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Less than a month before undertaking its flagship World Trade Day event May 6, the World Trade Center Atlanta has launched a new academy aimed at broadening its offerings to the international community.
The global market-entry program can be completed online in an asynchronous fashion — meaning that the content of the four separate modules are available for viewing at any time, from anywhere in the world.
Complementing 15-20 hours of webinars, guest speaker sessions and presentations are resources such as white-papers, interviews and articles. Those that register for the full program gain access to accomplished international business mentors, executives who can coach participants as they launch new ventures across borders or take up new global roles.
This personal network is part of the appeal of the World Trade Center Atlanta Academy, which is designed to give a panoramic view of how a global expansion affects an organization, says Janet Walsh, CEO and president of Birchtree Global LLC, who used her experience guiding companies into 80-plus countries to design the custom curriculum.
“You’re talking to someone who has been there, done that, got the T-shirt,” Dr. Walsh told Global Atlanta of the instructors.
With modules on global strategy, economics and finance, corporate entity formation and operations, the academy has a multidisciplinary aspect that distinguishes it from the many (often free) export-oriented programs that help local companies sell their wares abroad.
“If you’re looking at (market entry) from a corporate perspective, you have a lot of tradeoffs. You can’t just look at it from one perspective,” Dr. Walsh said.
The World Trade Center envisions the program as a resource not only for sole practitioners or entrepreneurs, but also for the many larger firms that need to equip their employees for expatriate postings or executive positions with an international focus.
Dr. Walsh and World Trade Center Atlanta President Max Sutherland said they’re not worried about competing with local universities, as the academy is meant to provide real-world instruction that bolsters what they see as the theory-heavy curriculum of business schools.
Mr. Sutherland, who earned his MBA at Duke University, said the program offers practical knowledge and vital connections that his school did not.
“The value of that MBA is incredible, but it really did not provide the type of insight and guidance that this program does — especially when it comes to legal and human resources,” Mr. Sutherland said.
Preparing executives adequately can make the difference between success and failure in international ventures that can take time to gather momentum and pay dividends for an organization, said Dr. Walsh, an expert on global human- resource strategy.
“This is not the subject to learn as you go — the consequences of not getting straight A’s on your exam can be pretty drastic,” she said.
Those who go through the program will increase customer satisfaction, gain better returns on investment and create deeper “bench strength” in their organizations while achieving their global goals more quickly, she said.
Made in Atlanta, Open to the World
The idea behind the academy sprouted more than two years ago, but personnel transitions at the World Trade Center, followed by the pandemic, delayed the development and launch.
Some unexpected benefits materialized as the world transitioned wholesale to digital and remote learning. An idea once envisioned as equipping Atlanta companies only could now be opened up to the world — including members of more than 300 World Trade Centers globally.
That more inclusive footing dovetails with what the World Trade Center Atlanta has seen as it has kept up programming during the pandemic, Mr. Sutherland said.
Between last year’s World Trade Day, an early example of the use of new technologies to put on a full-scale global conference, and subsequent smaller programs throughout the year, the WTCA’s attendee base has grown increasingly global, he said.
The effort also coincides with an ongoing effort to license the World Trade Center name to a property in Atlanta, creating what Mr. Sutherland hopes will become a nexus for the international business and trade community in the city.
The academy costs $750 per module or $2,500 for the entire program, with World Trade Center Atlanta members receiving a 15% discount.
To learn more about the modules, pricing and instructors, including Dr. Walsh, Ativa Capital President Rafael Nieto; Michelle Beistle, chief ethics and compliance officer at The Nature Conservancy, David Pauldine of Pauldine Enterprises and many more, including the Atlanta-based consuls general from Brazil, Ireland and Mexico, visit https://www.wtcatlanta.com/academy.
Video intro of the program is embedded below: