Arts and Luxury Management
The arts and luxury industries are growing every day. Companies are investing to find ways to keep business profitable while satisfying the complex needs of an expanding and increasingly sophisticated set of demands. Understanding the management principles and industry practices particular to these sectors is fundamental for success and sustainability in the long run. This track offers a cutting-edge approach by tailoring management theories to the intrinsic peculiarities of the arts and luxury domains while connecting you with international experts.
Specific Courses
The course introduces key players in the cultural sector and the most pressing management challenges they face today. It provides an overview of current theories affecting cultural policy and outlines the socio-economic impact of the arts sector. It then offers, in its core section, insights into the managerial perspective of arts organizations - from small private galleries to state-funded museums - looking at best practices in governance, ethics as well as financial and environmental sustainability. Management theories will be presented in combination with an analysis of real life examples of organizational strategies.
This course explores the role of art as a financial asset and how financial wealth management services are leveraging on its importance. By illustrating the logistic, tax-related, financial and legal aspects of art related transactions, the course will outline the complexity and challenges of the financial aspects of the art market, acknowledging trends and discovering the role of intermediaries.
International Business, Arts, and Luxury
This course explores the intersecting fields of luxury and arts in analog and digital contexts from an international business perspective. Luxury firms and conglomerates increasingly appear as strategic actors in the creative and luxury sectors operating as sponsors, collectors, and patrons. Building on an introductory understanding of luxury from a theoretical and historical perspective, the course will investigate the current landscape of corporate archives, museums, and art spaces. In addition, the interconnections between art collaborations, luxury products and consumer experiences will be explored. These investigations will extend into the digital realm, focusing on recent luxury brand experimentations and co-productions with digital creatives. Students will be encouraged to step beyond the glamour and glitz to critically review, assess, and discuss luxury firms approaches to the arts in the global cultural landscape.
Is this track for you?
If you have a passion for art and luxury products, and if you want to learn how to make the work of craftsmen and artists known to the public while making a business profitable and sustainable, this track is for you. You will learn how to apply the most innovative management theories to the peculiarities of these industries while interacting with experts and managers in the field.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is quickly changing how private businesses and public institutions organize and operate daily business activities. This track will help you become a future business leader by equipping you with the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to tackle the challenges of digitalization in a changing business landscape.
Specific Course
Digitalization and Future of Business
How is the digital transformation changing the way private businesses and public institutions organize and operate their daily activities? How can established businesses innovate and adopt new technologies to compete in a highly competitive and digitalized landscape? Digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, internet of things (IoT), and more recently non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are rapidly transforming traditional industries while enabling fundamentally new business models. This course will enhance students' understanding of digital technologies and strategies. It will explore the managerial implications of such implementations on business practices within the main functional areas of a business, such as finance, marketing, and strategic management.
This course explores the intersection between finance and technology and enables students to comprehend how technology is transforming the finance industry. The main emphasis of this course is the in-depth analysis of the digitalization in finance from the perspective of a company. Students will first learn about key technological trends including blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and artificial intelligence in finance. The course will then focus on two main areas affected by technological transformation: Lending and Payments. Finally, students will learn about challenger banks that are disrupting the financial service industry and that offer new opportunities for client firms.
Managing the Digital Transformation
Artificial intelligence systems are set to transform the world we live in, profoundly affecting the way we learn, produce, consume and communicate. Managers across industries will need to keep pace with lightning-speed change and must prepare to evolve with their industry and society at large. This course will challenge students - managers of the future - to contemplate the implications of the increasing role of artificial intelligence in future work, education and daily life. Through a mix of lectures, reading, extensive discussion and experimentation with current AI tools, students will assess the digital transformation along three core themes:
1) the role of liberal arts and lifelong learning in the era of AI
2) ethical considerations surrounding the development and utilization of AI systems;
3) future tensions between practical and ethical considerations in the debate on replacement versus augmentation of human skills in the workplace.
Drawing on theories from the fields of general management, political economy, and digital humanities, this course aims to sensitize future managers to the multidimensional and complicated nature of the debate on the future of AI in the workplace and beyond. Ultimately, the course emphasizes critical reflection on challenges related to the digital transformation and the role of managers in responsibly shaping the adoption and use of AI systems.
Is this track for you?
If you enjoy taking courses and workshops in digital finance, digital marketing, or in artificial intelligence and would like some hands-on experience in digital transformation by working on real-world projects, this track is the right one for you. It will enable you to learn about digitalization from different perspectives.
Business and Sustainability
On the Business and Sustainability track, you will learn about the social and environmental challenges that multinational corporations face daily. Track-specific courses will introduce you to the business approach to climate change and how to deal with severe and often unforeseeable consequences for human life and business conduct.
Specific Courses
Understanding Environmental Issues
Using practical examples from Ticino and Switzerland, this course will expose students to the effects that climate change is having on (fresh)water ressources and on the water cycle in general. Each specific example will show how climate change driven modifications of the water cycle affects not only the functioning and the ecology of the system at hand (e.g., lake, river, groundwater reservoir, or glacier), but also their management and usage and therefore us. For each example, students will also investigate and critically assess the different attempts put in place to mitigate or minimize such changes.
Global Issues and Responsible Leadership
This course will confront students with a company's sustainability challenge, requiring them to develop solutions and strategies to tackle the challenge while considering the long-term implications of their suggested plans. The sustainability challenge will be introduced during the first days of the course. This will include understanding why Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is an important concept and what opportunities and tensions it entails as understandings of ESG evolve. Subsequently, students will work in teams to develop their strategies. The course will be highly interactive and requires students to think critically about what it means to be a responsible leader and what organizational challenges companies face, striving to become responsible players in light of changing environmental and societal expectations. Among other important national and transnational standards, the United Nations 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals will be considered. The course demands that students formulate how global managers need to prepare themselves and their companies to be sustainable by 2030 and beyond. Through expert examples and guidance, the course will explore what is being discussed in international organizations and corporate boardrooms and how organizations are revisiting their business models and value chains to ensure long-term success. With this knowledge, students will be better equipped to successfully engage in social, environmental, and global issues and use this knowledge to manage and lead organizations responsibly.
This course will provide students with a comprehensive introduction to the business response to climate change. Climate change is a major challenge for business and society, with severe and often unforeseeable consequences for human life and business conduct. Companies worldwide are increasingly asked to contribute to a climate-resilient future by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. In this course, students are introduced to the theoretical foundations of carbon accounting and management. Equipped with the fundamental understanding of how and where greenhouse gas emissions emerge from corporate activities, students will examine various mitigation measures, including the role of cap-and-trade programs, carbon offsetting, and capture. The long-term and financially sustainable minimization of corporate emissions calls for students' critical reflection on the potential and limitations of carbon management programs. Thus, students will learn about the risk of greenwashing and the need to analyze the quality of offsetting schemes. The course outlook sheds light on future trends, such as the impact of distributive ledger technology and its potential for corporate climate action and the governance of carbon markets.
Is this track for you?
If you are curious about what makes multinational corporations sustainable, have a global mindset, and are committed to working in multicultural teams, you will get the most out of this track. Our partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) lets you see into the work of a UN agency during a six-week practical experience. After finishing this track, you’ll be set for a career at the intersection of business and international organizations.
