Within the course “European business context”, the students of the ACT and PAC track had the chance to network with several guest speakers. To mention a few, Frederic Farhad Hadjari – Business Upper Austira IT-Cluster and Softwarepark Hagenberg manager and Ahu Genis-Gruber shared their global expertise from their respective working environments.

Mr. Hadjari started his presentation with some key facts about Upper Austria from an economic perspective, mentioning that the area is a leading technology location and is responsible for more than 24% of Austria´s total production value. Furthermore, Upper Austria has a role model function when it comes to education, research, development, and innovation. As many large and small IT companies are located in Upper Austria and it has a well-developed infrastructure it holds a great potential for the IT-sector. He concluded his presentation with highlighting the importance of business development and cultural differences between eastern and western countries while doing business.

Mrs. Genis-Gruber provided a presentation about macro-economic approaches in the European Union. Macro-economy encompasses topics such as economic structure and performance of an entire country and examines the aggregate or total economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, unemployment rates and overall price levels. This topic is relevant for global business students as they need to understand the concepts of economic growth and stabilization policies in case of economic downturns. While presenting about the monetary policies the description of “the snake in the tunnel” was particularly illustrative. It describes a mechanism for the managed currency floating in the EU (the “snake”) within narrow margins of fluctuation against the dollar (the “tunnel”). Moreover, the analysis of numerous Brexit consequences for other EU countries was a current and exciting part of the presentation with details such as the negative effects: weakening of the Eurozone, policy and regulatory divergence and some positive outcomes for countries such as the Netherlands that attracted businesses in sectors such as finance, trading and logistics.

During both presentations, the students listened intently and were asking comprehensive questions afterwards. They appreciated the opportunity to be able to talk to experienced professionals.

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