Competitiveness – Country, Company & Individual Perspectives

This fall, NUCB Business School welcomed Professor Ralf Boscheck for his first teaching engagement with our institution. Professor Boscheck joins us with extensive experience from IMD, one of the world’s leading business schools for executive education, where he has taught senior decision-makers across industries and public institutions. He brings a prolific record of case development, peer-reviewed research, and advisory work that bridges academic rigor with real-world strategy and regulatory practice. His teaching style equips participants with frameworks that support actionable decision-making in both business and policy environments.

Exploring Competitiveness from Multiple Angles

Across four intensive sessions, students examined the economic forces shaping competitive performance at three levels:

• Countries: policy choices, macroeconomic trade-offs, and global interdependencies
• Companies: regulation, innovation incentives, and shifting governance standards
• Individuals: labor markets, career paths, and the evolving meaning of valuable work

Real-world cases encouraged students to challenge assumptions, consider trade-offs, and articulate structured recommendations.

Exploring Competitiveness from Multiple Angles

One of the most engaging discussions centered on the deceptively simple case “Heidi Wants a Fiat Cinquecento!” Students traced how everyday consumer experiences reveal deeper questions around market power, rule-setting, and regulatory enforcement. The debate highlighted how industries often push for self-regulation to maintain flexibility—yet inconsistent oversight can invite heavier intervention.

The afternoon expanded into compulsory licensing and pharmaceutical innovation, prompting students to weigh consumer welfare against long-term incentives. The combination of timely examples and cross-industry implications sparked one of the most animated debates of the course.

This course complements upcoming strategy offerings and reinforces the “frontier spirit” central to NUCB Business School’s mission: preparing leaders capable of navigating complexity with ethical judgment.