Get with the programme to meet the challenges of global selling

Expanding your business overseas offers great opportunities but comes with challenges too.

The potential for differences in language and culture aside, businesses may also feel that they lack know-how in terms of strategy, selling into new markets, risk, legal issues and business ethics. But help is at hand.

Leeds University Business School (LUBS) has an education programme for executives at medium-sized business (turning-over between £25m and £500m) looking to expand overseas.

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The International Business Development Programme has been developed in partnership with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the Government department for overseas business development.

The programme is led by Leeds and involves five other leading UK business schools: Lancaster, Loughborough, Aston, Henley and Exeter.

The programme is scheduled to launch in September 2013 and has been specifically designed for executives of companies that wish to expand abroad.

The curriculum will cover topic including: understanding your business; developing strategy and the implications of various decisions; developing an international strategy and thinking about different business models; international marketing; selling into new markets; understanding finance and risk; thinking about technology and developing new products and services for new markets; corporate responsibility and business ethics.

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The programme is structured over a series of four two-day events, concluding with a final ‘wrap-up’ session where attendees will present an export growth plan which they can take away and implement in their business.

This is a real partnership, with UKTI identifying the organisations most likely to benefit from the programme and part-subsidising the course fee for participants.

Participants will be able to network with like-minded business people, who may be facing some of the same challenges – and opportunities – as them.

Leeds University Business School’s credentials in executive education speak for themselves. The latest Economist Executive MBA rankings place the School 7th in the UK and 41st overall in a league table of 62 international business schools.

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Leeds was the top business school in the North of England for its Executive MBA.

The International Business Development Programme is one of a number of initiatives which are linking Leeds University Business School more closely to local businesses in order to support growth and boost Yorkshire’s economy.

Richard Thorpe, Professor of Management Development at Leeds University Business School, recently co-chaired the task force that produced the Association of Business School’s (ABS) recent report on ‘The role of UK business schools in driving innovation and growth in the domestic economy’.

This report forms part of a wider initiative within the ABS to better connect business schools to a range of government agendas.

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One of these is Lord Young of Graffham’s Enterprise initiative which plans to use business schools to help support SMEs at the start-up stage of development as well as contributing to Sir Andrew Witty’s review of the way universities can better connect to Local Enterprise Partnerships.

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