The Art of Leading With Geopolitics

Abstract: Purpose – The main goal of this thesis is to show – on one hand – the permanent influence of geopolitics on leadership of international companies, and – on the other – how companies influence geopolitics and geopolitical climate. Methodology – Due to the problem which I raise in my thesis, I will use systems view. Systems view is the most appropriate here, mainly because I try to find out the system analyzing real cases and life examples of how businesses are systematically influenced by geopolitical environment, as well as vice-versa – how businesses influence geopolitical environment in places where they do their business. Findings – The number of geopolitical issues that are needed to be taken into account by companies, doing their business globally, is very big and increase all the time. For that reason geopolitics – is a problem that can’t be simply avoided. The way international companies change geopolitical context to meet own interests is also rising all the time. These ways should be well known to lead big multinational company wisely. Research limitations – Though geopolitics is a wide study and can be applied to a large extent towards statecraft and political decision making itself, I focused in my work mainly on two-way linkage between geopolitics and business activity – international business activity in particular. Originality – though the problem raised in this thesis is obvious and observed in everyday business life, very few analytical researches have been done showing the importance of considering geopolitical environment for international companies. For that reason in my thesis I had to collect the real cases and problems, met by different companies to show the intelligible necessity for business leaders, and especially leaders of global companies in wise geopolitical maneuvering.