Vlerick Expertise in General Management

We live in economically and geopolitically turbulent times. Considering that the EU can, in all likelihood, no longer depend on the unconditional support of its most important trade partner, the USA, the EU has been accelerating the process of concluding free trade agreements with Canada, Japan, Australia, the MERCOSUR countries, Singapore and the ASEAN member states. However the absence of China from this list is striking. Nevertheless, China and the EU could both benefit from closer collaboration. Professor Filip Abraham and Jan Van Hove take a close look at the trade and investment relationship between the two parties - from the perspective of the EU.

Some see office politics as a necessary evil; some welcome the opportunity to show their political skills. Others simply refuse to play ‘the game’. But it’s not a winning or losing game. Being politically savvy doesn’t mean that you win at the expense of someone else. It’s not about being false or self-centred either. Or playing favourites, let alone back-stabbing. On the contrary: we argue that remaining authentic is of vital importance.

Belgian chocolates are world famous. Together with Switzerland, Belgium is internationally known as the country of chocolates. Belgian chocolatiers win many international awards. Belgium is also the largest chocolate exporter in the world, exporting over 1 billion € of the sweet stuff every year. Based on very detailed export data in the period 1998-2010, researchers Filip Abraham, Zuzanna Studnicka and Jan Van Hove unravel the DNA of Belgian chocolate exporting firms and identify the factors that drive their export strategies.

If General Motors’ headquarters had been in Belgium, Opel Antwerp would not have been closed. Or would it? Why are managers more reluctant to downsize nearby affiliates than distant ones? Vlerick Professor Filip Abraham, together with researchers at the KU Leuven, investigated whether decisions to downsize taken by multinationals are affected by the geographical distance between headquarters and subsidiaries. Their results were published in a paper entitled “Staying Home or Moving Away? Restructuring Efforts within Multinational Enterprises”.

Making entrepreneurial Flanders more creative and creative Flanders more entrepreneurial - how do you tackle this challenge? By bringing together two groups of people in society who can learn from one another and have complementary skills. And what better way to start with than students. By doing away with the traditional distinction between students from business disciplines and students from creative disciplines you can create a mindset that will continue when they work together later in the business world.

How do you expand your organisation in a sustainable manner? A great many companies have been forced by the crisis to confront this question, often in painful circumstances. But alternative approaches are also possible, and performance management can help. The only problem is that many businesses are still struggling with putting it into practice. ‘Managing for Performance Excellence’ by Vlerick professors Regine Slagmulder, Kurt Verweire and Koen Dewettinck takes a fresh and practical look at the matter.

This 2010 edition of the Belgium’s Annual Report on United States Direct Investment in Belgium examines the structure and evolution of the activities of US-owned affiliates operating in Belgium. In addition, the report reviews major trends in the level of US direct investment in Belgium as well as in global direct investment flows. This report is a joint effort by the American Chamber of Commerce and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School.

Globalisation, the explosion of technology, rapidly changing laws that keep piling up, increasing consumer demands, takeovers and mergers, periods of crisis… what all these things have in common is that processes of change are becoming increasingly frequent and intense. We have no doubt that organisations are continually subject to change. The question remains how we can best deal with change to obtain a committed change process.