In response to demand, the CRGP executive education course "Managing Global Initiatives" is now qualified toward fulfilling the course requirements for "Stanford Certified Project Manager," a credential offered through the Stanford Advanced Project Management program. MGI was introduced in the Fall of 2006 as an elective.

As a unit in the SAPM series of short courses, MGI is designed for industry professionals involved with foreign clients. It offers a combination of project management, social science, business theory, and CRGP research to prepare its participants to anticipate and navigate the challenges that arise from working with foreign markets, partners and staff on large, complex projects.

Until now, MGI has been presented only on campus as a 2 1/2-day course. Early next year it will go online.

The instruction focuses on gathering intelligence information to decipher the idiosyncrasies, dynamics, and drivers of a foreign market context. Both teaching and discussion center on the hidden costs that come with differences in language, emotion, culture, conventions, legal-regulatory systems, property rights, and industrial organization. Presenters analyze joint ventures and strategic alliances that work and effective ways to manage a diverse local staff.

One participant described the course as "a good combination of research/theory and real life experience." Another said, "I learned culture system elements and the importance of understanding culture to do business or work globally."

Ryan Orr, CRGP Executive Director, collaborated with Carissa Little, Associate Director of the Stanford Center for Professional Development, to design the course as an integral part of the Stanford Advanced Project Management program. The Center for Professional Development co-sponsors SAPM with IPSolutions, a company that delivers management training, consulting, and workshops. This partnership is designed to provide course content that includes both research and application.

"We are looking to make all our courses more global in perspective," Ms. Little states. "We realize that many senior managers run global projects or interface with people who do. A given team might hook up to a global program either in-house or with a client. A global project team could be located in a different place from the manager or the manager might be assigned to run a project in another country. His or her team might be international in composition."

Tim Wasserman, vice-president of curriculum management and product development at IPSolutions, also serves as program director for SAPM. He predicts that CRGP research will become an integral part of the entire curriculum.

"The research and practical approaches offered in MGI are powerful tools for any leader or manager charted with executing complex, large-scale global initiatives," he says. "Its key concepts and content will be referenced and reinforced across the APM curriculum."

Wasserman also foresees the development of additional courseware, based on the Managing Global Initiatives foundational research.

For more information on the Stanford Advanced Project Management Program, go to http://apm.stanford.edu/

Posted by rjorr at September 28, 2007 12:04 AM