Autumn semester - Course list Management & IT exchange programmes

At the completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Identify social media communication strategies, how they are used and by whom

• Analyze and recreate the various techniques of persuasion used on social media 

• Recognize what the media makers want us to believe or do

• Evaluate social media messages based on their own experiences, skills, beliefs, and values

• Create and distribute their own social media communications on subjects involving business, the arts, and social or environmental causes

The course will focus on the role of the modern manager as a leader and a coach, and the psychological aspects of working with people. Focus will be on how people function as an individual (me), interdividual (you and me), and as a group (we). First part of the course consists of a brief introduction to psychology. Special attention will be given to Positive Psychology, which focuses on improving the mental functioning of human beings above that of normal mental health. Students will learn what makes the positive psychological traits of human beings. They will learn how the mind works, and the role of automatic thoughts. How the way people think influences the way they feel. Which specific thoughts lead to which specific feelings. How by changing the way you think, you can change the way you feel. The ten most common thinking errors.

Second part of the course will focus on the differences between different personality types. Students will receive an introduction to the most common personality type indicators, with the possibility to take one (MBTI), so students can get an insight in how their own personality works. How their personality typically develops during lifetime. What is their dominant mental function. What is their inferior function. What typical situations bring them stress, and how can they reduce it. What are the typical careers for the different types. Based on the different personality types, different subjects will be discussed. Speed reading personality types. Misunderstandings between types. What each type can learn from the others. How do the different types view leadership, teamwork, time management, meetings, problem solving,… Students will learn about the different roles people play in a team. 

The starting point of this course will be several key elements that have been instrumental in the development of a European identity as we know it today. From industrialisation, the formation of nation states and the tendency to internationalise and globalise certain aspects of politics and trade over the concept of supranationalism, the transfer of sovereignty, the creation of the internal market and the customs union to the creation of the EU where concepts such as freedom, democracy and respect for human rights are considered as commonplace in European democracies.

We will study each of those topics more thoroughly, from a historical and contemporary perspective, find similarities over different countries and look for equivalents worldwide, consult media channels, look at what challenges them nowadays, consider future projections ...

Delivering a memorable presentation requires you to be a psychologist, creative wonder, strategic salesperson and Hollywood star combined. No small task.
On top of this, public speaking ranks – next to flying, death and spiders - very high on the list of things we’re most afraid of.
Therefore, our approach in this course will be a bit different from other presentation trainings out there.  It’s not one size fits all, we’ll build on your personal talents and work around the pitfalls.
We’ll explore ways to master all aspects of presenting so you can confidently take that floor and become the pitch Ninja you never thought you’d be!

Students will learn to drive traffic and sales for a real business with Google Ads. After a theoretical introduction of how Ads works and how to research and set up a campaign, students will create a real Google Ads campaign for “their client”. In the end, students will interpret the data of the campaign, create a report and present their insights and recommendations.

Branding has become one of the most important concepts in marketing. Branding includes corporate identity expressions like brand and product names, logos, design, packaging, look & feel,... Its application ranges from consumer goods and services to places, people and concepts. The branding phenomena reached its peak when companies got a green light to incorporate the brand’s intangible value in their balance sheet. In this module students will obtain a clear understanding of the relevance of brands in contemporary society and will learn how to set up a brand management strategy.

This course addresses the topic of Human Resource Management in an international setting. As the business world globalizes even more, we must be aware of the reasons, the benefits, and the challenges of having a global workforce. Even though HR processes are based on the same core concepts and frameworks regardless of their national or international reach, the specificity of managing individuals, teams, and organizations in an international environment is quite significant. After this course, students will understand what it means to recruit & select employees internationally, train & develop them, and create compensation packages across borders.

City Marketing, also known as City Branding (or Place Making) is a practice whose objective is to build a city’s image, which in turn is the starting point for developing a city’s brand. It is the basis for raising a policy to pursue economic expansion and, at the same time, it serves as a conduit for city residents to identify with their own city, impacting in their daily life, economically, socially and culturally. In an scenario of a globalized world, where competition among cities is a commonplace, City Branding  comes to the foreground as a complex cutting edge, all-pervasive discipline and well-organized governmental activity, which contributes to the economic and physical restructuring of localities, in order to succeed in such a competitive environment.

The analysis and design of cities’ image and/or identity, including its subjective dimension as a place of emotion and meaning; and the methodological considerations techniques, practices and postulates of City Marketing are some of the aspects tackled in this course. Some of the questions that are addressed include, what is: A place? A city? A brand? Identity versus image? The citizens’ role versus tourists’? Measurement and city brand equity? A city brand index and items to be considered? Or if brands can be city makers?, among other inquiries. 

The course aims to develop managerial skills in multicultural decision-making contexts through the acquisition of knowledge necessary for the understanding of interaction between different cultures. The course will bring strong emphasis on human skills required to manage the cultural diversities in global teams.

Storytelling, it’s all about communication, interaction and getting your idea across. 

• The difference between information and ideas 
• Key requirements 
• Story versus factual representation 
• Requirements to tell stories 
• CAST model  
• Finetuning 
• Bringing it all together 

If you want to communicate so that your ideas and messages stick, tell stories. Storytelling is not fluffy, it’s about adding narrative structures, narrative elements to your content, to your texts.  

It’s about shaping the story of your organisation, through stories of the past, the future, the successes and the failures. Adding a human touch, and shaping the tone of voice of your brand, your organisation. It’s about communication without clutter, making yourself heard and remembered. 

This course will prepare you to conceive and deliver a solid Digital Marketing Strategic Plan, using the very same methodology implemented in a number of high-level organisations, often in a multi-country environment, such as Toyota and many others. By the end of this course (via a hands-on and interactive methodology) you will be able to:

• Conduct an in-depth analysis of your brand and your competitors online.
• Use the most relevant tools to audit digital channels: sites and social networks.
• Propose solid strategic paths to achieve success in the online environment.
• Deliver a tactical plan in order to maximise your company’s results in an increasingly tough and unpredictable market.

You take part in a business game on the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility. You form a team with students from other degree programmes. Each team represents the management team of a netbook manufacturer whose mission is "to be successful in business by being innovative and socially responsible". Throughout the game, you make strategic and operational decisions (e.g. choice of product, sales region, product location, supplier, quality of the components, terms of employment etc.). The goal of the game is to achieve the highest scores on the 3 Ps (People, Planet and Profit). The CSR Business Game is integrated in interactive workshops and complemented with a variety of assignments aimed at the acquisition and processing of knowledge and competences.

This course will help you to develop your skills in Dutch, the language spoken in the Netherlands and in Flanders. The learning objective is to reach level A1 of the CEFR for languages: understand and use familiar everyday basic phrases, introduce yourself and others, interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. However, students who are fluent in German tend to learn Dutch very fast and can reach an A2 level in one semester and will have the chance to do so. You’ll learn about the culture of Antwerp and Belgium, you’ll  recognize grammatical structures (A1) and use them (A2), you’ll develop your vocabulary, listening and speaking skills and you can choose between a more interactive and fun approach or a more classical approach focusing on grammar and vocabulary.

During this course unit you will learn about the different sustainability frameworks (e.g. SDGs, 3Ps, CSRD..) and how this topic is situated in a historical context and as part of geopolitics in our globalized world.  Next to the general principles we focus on system thinking and new economic models like circular economy, regenerative economy, social entrepreneurship, etc. In the advanced module you will learn how this applies to different domains eg HR, Logistics...After this course unit you will have a profound knowledge about how sustainability drives business today and tomorrow.

You will learn about methods to critically consult and assess different types of information sources. It is about gathering, validating, measuring and processing data to develop insights, strategies and appropriate actions, and reporting about sustainability parameters. You will be able to make the right calculations and decisions with the support of tools (e.g. AI).

You support the development of concrete business options and setting up the right priorities in the surrounding business ecosystem. This means that you consider different business models, gather and process inputs of relevant stakeholders (e.g. customers, suppliers,…). You will be able to distinguish between different options and make informed choices as a consultant and ambassador for the initiatives you are involved in.

Within sustainability it is of big importance to know how innovation can play a role in a business transformation process. You will need to solve specific problems within a company by using iterative techniques (e.g. product & service design thinking, co-creation) and process development. We immerse you in the trends, successes and failures of new technologies and what to integrate in the context of sustainability. The principles of intrapreneurship will help you to see and combine different perspectives to develop structural and impactful actions. You will apply your knowledge in real cases, explored in a multidisciplinary setting.

You will learn the basic principles of change management and what makes it part of sustainability. You will not only be able to understand the different parts of change but will also be able to enable change in different parts of an organisation, team and company. As a change manager you need to listen, to understand, formulate clear goals, empower and motivate colleagues and other stakeholders involved.  You keep the overview and bring in knowledge that is needed to get through the never-ending journey. You will have to cope with successes and failures throughout the process. Project and time management will be essential to analyze structural patterns in an organization.

This course is about fostering personal growth and self-awareness, encouraging reflection on values, beliefs, and emotions, and promoting the development of critical thinking skills to cultivate a deeper understanding of oneself and the world around them. This to become resilient, empathetic, and socially responsible in the business context and beyond.  We explore how to use talents and authentic leadership to make international and intercultural teams work in a business and the current world context. 

The theory and knowledge that you will gain during the different course units will come together and will be deepened during a series of cases, closely connected to different sustainability topics and specific sectors. The cases will both be conducted individually and in groups and will gradually evolve in complexity over the track.  At the end of the semester you will be immersed in a complex case where you have to demonstrate in thinking and doing what you have learned and personally integrated to create impact within the topic of sustainability.

This course will help you to develop your skills in Dutch, the language spoken in the Netherlands and in Flanders. The learning objective is to reach level A1 of the CEFR for languages: understand and use familiar everyday basic phrases, introduce yourself and others, interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. However, students who are fluent in German tend to learn Dutch very fast and can reach an A2 level in one semester and will have the chance to do so. You’ll learn about the culture of Antwerp and Belgium, you’ll  recognize grammatical structures (A1) and use them (A2), you’ll develop your vocabulary, listening and speaking skills and you can choose between a more interactive and fun approach or a more classical approach focusing on grammar and vocabulary.

• Terms of delivery: Incoterms®
• Instruments of payments
• Payment of short term transactions
• Documents in international trade
• Financing of international transactions

• Legal and Illegal Advertising
• Company Structures
• Intellectual Property Rights: Trademarks, Design Rights, Patents and Copyright
• International Sales Contracts
• Other contracts: Licensing and Franchising, Agents and Distributors
• Competition Law
• General Data Protection Regulation (including Consumer Protection)

The advancement of technology and AI, climate crisis and Covid-19 have created an unpredictable and uncertain environment across business industries and society. Our VUCA world calls for a new approach to drive innovation and change, for organisations to remain competitive and relevant.

This course will help you gain insights about the importance of innovation today. We will focus on the following areas:

• Learning about change management and organisational change theories, tools and techniques
• Exploring the stages of the change process and the impact of change on the business environment
• Understanding the principles of Lean Change Management
• Analysing change in context: reasons of failure of no longer existing companies and companies being threatened now
• Discussing industry disruptions, megatrends, cross-industry evolutions and innovation principles & themes that companies need to stay relevant in the current environment and ensure the ongoing success of change
• Introducing Innovation Strategy frameworks for long-term relevance and success
• Applying and evaluating Innovation Strategy tools to set up a portfolio of innovative ideas for different business cases

An introduction to SCM

• SC Forecasting
• SC Inventory management
• SC Procurement
• SC operations (incl MRP & MPS)
• SC strategy & planning (S&OP, MRP2 and IBP)
• SC consolidated exercise in Excel (inventory, forecast, mrp)
• SC sustainability and reverse logistics
• SC collaboration & resilience
• SC technology & innovation
• SC performance mgmt & scenario planning
• SC warehousing
• In depth review different roles in SCM: sales&marketing, logistics, manufacturing, purchasing & finance

Case

• Sales & Operations Planning case with challenges (questions) on: sales&marketing, finance, purchasing, operations and logistics

• Major geopolitical topics related to the following countries or regions : Europe, Russia, China and the USA
• Geopolitical opportunities & challenges and the impact they have on global business & supply chains.

Course content:

• Recap introduction transportation year1 (modes…)
• Global vs local transportation
• Transportation process
• Transportation roles&responsibilities
• Global rules & regulations, compliance
• Transport documents
• Transport cost insight (fixed, variable, price settings…)
• Sustainable transportation incl carbon footprint calculation
• New technologies in transport mgmt.
• E-commerce, last mile, uberisation
• Disruption, pandemic

Case content:

• Evaluate the different transportation modes based on distance, cost, sustainability, risk, service... and make a proposal you will report in a paper and presentation.

• Introduction to maritime and port logistics
• Cargoes and ships
• Shipping lines
• Ports and terminals

• Relevant macroeconomics, politics and institutions
• Economic and political factors that affect doing business internationally
• Effects of cultural differences on global business: social aspects, formal and informal protocol, management practices, business traditions, values, negotiations, ...
• US-China trade relations and the repercussions for the EU
• Corporate life

The value of networking nor lobbying can be overestimated in today’s world. Yet both are often seen as vague concepts and blurry activities. The course will introduce you to the world of professional and personal networking and lobbying.

• Networking defined
• How to make it relevant for you
• Networking barriers and how to overcome them
• LinkedIn, powertool for networking
• Intro on lobbying, zooming in on the EU
• Ethics & transparency in networking and lobbying

• Part One: Sales perspective
• Part Two: Sales practice
• Part Three: Sales environment
• Part Four: Sales management

• Storytelling and content marketing
• Storytelling and social media context
• Mindset and basic requirements for storytellers
• The function and the elements of a story
• Storycrafting versus story delivery
• CAST model as a basis for solid storytelling
• Research-crafting-editing as a process

No previous knowledge or credits required. However, this course is theoretically and practically demanding; deep engagement with the course materials and assignment is a must.

Non-exhaustive list of topics:

• Introduction to AI
• Prompt engeneering
• Different AI models and tools in practice
• AI business opportunities
• Ethical considerations and legal framework

This course will help you to develop your skills in Dutch, the language spoken in the Netherlands and in Flanders. The learning objective is to reach level A1 of the CEFR for languages: understand and use familiar everyday basic phrases, introduce yourself and others, interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. However, students who are fluent in German tend to learn Dutch very fast and can reach an A2 level in one semester and will have the chance to do so. You’ll learn about the culture of Antwerp and Belgium, you’ll  recognize grammatical structures (A1) and use them (A2), you’ll develop your vocabulary, listening and speaking skills and you can choose between a more interactive and fun approach or a more classical approach focusing on grammar and vocabulary.

SOSTAC Strategic Marketing Planning

• Foundations of Strategic Marketing
• Marketing decision-making and case analysis
• Opportunity analysis, market segmentation and market targeting
• Product and service strategy and brand management
• Integrated marketing communication strategy and management
• Marketing channel strategy and management
• Pricing strategy and management
• Marketing strategy reformulation: the control process
• Comprehensive marketing programs

• Supply chain:
  Introduction to SCM
  Forecasting 
  Inventory management
  Warehousing basics
• Import and export management:
  Terms of delivery: Incoterms®
  Instruments of payments
  Payment of short term transactions
  Documents in international trade
  Financing of international transactions

• Legal and Illegal Advertising
• Company Structures
• Intellectual Property Rights: Trademarks, Design Rights, Patents and Copyright
• International Sales Contracts
• Other contracts: Licensing and Franchising, Agents and Distributors
• Competition Law
• General Data Protection Regulation (including Consumer Protection)

• You will learn how to analyse the "why" of a company or Why companies exist, and how to analyse vision statements and formulate a compelling vision yourself.
• We will dig into who you need to achieve this strategy and how to reach out to people. In support of executing a strategy, we will also cover basic market research techniques to validate strategic assumptions.
• You will learn how to set up different canvasses used for business model creation and how these could help in analysing existing models or in creating new models.
• We will discuss multiple frameworks to validate if you are maintaining the right course that was defined in your strategy.
• All subjects serve the overarching goal of understanding how to get from 'this is a nice idea' towards product market fit.

• Brand & Reputation
  You identify the differences between branding and reputation and how these two are linked.
• Business and Personal Branding
  You discover the pros and cons of business and personal branding and how to apply it to your strategy
• Principles of Reputation
  You identify the key concepts of Reputation, and how these impact in your brand
• Issues and Crisis Management
  You learn about crisis management concepts and cases, and the importance to think ahead to be prepared in case your brand experience crisis and how to react to it.
• Brand architecture
  You identify and create the pillars of your brand to construct a strong identity
• Brand Reputation Strategy
  You assemble the pieces of the puzzle and implement the essential elements of your brand to create your brand reputation strategy

• Introduction on networking and stakeholder mapping
• Transforming your network into a community
• Sustainable networking
• Creating an elevator pitch, effective listening and speeddate with professionals
• Negotiation basics and integrative bargaining
• Negotiation and influencing tactics and group negotiations
• Negotiating in a purchasing and funding context

• Relevant macroeconomics, politics and institutions
• Economic and political factors that affect doing business internationally
• Effects of cultural differences on global business: social aspects, formal and informal protocol, management practices, business traditions, values, negotiations, ...
• US-China trade relations and the repercussions for the EU
  Corporate life

• Storytelling and content marketing
• Storytelling and social media context
• Mindset and basic requirements for storytellers
• The function and the elements of a story
• Storycrafting versus story delivery
• CAST model as a basis for solid storytelling
• Research-crafting-editing as a process

No previous knowledge or credits required. However, this course is theoretically and practically demanding; deep engagement with the course materials and assignment is a must.

Non-exhaustive list of topics:

• Introduction to AI
• Prompt engeneering
• Different AI models and tools in practice
• AI business opportunities
• Ethical considerations and legal framework

• HRM from a business perspective:
  • brief historical overview of HRM
  • HR strategy and goal setting
  • Ulrich's HR model
  • Link with company vision, mission, values & strategic objectives
• Talent@work and employee experience:
  • workforce planning
  • employer branding
  • competence and talent management
  • sourcing, selection and recruitment
  • on-boarding
  • performance management
  • learning & development
• Reward
• Off-boarding

This course will help you to develop your skills in Dutch, the language spoken in the Netherlands and in Flanders. The learning objective is to reach level A1 of the CEFR for languages: understand and use familiar everyday basic phrases, introduce yourself and others, interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. However, students who are fluent in German tend to learn Dutch very fast and can reach an A2 level in one semester and will have the chance to do so. You’ll learn about the culture of Antwerp and Belgium, you’ll  recognize grammatical structures (A1) and use them (A2), you’ll develop your vocabulary, listening and speaking skills and you can choose between a more interactive and fun approach or a more classical approach focusing on grammar and vocabulary.

This course will help you to develop your skills in Dutch, the language spoken in the Netherlands and in Flanders. The learning objective is to reach level A1 of the CEFR for languages: understand and use familiar everyday basic phrases, introduce yourself and others, interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. However, students who are fluent in German tend to learn Dutch very fast and can reach an A2 level in one semester and will have the chance to do so. You’ll learn about the culture of Antwerp and Belgium, you’ll  recognize grammatical structures (A1) and use them (A2), you’ll develop your vocabulary, listening and speaking skills and you can choose between a more interactive and fun approach or a more classical approach focusing on grammar and vocabulary.