Delivered at:: School of World Economy

Course type:: Elective course

When:: 4 year, 1, 2 module

Instructor

Victor, Arbaizar

Full Syllabus Ask Question

Abstract

Digital revolution has shaken (and shocked!) almost all sectors and changed completely the economic and social environment. Our behavioral consume habits will never be the same than before 2000´s. The changes are profound but, above all, very fast and the importance of understanding these changes and being prepared is increasing.This course aims to provide students with the basic tools to understand what new digital businesses consist of and what are the main strategies to develop them. And what better way to understand the difficulties and decisions that a digital business entails than to create it yourself from scratch. We will analyze and understand all the necessary concepts, theoretical and practical tools, including the extensive vocabulary that has been generated around the new digital businesses. Students will work in teams to create their own business project, with special attention to all aspects of the project related to finance strategy:•How to create our own financial plan •How to reflect the conversion funnel in our plan•Defining KPIs•Selecting the pricing strategy•Building cash-flow projections•Calculating the funding needs•Analyzing risks and analyzing different scenarios•How to adapt your financial plan for a multinational expansionWe will also review different methods to guess the value of a business, startup or company, and we will discuss the best options for funding projects. And we will illustrate these learnings with examples and with business cases.The course will end with a pitch, trained in former seminars, where each team will have 10 minutes to explain the project as if the team would be asking for financing in the real life.Obviously, the generation of new businesses is not pursued itself, but the understanding "from within" of the main concepts related to digital business and the different strategies and trends that accompany them.The knowledge and skills acquired during the course will be useful to anyone considering international career in a bank, fund, multinational company or organization and to those who prepare themselves to work as consultants and country experts or start their own business abroad or domestically or just need an understanding of how new economy works.

Learning Objectives

The purpose of the course is to give students theoretical knowledge and practical keys to: 1. Understand the digital disruption, its causes and consequences. 2. Identify differences between legacy and digital businesses and its drivers. 3. How to analyze a digital market. 4. Know digital strategies and how to apply them. 5. Review of the available marketing digital tools and strategies 6. Key concepts in digital product development. 7. How to monetize a business. 8. Understand not only the advantages but also the risks in the digital business. 9. How to “guess” the value of a digital business 10. New trends in digital business. 11. Create your own digital business project, as a challenging way to absorb and apply all the above-mentioned concepts and ideas. This course is designed with a special stress on digital strategies for finance. We will work in depth to analyze how to value a startup project, calculate the funding needs and guess what are the best ways to finance our project.

Expected Learning Outcomes

As a result of this work, students will have the necessary skills for: 1. Understand the digital context of a business. 2. Analyze markets and select opportunities. 3. Choose best digital strategies, balancing advantages and risks. 4. Understand and analyze all available digital marketing tools and strategies 5. Develop and monetize digital projects. 6. Discuss what new trends would bring us.

Course Contents

1. Introduction to Digital Business
2. Digital Markets Analysis
3. Digital Marketing Strategies
4. Product development
5. Monetization
6. Risks in Digital Businesses
7. Digital Business Valuation
8. New trends

Assessment Elements

Lecture attendance
Seminar attendance
Seminar activities
Digital project

Interim Assessment

2024/2025 2nd module
Estimation formula: Lecture attendance * 0.2 + Lecture activities * 0.3 + Digital project * 0.5

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Digital business and e-commerce management, Chaffey, D., 2019

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Steve Jobs, Isaacson, W., 2013

Authors

Arbaisar Gonsales Viktor Alekhandro

Bachelor’s Programme 'World Economy'

Digital Business Strategies: The Finance Perspective