MBA Executive Forum to focus on the strategic repsonse of multi-nationals to the global economic crisis

MBA Executive Forum – Wednesday 13 Feb 2013, 3pm – 5.30pm
The Symposium Room, Kent Business School, Canterbury
Chair: Professor Soo Hee Lee

Kent Business School is pleased to welcome Dr Seijiro Takeshita and Professor Christopher Williams who will chair discussions on strategic repsonse of multi-nationals to the global economic crisis.

Seijiro Takeshita will examine how Multi National Enterprise (MNE) based on non-liberal governance system have been able to show resilience against the impact of global economic and financial crisis.  Emphasis will be based on strength (and weakness) of non-liberal governance, particularly on why it is predominantly strong at times of economic crisis.  He will focus on why Toyota was able to overcome global economic crisis and seize the spot of world’s largest producer of autos, while GM filed for Chapter 11 after the crisis.  He will also touch on structural, cultural, and managerial backgrounds and explain why this was possible for Toyota and not for GM.

Seijiro Takeshita is a Director of Mizuho International Plc in London. Previously he has worked for international houses like ABN AMRO, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Lyonnais. He has received his MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is an internationally renowned expert on Japanese and Asian business and financial markets, featuring regularly on BBC, CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg TV, Aljazeera, International Herald Tribune, and Financial Times.  He is a member of The London Japanese Rugby Football Club (captain, 94-96).

Christopher Williams will examine how highly-internationalized multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been impacted by the onset of global financial crisis, and the ways and means by which they are able to respond. A particular focus will be on whether, and how, MNEs need to change their international strategies to deal with the issues related to credit crunch. The presentation will draw on data collected on the internationalization patterns of Dutch MNEs between 2004 and 2011, as well as in depth cases of Starbucks and Philips.

Christopher Williams is Assistant Professor of International Business at the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada. He has two decades industry experience in international companies, including Midland Bank, Informix Software, and IMS Health. His research focuses on entrepreneurship and organization of multinational firms, offshore outsourcing and transition of knowledge-intensive work, and national systems of innovation. His work appears in journals such as Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Journal of International Marketing and Research Policy. Dr. Williams has published a number of teaching cases with Ivey Publishing on multinational enterprises such as Sony, Olympus, Starbucks, 3M and Philips.

If you would like to attend, contact Athanasia Spyridakou at a.spyridakou@kent.ac.uk, or to view more detailed programme information, click here.

 

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