Navigating Global Markets Amidst Superpower Brand Wars — New Rulesets for Global Business

Geopolitical risk is consuming more and more attention across the C Suite, forcing international businesses to rethink their marketing strategies as the benefits of globalization are called into question by superpowers determined to dominate large parts of the world coming under unprecedented strains of climate change, demographic aging, and the rise of a majority global middle class. As superpowers wage their national-brand “wars” across target markets, learn how to apply your own globalization strategy to create competitive advantage across these geopolitical boundaries. Accommodate near-shoring initiatives by leveraging north-south supply chain integration to secure local markets while maintaining global brands that can access and disrupt foreign markets through business models that respect cultural differences while achieving economies of scale. Such a multi domestic strategy is essential to avoid geopolitical lock-out from different markets subject to ever increasing superpower competition among China, India, Russia, the United States, and the European Union The internationalization of these rivalries is a defining characteristic of the global economy today, meaning your enterprise’s international strategy must account for them across international markets.

The first week will be a quick overview of Course 1 content, emphasizing the three “inevitabilities” (exploding global middle-class consumption, harshening climate crises, accelerated demographic transitions) along with three “inconceivable” strategy adjustments (recognizing the supremacy of North-South tensions, navigating superpower brand wars, enabling North-South political integration). By modeling the world as linked networks nonetheless regionally dominated by competing superpowers, the course introduces a new map for crafting transnational strategies that multinational companies can apply across both their home countries and different countries — in effect, an updated approach to operating global companies in a world characterized by rising geopolitical risk.

In Week Two, the course explores the fundamental rules associated with operating across regions dominated by competing superpowers, emphasizing the modeling of trade-offs among competing regional approaches to economic growth (North American compared to Europe and Asia) to determine the estimated flow of value across networks. In free or decentralized markets, these rules are entirely focused on the jobs to be done, value chains to be extended, and end-consumer’s demands to be met. With regard to more centrally controlled markets, the course introduces the additional influences of single-party political rule, the state imperative for constraining “unacceptable” activity, and the additional (or decreased) transaction costs imposed by stakeholders spread across political hierarchies. Understanding that all national markets land somewhere on the centralized/decentralized spectrum, the course assesses the utility of adhering to ESG principles when accessing new markets through subsidiaries and partnerships. Here also the course emphasizes the importance of seeing the world as value chains linked across boundaries differentiated by political, economic, and social forces. The lessons will also introduce market-constraining dynamics such as minority rule and the principles of intolerant minorities, emphasizing the need for designing networks for maximum resilience in the face of periodic but inevitable state interventions (e.g. tariffs, cyber sovereignty).

in Week 3, the course explores new models of business, such as the composable enterprises in the United States and the digitally enhanced directed autonomy (DEDA) of China. These represent new ways for organizations to manage both internal and external rulesets to access new global markets. These concepts, along with other insightful template designs, will be presented alongside rulesets for NGOs and governments that improve their attractiveness as expanding networks that effectively navigate the profound world-system-altering tectonics that are climate change, demographic transitions, and a fierce superpower competition to win the allegiance and brand loyalty of that majority global middle class.

Finally, in Week 4, the course explores business strategies of how to tap into, create, or grow new networks. It will discuss the opportunity to create attractive and valuable networks at all levels, from local businesses to global interactions. This week will present integrated strategies that work generally, such as creating unions, networking to leverage access to assets and tap into latent value (just as the sharing economy has done), and how to create attractive networks.