 Why would the minor in management be the right one for you? My name is Niels Norderhaven. I'm head of the Department of Management, and I also teach one of the courses in this minor. Welcome to this information video for the minor in management. I will talk a bit on the background of this minor and also about the content of the specific courses. Finally, I will say a few things about the prospects that students that take this minor have. Let me share the background with you by giving a specific example. The merger between Air France and KLM. I have had the opportunity to study this merger from the inside, and I think it illustrates very well some of the challenges of managing in the current environment. A general challenge for airlines is how to survive in a deregulated and therefore increasingly competitive market. A second challenge in this merger was the international component, since it involves a French company and a Dutch company. Furthermore, IT integration played an important role. And finally, the merger between Air France and KLM is an example of a new phase in the development of the airline industry, in which cross-national mergers for a long time hardly happened. The first aspect is how to survive in this increasingly competitive market. The airline industry is a good example of an industry influenced by deregulation. That's why you now can fly with Ryanair to Rome and back for about €40. This is a huge threat for legacy carriers like Air France KLM. And there is another threat, carriers from the Middle East, which supported by their governments, compete with European carriers on the long haul to Asia. So how can you deal with that? This is a battle on life or death for Air France KLM. Finally, there is the international challenge. The two companies each have their own culture, and this culture needs to be integrated. Now you may well know that the Dutch and the French have their own typical viewpoints and ideas about each other. It's interesting to see that in both airlines, nationality became a more important element of the identity of employees than it had been before the merger. And this is a long-term effect, because last year I returned to Air France KLM for a follow-up study and found that for many people it's still the French versus the Dutch. This is about perceptions that have very real and often detrimental effects. The third challenge is integration. An important aspect of this in Air France KLM was IT integration. IT is the backbone of any service organization like an airline company. And integrating these systems is difficult because they are strongly intertwined with business processes. An example is the revenue management system. If you look at the KLM website for the flights and you look again the next day, you will notice that the price has changed. This is because behind the screens there is a very complex system that optimizes the yield from the fixed numbers of chairs in an airplane. When Air France and KLM wanted to integrate their revenue management systems, they found out this was very difficult because these systems are intimately linked to business processes. What is the product that you want to put in the market? Who are your customers? Who are your competitors? How do you want to respond to them? It took Air France KLM ultimately 10 years to build a new system together. A final issue is how Air France KLM together can enter into new markets or conversely exit from markets. The merger brought KLM into the Sky Team Alliance Network. And the takeover of Northwest, a partner of KLM by Delta, means that Air France KLM now has a very strong partner in the USA. Moreover, Air France KLM is constantly considering its opportunities. For instance, it seems to be giving up the idea of controlling Alitalia, but instead is considering acquiring Air India. Now this is one specific case, but examples are abundant. Think for example of the Dutch Railways and the Belgian Railways who joined in a purchasing project for high-speed trains. The idea was to increase their competitive position internationally. This is an example of how not to manage international cooperation. Think of Philips that in 2016 spun off its lighting division, which is now called Signify. This was a bold strategic move, as lighting was at the cradle of Philips. This is a good example that strategy is not only about expansion, but sometimes also about contraction. Let me explain a bit about the content of the miner. Because the challenges that I just discussed actually correspond quite well to the three courses that are offered in the miner. The first course focuses on this international component. It's comparative management. And it's really about how do companies differ from each other, from one country to the other. And how does this affect how they operate and how they can collaborate. Secondly, to cause information system strategy, dealing with the link between information systems and organizational strategy. We all know that information systems and technology are crucial for the operation of firms. But how do information systems and information technology interact, support, affect and drive organizational strategy? And finally, a new course, entry and exit mode, that we are currently setting up. Companies are constantly expanding and restructuring. This course is about why firms enter new markets or countries, or exits from them. It's also about how they can best do so. Through acquisitions, greenfield investments, alliances, spin-offs or management buyouts, for example. Finally, let me tell you a bit about the prospects, if you would take this miner. The miner prepares quite well for three master programs of TISEM. International management, strategic management and supply chain management. If you are very interested in the international aspects of doing business and in corporate responsibility, then probably the master international management is the right one for you. Graduates from this master typically end up in internationally operating companies like Unilever, Heinecke or ING. And the approximate time to market, that's the time between graduation and your first job, is on average less than three months. The strategic management master is for those students who are interested in complex issues in firms and how to make and implement decisions associated with these challenges. Graduates from this master often work at major consultancy companies like Accenture, but also at many national and international companies. Here the approximate time to market is also about three months. And finally, if you are interested in the key processes in organizations and how to balance these with processes in other organizations within the same supply chain, consider the master supply chain management. People who graduate from this master work with companies like ASML and Friesland Campina acting as supply chain professionals. Here the approximate time to market is about two months. The content of the minor nicely prepares for the three master programs that I just described. If you are interested in any of these master programs, then please join the minor in management. Thank you for your attention and I wish you strength in making the right choice.