Take My Liberty BUSI 607 Class

BUSI 607 picks up where an introductory international business course leaves off, moving from the environment abroad to what a company actually does there.

The opening modules cover global strategy and how a multinational organizes and controls operations across many countries.

The middle modules turn to assessing foreign markets, screening countries by size, growth, risk and fit, and choosing how to enter, whether by exporting, licensing, franchising, joint venture or a wholly owned subsidiary.

Marketing internationally follows, with the classic question of how much to standardize a product, its price, its promotion and its distribution, and how much to adapt.

Later modules and two bonus modules cover global operations and supply chains, managing people across borders, and the financial side of international business.

Ken Eldred's God Is at Work runs alongside, arguing that well-run businesses can serve communities and carry Christian witness into places where traditional missionary work is restricted.

The marketing plan pulls these strands together for one product in one country.

The first week runs Monday to Friday and the rest Saturday to Friday.

Readings in weeks one, four and eight add a current article, which the forum reports can draw on.

Supply chain and operations modules ask where to source and produce, and how distance, tariffs and risk change the answer.

The managing-people module looks at expatriate assignments, local hiring and how pay and performance systems travel across cultures.

BUSI 607 is planned around a weekly forum report and the marketing plan, with the Eldred paper in the middle.

Each forum report takes a key concept from the week's module, researches it beyond the textbook, and explains it in at least 500 words with page references and citations.

Replies to three classmates, of at least 200 words each, follow in most weeks and add a point or a source to each classmate's report. Weeks one and seven need no replies.

Eldred's fourteen chapters are read before week five, and the six-page paper draws out his key points about using business to advance Christian values where open ministry is difficult.

The marketing plan's country and product are agreed with you by week four, and the outline follows in week six with clear headings and subheadings.

The plan itself analyzes the target market, sets the entry mode, adapts the marketing mix to local conditions and closes with a budget and timeline, using eight or more scholarly sources.

You post and upload every item yourself.

Forum concepts are chosen for how well they connect to the plan, so the weekly reports become research for it.

The plan's forecast starts from realistic assumptions about price and market share, with each one sourced.

Replies in most weeks compare a classmate's concept with a company example from a different region.

Each report closes with how the concept would apply to the plan's chosen market.

A global marketer with graduate training, often someone who has taken a product into a new country, writes BUSI 607.

That experience shows in the marketing plan, which reads best when the writer knows what local distributors, regulators and consumers actually expect.

They know the research on market entry and standardization versus adaptation, which feeds the forum reports.

They write about business as mission with care, treating Eldred's argument seriously and fairly.

A second reviewer checks the plan and the Eldred paper before release, and one writer stays with your course.

Your name stays with the coordinator.

Several have worked with distributors and regulators abroad, which keeps the plan's entry decisions realistic.

They also write about Eldred's argument with respect, which suits a course that asks for it.

Many have worked with overseas distributors, which shows in how the plan treats channels.

The weekly report is the first difficulty. A researched 500-word report plus three 200-word replies every week is a steady load.

Eldred's book is the second, since all fourteen chapters must be read before week five, when the paper and a forum are both due.

The plan's choices are the third. A product with no clear foreign market, or a country with little research, makes sixteen pages hard to fill with substance.

The outline is the fourth, because it fixes the plan's structure in week six, leaving two weeks to write the full paper.

Money is the fifth: a believable launch budget and first-year forecast depend on data most students have never looked for.

The final week stacks the eighth report on top of the full plan.

Standardize-or-adapt decisions for the marketing mix are the most common sticking point in the plan.

Reports must cite page numbers from the module, which students often forget.

Eldred's book is long, and reading it in full before week five competes with that week's module.

Booking before the term starts lets the first forum report go up early in week one.

Reports are ready as each week opens; replies follow your classmates.

The Eldred paper arrives a few days before week five ends, and the plan's outline before week six ends.

The marketing plan arrives early in week eight.

The plan costs most; the Eldred paper and weekly reports are lighter lines. Start late and the quote begins where the course is.

Every item arrives as an editable file, and the plan comes with its outline.

Forum weeks one and seven, without replies, are the smallest lines.