The world is currently transitioning from being volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) to becoming brittle, anxious, non-linear, and incomprehensible (BANI). Disruptive phenomena such as hostile multi-polarity, negative interest rates, global pandemics, generative artificial intelligence, and environmental boiling are just examples of such a transition at the macro-level. At the meso-level, the BANI transition fragments, reshores, and even disrupts global value chains. At the micro-level, it requires network externalities beyond mere economies of scale, giving rise to megafirms and unicorns that, in turn, defy traditional models of multinational corporation (MNC). At the team-level, the BANI transition implies new forms of collaboration such as global and diverse virtual teams as well as remote and family-balanced working days. In this new normal, international managers are expected to adopt options-like rather than full-fledged investments in long-term competences such as design thinking, agile engineering, lean business modelling, and corporate foresight. ​

Our ‘Leading Global Businesses’ week is designed to provide you with the necessary skills and attitude to successfully navigate a BANI world, regardless of the size, sector, and origin of your firm. In this immersive week, you will become familiar with analytical tools and study cases to better understand current megatrends, emerging markets, multinational corporations, cultural intelligence, and individual networking. In addition to such theoretical and practical insights, you will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the Portuguese business context through daily visits to a diverse set of internationalised firms, including a Portuguese multinational corporation, a foreign subsidiary in Portugal, a Portuguese exporting SME, and a Portuguese Unicorn. Last, but not the least, you will have the chance to collaborate with peers from all over the world in a design thinking applied action project. We look forward to hosting you at Católica Porto Business School for a memorable week that will certainly inspire your international business projects!​