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). Breaking down the world into 8 specific regions, the course explores the predominant political regime-type in each. It also maps out superpower influence networks across the regions, first militarily and then in terms of diplomatic soft power. We then explore how the West (US, EU) seek to protect the international rules-based order through economic sanctions (sticks), while China pushes a “carrot-heavy” approach to win over client states with its Belt and Road Initiative.

In Week Two, the course focuses on superpower economic influence networks, starting with an exploration of how open each of our eight world regions are to external trade and then measuring how central individual superpower markets are for those regions’ exports. We then examine three advanced-to-emerging-market financial flows: Official Development Assistance, migrant worker remittances, and foreign direct investment, establishing in each region which superpowers either possess historical dominance or seek it today. Then, by profiling seven strategic markets in terms of their global supply chains, we establish how our five superpowers rank in terms of dominating global value chains while nonetheless becoming strategically dependent on various world regions.

In Week Three, the course leverages all the political-military and economic analyses of the first two weeks to profile each of the eight world regions as to how our superpowers either enjoy or seek strategic influence and standing. By doing so, we reveal each superpower’s weaknesses and ambitions vis-à-vis one another and elucidate how each seeks to address that combination through its global influence networks. At this point in the course, each student will have a solid sense of how superpower competitions are playing out in every world region, thus shaping the trade and investment market in each instance.

Week 1: Geo-Political Environment for Superpower Brand Wars

• Breaking down world regions by types of political regime
• Global military influence networks
• Mapping global soft-power influence networks
• China’s Belt & Road Initiative versus Western sanctions
• Summing up the superpower geo-political influence competition

Week 2: Trade and Investment Spheres of Superpower Competition

• Superpower trade centrality in regional markets
• Superpower money flows (a): Official Development Assistance and migrant remittances
• Superpower money flows (b): Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
• The complicating factors of strategic markets trade
• Summing up the superpower economic influence competition

Week 3: Region-by-Region Guide to Superpower Brand Competition

• North America & Latin America
• Europe & Former Soviet Union/Commonwealth of Independent States
• Middle East/North Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa
• South Asia & East Asia
• Summing up superpower brand competition

Week 4 - Navigating Global Categories

• Brands and Products in a Global Econom
• Strategic Goods and Materials
• Luxury Brands
• Trusted Consumer Brands, Goods, and Services
• Commodities and Manufacturing

Week 5 - Regional Strategies and Success Stories

• America - Nearshoring via NAFTA/USMCA
• EU - Strategic Positioning for Growth and Compliance
• China and East Asia - Navigating Roadblocks with a Fast Follower Model
• India - Harnessing a Runaway Talent Train
• Africa - Groundflooring and Market Making