Course: DOING BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT IN CENTRAL AND
EASTERN EUROPE
Andrea Toarniczky, PhD, Assistant Professor
Attila Petheő PhD, Assistant Professor
Responsible for the Zsuzsa Deli-Gray, PhD, HDR, Professor, Director of Site
course
30
Number of hours
ESSCA Budapest
Venue
Lecturer(s):
Aims and description of the course:
Drawing on insights from diverse fields, including cross-cultural management,
entrepreneurship, international human resource management and organizational
behaviour this course is designed to help participants to develop a deeper
understanding of the issues that confront regional and global managers today and to
prepare them for leadership roles in regional organizations or to become
regionally/globally successful entrepreneurs.
The main objectives of this learning experience can be formulated on three different
levels:
 Individual - learning to lead requires self-awareness and self-management skills,
so a particular focus will be on personal development and career management.
Special emphasis will be on developing entrepreneurial thinking.
 Group – learning to lead and work in groups crossing national, cultural and
professional boundaries is a must in business nowadays, where executives travel
around broader regions, start-ups founded in CEE gain rapid access to global
pools of capital, and culturally diverse and geographically dispersed virtual teams
are created to address important strategic challenges to help companies to become
competitive. Therefore students will experience group work as part of the course,
and will reflect on the challenges of working and leading culturally diverse
groups. The group work will be embedded in business challenges specific to CEE
region.
 Starting and leading regional businesses – learning from the experiences of
Hungarian multinational companies on how they were managing regional mergers
and acquisition and from the practice of successful entrepreneurs, reflecting on the
nature of business and with a special emphasis on possible contributions
entrepreneurial ventures make to the economy, we evaluate the different processes
involved in mergers and acquisitions, we identify the characteristics of
prospective entrepreneurs and their industry & competitive environments in order
to appraise their chances for success. The course aims to assist course members
evaluate their own entrepreneurial and leadership potential and probable levels of
commitment.
Learning outcomes:
After completion of this course the students will be able to:
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Raise awareness on the challenges facing regional businesses and managers.
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Give guidelines on managing people, teams and organizations in culturally
diverse context.
Understand which attributes are important for regional leadership competence
and culturally intelligent behavior.
Recognize and appreciate the career dilemmas facing regional managers, and
how they can be resolved or managed.
Understand the mindset of different entrepreneurs, and operations of different
ventures
Deepen their knowledge in culture theory and better understanding of how
culture affects business strategy and management practice.
Understand the driving forces, the nature of entrepreneurial ventures, the
entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurial local and CEE environment and the
entrepreneurial process
Identify a business opportunity, assess the viability and the business model of
a business idea.
Topics to be discussed:
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The entrepreneurial perspective: The entrepreneurial driving forces
(opportunity, resources, entrepreneurial team) Finding and assessing the
business opportunity and understanding the business model
Resources and the business models. The capitalist perspective. International
Businesses
The cultural perspective: leaders and culture. Introduce core concepts related
to culture and cultural competence. Explore cultural misunderstandings.
Managing cultural differences.
Starting and Managing Businesses in CEE
Culture and power: managing relocation and transition. Case of expatriates
and self-expatriates.
What makes a viable business model? Financing a new venture: The venture
capitalist perspective
Roles and responsibilities, delegation
Leading and working in diverse groups
Leadership in a changing organizational culture. Culture as form of control.
Headquarter vs. subsidiaries.
Managing mergers and acquisitions. HR practices. Knowledge transfer. Define
your personal leadership brand (PLB) and test it during critical communicative
events
Simteam business Simulation
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Course assessment
Students are expected to participate actively in the learning process. This is reflected
in the grading system:
20 % assignment 1
10 % assignment 2: oral presentation and slides
40%
assignment 3 and 4: 20-20 points per case
10% assignment 5: oral presentation and slides
20 % Final exam: Written exam
The assignments are:
Assignment 1: Reading and analyzing Graphisoft case (individual assignment)
Read and analyze Graphisoft case (Course book Case 6) and submit a 1-2 page
summary with your findings by identifying in bullet point format answering in five
sections: (i) What this case is all about, (ii) what are the key issues, (iii) what is your
recommendation to the issues (iv) major lessons from the case, (v) questions for
discussions. You are expected to actively participate in the class discussion.
Assignment 2: How to start a business in CEE (group assignment)
Select one CEE country. Collect and present information on the procedure of starting
of a new venture in the selected country. Prepare a ppt or prezi presentation about the
steps (include as many unique feature as you can to entertain others) and present it on
class.
Assignment 3: Reading and analyzing Painted into a corner case (individual
assignment)
Read and analyze Painted into a corner case and submit a 1-2 page summary of each
case with your findings by identifying in bullet point format answering the following
questions: (1) What is Elena’s problem? (2) How is Fieldewski’s team working? (3)
How do you improve work conditions in sales teams? (4) Which are your suggestions
for action plan?
Assignment 4: Reading and analyzing Teaching framers to hunt case
(individual assignment)
Read and analyze Teaching farmers to hunt case and submit a 1-2 page summary of
each case with your findings by identifying in bullet point format answering the
following questions: (1) What are the characteristics of BDO Hungary? (2) What are
the success criteria in the business of BDO? (3) What are the limitations for Andrea to
introduce the new project? (4) What can be best strategy which could help Andrea to
do this in tight deadlines?
Assignment 5: Profiling successful leaders from CEE (group assignment)
Select one successful leader from CEE region and profile his career, leadership style,
values and mission. Situate the profile into organizational context, and reflect on the
cultural influences too. Prepare a ppt or prezi presentation about profile (include as
many unique feature as you can to entertain others – e.g. short videos, interviews) and
present it on class.
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Grading:
Final exam 20 %
Continuous assessment 80%
Individual work 60%
Group work 20%
Readings:
Julia Prats, Marc Sosna, Sylwia Sysko-Romaczuk. (2015): Entrepreneurial
Icebreakers, Insights and Case Studies from Internationally Successful Central and
Eastern European Entrepreneurs
Doing Business Report 2015
Henriett Primecz, Laurance Romani, Sonja Sackmann (2011): Cross – cultural
management practice, Elgar Publishing;
Simteam simulation:
SimTeam is business simulation platform that models the operation of a knowledgebased enterprise.
During the simulation, participants form teams representing different model
corporations. The software simulates a competitive market where the model
companies compete for projects and for employees.
Participants learn how to formulate a corporate strategy and how to create an effective
and efficient organization to achieve their strategic goals.
The simulation follows a game-based educational approach.
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