International Business: Opportunities and Challenges in a Flattening World

Mason (PhD, 1997, University of Texas at Austin) was the M. Keith Weikel professor of leadership at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business. His research in strategic management concerned corporate governance, top management teams, social networks, and the strategic management of global startups and was published widely in leading management and strategy journals. He was also author of numerous books used in leading undergraduate, MBA, and education courses around the world, including Principles of Management published by Flat World Knowledge. He was associate editor of the Academy of Management Review and served on the editorial board of the Strategic Management Journal. At the University of Wisconsin, he was responsible for the undergraduate, MBA, and ExecMBA courses in business, corporate, and global strategy. With others, he had also advised the top management teams and business unit leaders of Fiskars, SABMiller, GE, Harley Davidson, Rockwell International, Vivendi, Kerry Ingredients, Covance, Danisco, Badger Meter, and Banta in the areas of strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategic change. His teaching accomplishments included MBA Professor of the Year, notoriety as one of the two most popular professors in several BusinessWeek MBA program polls, the Larson Excellence in Teaching award from the Wisconsin School of Business, and, most recently, a Distinguished Teaching award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also worked to integrate experiential and behavioral perspectives of strategic management into the classroom through positions on the BPS and SMS Executive Committees, Doctoral and New Faculty BPS consortia, and the widely-used BPS Strategy Teaching Toolkit. He passed away in 2011 and is survived by his wife and two sons.

Sanjyot is CEO & Founder of Atma Global (www.atmaglobal.com), a publisher of innovative, multimedia learning content, products, and solutions for the corporate, higher education, and K-12 markets, focusing on countries, cultures, and global business issues. The firm’s mission is to develop best-of-class, engaging learning solutions and products to enable people of all ages understand and successfully interact with people from other cultures. Additionally, the firm's Cultural Advisory Services provides thought leadership and assists global institutions in understanding the impact of culture on their global operations and objectives. Sanjyot is a recognized leader in the field of cross-cultural learning and has more than fifteen years of extensive experience in developing leading-edge, multimedia content learning solutions. Sanjyot also periodically authors articles on doing business internationally and entrepreneurship. Further, she has appeared on CNBC-TV, CNN International, Bloomberg TV, and various radio programs and is often a guest speaker at conferences and seminars addressing international business, global cultures, and entrepreneurship. Notably, she is the author of more than fifteen books, including: Doing Business in Asia: The Complete Guide, focusing on the cultural issues of conducting business in twenty Asian countries (1995 and 1998 by Simon & Schuster); Straight Talk About Starting and Growing Your Own Business (McGraw Hill, 2005); Starting Your Business and Growing Your Business (Business Expert Press, 2010); International Business (Flat World, 2011); and, bWise: Business Wisdom Worldwide Series (select titles Atma Global, 2015). Sanjyot began her career as a banker in with American and Japanese banks. Sanjyot was selected as a protégé member of the Committee of 200. She’s cofounder and president of the Dunung-Singh Foundation, committed to providing educational opportunities and hope to underprivileged children. She also served as a member of the board of directors of the US Committee for UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund). Sanjyot mentors Afghan women entrepreneurs through Project Artemis. Sanjyot’s academic history includes a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA, with an emphasis in international finance, from Thunderbird, School of Global Management. She is the school’s 1997 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni award. Sanjyot was born in India; was raised in Liverpool, England, and Chicago; and now lives in New York with her three sons.