This course was intended to provide me with a comprehensive introduction to business in the European Union. The course described how economic, political and social factors interrelate, and influence business in Europe. 

 

I learned the governmental structure of the European Union, including the important treaties that created it into what we know it as today. I also found it interesting to focus on the ways it was different from the government of the United States. As a class, we discussed the trade relations the European Union had with varying countries and why they were important.

 

I also learned prominent business strategies used in business as well as different ways to analyze the overall success of a company. We discussed strategies like SWOT Analysis, VRIO Framework, Generic Value Chain, and Six Forces Model and how they give a company valuable insight into how they are doing. We spent time in class analyzing large corporations, like McDonald’s, Ryanair Airlines, and Walmart, and how we could use these strategies to analyze the business’s success.

 

As one of our class field trips, we visited the Sorrentino Vesuvio Vineyard in Naples, Italy, and later wrote an extensive case study and presented our findings. I thought my professor did a great job of providing a hands-on lesson that made learning information about this company fun and effortless. It was interesting to see wine, one of the largest exports of Italy, being grown and exported right in front of my eyes. We later wrote a final paper and gave a 15-minute presentation on our findings from the case study of the vineyard.