International Business Seminar

On Tuesday, I was required to attend one of the international business seminars for my advertising class.  I went to “Global Geopolitical Challenges of the 21^st Century” because it fit with my schedule.  Professor Melnik was from Nancy, France and had a very heavy French accent, which was hard to understand at some points.  Thankfully, he prepared a PowerPoint presentation that accompanied his lecture.  The beginning of his speech was about political globalization vs. economic globalization.

Then he provided a brief history about the history of globalization.  The Renaissance in 1492 and the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus was the first instance of globalization.  Next was the first Industrial Revolution in the 1760s with Great Britain and the Netherlands.  Finally, was the second Industrial Revolution which reached the U.S., Great Britain and Germany at the end of the 19^th Century around 1914. 

Melnick spoke with great enthusiasm explaining that China and India will dominate in the 21^st Century with growth in global economy and demography.  The world is becoming more modern and less western.  We need to focus on our own cultural identity because the balance of power among civilization is shifting.  The western culture is declining while Asian and Islamic civilization is booming. 

The lecture ended by asking how we can go global as an individual.  Europe faces challenges that are institutional, economic and political due to a lack of visibility.  On the other hand, the U.S. is a birthplace and leader in globalization.  Obama’s geostrategy is to export hope.  There is innovation and creativity in technology and the value of our dollar is low. 

Overall, the lecture was very informative, but I found it hard to pay attention because he was talking very fast and it was hard to understand the professor’s accent.  I think that if I was a history major or a student majoring in political science, I would have enjoyed it more, but I didn’t think that this specific lecture had any focus on business or marketing.