Useful Class for International Business

I had a job in Global Banking when I was still taking my general education classes and prerequisite classes for business majors at City College of San Francisco.  There were not many classes that were major related back then.  When I transferred to San Francisco State University, most of my classes are business related.  The core classes for business major are giving a basic coverage of skills needed in the business world for students; while the concentration classes are focus on giving students professional knowledge on doing business internationally.  One class that I think it is really prepares students for doing international business is the International Business Environment Analysis.

            According to the syllabus for the International Business Environment Analysis class, “this course is designed to expose students to a variety of issues in the international business environments that impact country policies as well as industrial and firm strategies (Professor Yikuan Lee at SFSU).”   This course has a lot of presentation opportunities to let students to apply the knowledge of international business environments they learn from lectures by presenting case studies, term projects professionally.

             Students in the IBUS590 class have as many as nine group presentations throughout the semester. Students are working in groups, so that they can learn how to cooperate in a teamwork environment; such as how to share the work load of researching and how to share the role when presenting.  By doing case studies and term projects, students are able to reinforce their international business concepts they have learned in other international business courses; to expand upon their existing knowledge of international business operations and introduce new materials pertinent to business operations in the global market; to develop their ability to apply international business concepts to practical business situation; to develop their analytical skills and research abilities for assessing international business environments and recognizing international market opportunities; to broaden their understanding of regional characteristics and international business operations in the various industries and markets; to provide them with a practical understanding of how to conduct business in a global economy; to develop their problem solving and decision making ability; to enhance their written and oral communication skills and to improve their ability to work in a group environment.

            I do learn a lot from this class myself. I didn’t like this class at the beginning because I hate presentation. I could not sleep on the nights before my presentation and when I was presenting, I could not make my speech smooth because I was too nerves; my legs would be shaking like crazy too.  However, after few presentations, I am doing better and better, especially after getting good feedbacks from the professor.  This is my most favorite class now. I enjoy learning useful practical business skills from this class so much! I will recommend this class to any business major students because it is very useful and almost like working and presenting in the real world. A lot of research and preparations for the presentation are exactly what I did when I was working for the Global Banking Department in a bank.  The only difference is that, I was not the presenter for information and data that I collected, my managers were the one that presenting my stuff because they do not have time to do the data and information gathering.

Cannot think of any class that is not helping, the classes for business major in San Francisco State University is well tailored for business students. Other class might not feel like helping directly but still good to have in a long run for business major students.