield) then in just 4 years the student will have achieved a degree with study abroad and with a placement.
Key information for Indian students pursuing IBM
For post-graduate students from India many of the reasons for studying IBM are the same as for an undergraduate, but there is not the option of a study abroad period.
However, students on such programmes have the opportunity to follow the conventional route of submitting a substantial thesis (a dissertation) after the taught period of the programme has ended, or to complete a study with a company where the submitted document is a business appraisal, more applied than the academic dissertation. Students who take company projects can find themselves being offered jobs with the company for whom their report is being prepared.
Technology is certainly making an enormous difference in the way that business is conducted. But it is increasingly obvious that the managers of the future need to have a deep appreciation of how such technologies can be made to operate effectively in different cultural settings. It is vital to have a grasp of the limitations of what technology can achieve as well as when it can simplify complex matters.
The author is the Director of the International Business Management Programme at the University of Sheffield Management School,UK.
