Above: Stephen Blank (right), Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation, is introduced by Douglas MacLachlan, Chair, Department of Marketing and International Business, Professor of Marketing, and Marion Ingersoll Endowed Professor.
Visiting professor Stephen Blank provided a lecture to the students in Professor Mike Giambattita’s International Marketing course, MKTG 470 International Marketing entitled, “The Interface of Local, National and Global Production Systems: The North American Auto Industry”. As the focus of his presentation, Dr Blank asked the students to examine a diagram of a module that becomes part of a finished car – a rear suspension assembly produced by Martinrea, a Canadian Tier I auto supplier, for a number of GM cars. Looking at this diagram, the students and Dr. Blank discussed changes in the structure of the auto industry including the decentralization of the supply chain network, the impact of logistics in this new system and factors that currently affect the North American freight transportation system, and the globalization of the auto supplier network. The class concluded with a discussion of the likely future of the auto industry in North America.
Giambattista’s course introduces the importance and management issues of international marketing. Students build on fundamental marketing concepts and their practical applications. Knowledge is used to analyze and understand international marketing as an integrated system. Most of the students in the course are candidates for the Foster Business School’s highly regarded Certificate of International Studies in Business Program. The students felt that Blank’s lecture was informative and that it offered a new perspective on the high degree of integration of the Canada-U.S. auto industry.
Dr. Blank is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation that supports the Portal.
This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Title VI grant, US Department of Education, Office of International Education Programs Service as part of the North American Economic Partnerships initiative with the Global Business Center, UW Foster School of Business.