Review of the week

In the first week of this open course, you have learned more about global marketing: what it is and why it could be important to you personally as well as to organisations.

In his TED Talk, Scott Szwast gave an important insight into the nature of global marketing and stressed the fact that no matter how big your business is, internationalisation is always an important concept to consider given the advent of technologies such as the internet.

The course has introduced the concept of push and pull factors, and you have explored the influence of these factors using a PESTLE analysis. This will have helped you develop a better understanding of the impact the external environment can have on global marketing strategy.

The subject of push and pull factors has been contextualised and brought to life with the examples you have used in your research for the PESTLE peer review activity. This is an important theme throughout the courses in this MBA program. We will actively encourage you to apply the theoretical concepts you learn about to real-life examples. Doing this will help you develop a better understanding of these theories (and their limitations) and it will better equip you to progress in your career.

You have also looked at how you can reflect on your own learning process. Central to this is your engagement with new ideas and concepts and developing your ability to explain them in your own words.

Next week you will:

• Be introduced to the evolution of global marketing and the EPRG framework
• Look at the different approaches companies adopt when internationalising
• Explore the concept of ‘born globals’ – companies that rapidly expand into global markets from inception
• Learn how managers can rapidly internationalise their companies

Your task

Before you go on to the second week of this course, briefly reflect on your learning experience during this first week.

• What have you learned and how will this create value for you moving forward?
• How have you found certain activities? Would you approach them differently next time?

Reflection and feedback are an important part of learning and will stay with you throughout your career. Getting into this habit now will stand you in good stead moving forward.