IBD Announces Three New Spring 2023 Course Offerings

The Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy is excited to add three new courses to our class offerings in the spring semester. 

GBUS 402: MNCs and Global Value Chains

GBUS 403: MNCs and Global Value Chains, a three-credit course taught by Professor Lindsay Oldenski, is back after a brief hiatus period—it was last offered during the Spring 2021 semester. The course covers fundamental topics relating to global production, including outsourcing and offshoring. GBUS 402 is also one of the Landegger Program’s foundational courses for Spring 2023. Dr. Oldenski conducts research on international trade and multinational organizations. She uses firm-level data to explain and predict the offshoring patterns of multinational companies, as well as understanding the impact that offshoring has on both developed and developing countries. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Dr. Oldenski taught at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and California State University, San Marcos. She has also served as a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, an economist at the U.S. Department of Treasury, an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and a consultant in the biotech industry. She has been awarded research fellowships from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Center on Pacific Economies, and the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

GBUS 402 goes beyond the typical buzzwords that reference outsourcing—often used in popular media and political rhetoric—to examine what is really known about global production networks. Students will learn what is meant by the terms “offshoring” and “outsourcing.” They will analyze whether traditional models of trade are sufficient to handle increasingly complex global production strategies and how to measure trade in intangibles (such as intellectual property and business services). The course also covers the impacts of offshoring on both the countries doing the investing and the countries receiving the investment. Other questions that the course will grapple with are: How worried should one be about losing their job to someone abroad? Is the world getting “flatter?” What policy responses are appropriate? These and other related questions will be addressed using both theory and empirical evidence.

GBUS 403: Investment Management Career Prep 

GBUS 403: Investment Management Career Prep is a new one-credit course taught by Matt Hochstetler (BSFS ’01). Hochstetler is a California-based investor who is currently a Portfolio Manager at Capital Group. 

GBUS 403 will be an intensive week-long crash course taught during the week of February 20th on how the investment management industry works. This course aims to help students decide whether a career in investment management might be right for them by learning about the ins and outs of investment management firms. Students will learn about various roles available, how to research a potential investment opportunity, and how to incorporate different investment approaches. Other topics covered include why return on equity (ROE) is the most central concept to investing, according to Warren Buffet, and how to apply Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter’s “five forces” to determine the sustainability of competitive advantage. Students will engage with “hands-on” topics that will give them the skills necessary for jobs in the investment management profession and learn how to successfully invest their savings for future growth over the next 70+ years. The class will also explore advanced skills that students can use, including interviewing management teams and coping with personal difficulties that may rise from the stresses of the industry. 

GBUS 414: Geopolitical Risks in International Business

GBUS 414: Geopolitical Risks in International Business, is a new three-credit course which will be taught by Clem Miller (BSFS ’83), an expert in international investing. 

GBUS 414  provides a framework for understanding how geopolitical risks and corresponding risk actions impact international business. These geopolitical risk actions can include military actions, sabotage/terrorism, cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, financial sanctions, decarbonization, public health measures, and currency controls, among others. GBUS 414 will engage with timely topics, such as the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on energy, the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on supply chains, the impact of Brexit, and several other key events. The course covers the factors international businesses should consider, and the actions they should undertake to identify, prevent, and mitigate geopolitical risks. This course is one of the only political risk courses taught in the School of Foreign Service, and is already proving to be extremely popular amongst students during the fall enrollment period.