International Business

Trade across borders is a systems problem: contracts, documents, money, transport, and law have to line up, or the physical goods never “count” as a completed deal. This section teaches export–import practice the same way we teach engineering fundamentals — clear definitions, risk models, and interactive drills — in original lesson prose (not a reprint of any commercial handbook).

Tracks

Export–Import practice

• 1. Introduction to export–import — commercial sales, risk map, documentary sales, culture, institutions, WTO
• 2. Documents and the transaction sequence — RFQ → contract forms → L/C → B/L pack → bank examination
• 3. Incoterms® trade terms — any-mode vs sea, C vs D, insurance, quote hygiene
• 4. International trade law — contract chain, legal families, choice of law/forum, CISG, breach & remedies, LOIs
• 5. The international sale contract — PO vs pro forma, model contracts, ICC Specific/General Conditions, key clauses and defaults
• 6. International dispute resolution — escalation ladder, expert opinion, litigation and enforcement, arbitration pros and cons
• 7. ICC arbitration and dispute services — ICC clause, Court vs tribunal, procedure and costs, emergency arbitrator, DOCDEX, mediation, dispute boards, experts
• 8. Introduction to international payments — risk ladder, open account, standbys, D/P vs D/A collections, L/C steps, FX risk and hedging, payment documents
• 9. Documentary credits and the UCP 600 — bank roles, credit types, confirmed-credit life cycle, independence, strict compliance, checklists, eUCP
• 10. Factoring and forfaiting — receivables finance, recourse vs non-recourse, two-factor schemes, avals, forfaiting pricing, URF, AML
• 11. Guarantees, bonds, and standby credits — bid/performance/advance guarantees, demand vs surety, unfair calls, URDG 758, ISP98, direct vs indirect
• 12. The ICC model contracts — expansion paths, ICC/ITC/FIDIC models, agency vs distributorship, agency clauses & commission, franchising, intermediaries
• 13. International transport — transport management, conventions & liability limits, charter parties, forwarders, B/L & waybills, sea/container/air/road/rail, cargo insurance
• 14. E-commerce and international trade — landed cost & DDP, EU IOSS, payments & chargebacks, e-contracts & signatures, MLETR, GDPR, WTO moratorium
• 15. Intellectual property — WIPO & TRIPS, trademarks & Madrid, patents & PCT, copyright, trade secrets, designs, UDRP, counterfeits, parallel imports
• 16. Customs and ATA Carnets — Incoterm clearance roles, HS classification, valuation (CIF vs FOB), origin, bonded warehouses & free zones, ATA Carnet

Inventory optimization

• 1. Inventory policies and replenishment — continuous and periodic review, reorder points, order-up-to levels, and fixed order quantities
• 2. How much should I order? — deterministic cost model, EOQ, sensitivity, and extensions
• 3. When should I order? — lead time, periodic review, inventory targets, and review-calendar choices
• 4. Safety stocks — service measures, Normal-demand buffers, and aggregation assumptions
• 5. Inventory policies with safety stock — apply stochastic buffers, analyze inventory components, and design policy simulations
• 6. Inventory policy simulation lab — calculate policy settings, simulate lost-sales behavior, and classify stock snapshots in Python
• 7. Beyond Normality — diagnose skew, fit gamma demand, and model gamma risk-period shortages
• 8. Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization — coordinate serial-network buffers and convert local to echelon targets

Demand forecasting

• 1. Demand planning excellence — efficacy vs efficiency, the 5-step framework (objective, data, metrics, baseline, review), short/mid/long-term set-ups
• 2. Demand, sales, and plans — demand vs sales vs supply, the sales-forecasting vicious circle, forecast vs supply plan vs budget vs targets
• 3. Capturing unconstrained demand — order management, shortage censoring, lost-sales estimation, substitution & cannibalization, top-down splits
• 4. Collaboration and the bullwhip effect — demand distortion, five bullwhip causes, internal/external collaboration, consignment, VMI, CPFR
• 5. Forecasting hierarchies — materiality/geography/time, bottom-up/top-down/middle-out, focus level vs build level, warehouse footprints
• 6. Forecasting horizon — lags, risk horizon, order sizing, don’t freeze forecasts, lost sales vs backorders
• 7. Reconciling forecasts — one number forecast vs one number mindset, sum of forecasts ≠ forecast of sum, tolerance bands
• 8. Forecasting metrics — accuracy vs bias, Bias/MAE/MAPE/RMSE and % versions, three-forecast case study
• 9. Choosing the best KPI — outliers, intermittent demand, Score = MAE + |Bias|
• 10. What is a good forecast error? — naïve, moving-average and seasonal benchmarks, why COV misleads
• 11. Portfolio accuracy — value-weighted bias and MAE, why RMSE and averaged % fail
• 12. Forecast value added — internal vs industry benchmarks, FVA efficacy and efficiency, objectives
• 13. What do you review? ABC XYZ — forward-looking value × forecast error, limits, multi-criteria star rating
• 14. Statistical forecasting — level/trend/seasonality, exponential smoothing, demand drivers, leading indicators, 4-step model loop
• 15. Machine learning — features, global models, trees & neural networks, competition results, realistic expectations, launch pitfalls
• 16. Judgmental forecasting — when to adjust, cognitive/intentional/process biases, wisdom of crowds, assumption-based discussions

Commodities

• 1. Fundamentals of commodities and derivatives — market map, participants, PRAs, iron ore benchmark story, forwards, futures, swaps, options, binary/barrier/spread/average rate options
• 2. Derivative valuation — price drivers, cash-and-carry, contango/backwardation & convenience yield, arbitrage cases, swap pricing & OIS, BSM/Black/Bachelier, put-call parity, Greeks, skew & term structure
• 3. Risk management principles — five risk types, curve participants, corporate hedging framework, bank hedging & basis risk, volatility trading & delta hedging, JAL, Amaranth, Metallgesellschaft
• 4. Gold — supply chain, London Good Delivery & loco London, LBMA Gold Price auction, supply/demand & central banks, real yields, leasing & GOFO, producer hedges, gold swaps, NDFs, deferred margin, covered calls
• 5. Base metals — production, copper/aluminium/steel, LME mechanics, TC/RCs, price drivers & premiums, consumer hedges (collars, three-way, knock-out, basket, compo swaps)
• 6. Crude oil — crude quality, refining & crack spreads, supply/demand & OPEC, benchmarks, Brent complex (Dated, CFDs, EFPs), WTI roll & negative prices, producer/refiner/airline hedges
• 8. Electricity — non-storability, pools vs bilateral markets, EU/GB/US regulation, price drivers, spark/dark spreads & heat rates, merit order, load shapes, forwards, swaps, CfDs, swaptions, spread options
• 9. Plastics — monomers & polymers, ethane vs naphtha cracking, resin codes, thermoplastics vs thermosets, supply chain, failed LME futures & PRA indices, price drivers, forwards/swaps/proxy hedges, options
• 10. Bulk commodities — coal ranks & GAR/NAR, API2/API4/NEWC, coal swaps, swaptions & covered calls, iron ore grades & CFR, vessel classes, voyage vs time charters, Baltic indices & Worldscale, FFAs, target payout structures
• 11. Climate and weather — GHGs & CO₂e, Kyoto (ETS/CDM/JI) to Paris, carbon price drivers & fuel switching, EU ETS design & MSR, cap-and-trade vs tax, EUA futures/forwards/repos/swaps/options, HDD/CDD weather futures, swaps & options
• 12. Agriculture — balance sheets & stocks-to-use, wheat/corn/palm oil/soy crush, sugar, coffee, cocoa, ethanol, the three Fs & ENSO, COT reports, the 2010 cocoa squeeze, corn swaps, POGO spread options, accumulators & TARN collars
• 13. Commodity-linked financing — pledges, bills of lading, trust receipts, LCs & warehouse receipts, borrowing bases, project finance & DSCR, repos & haircuts, tri-party margin funding, prepays & prepaid variable forwards, lending risks, carry trade, supply-and-offtake, option-subsidised loans, knock-in collars, digital & range-accrual swaps
• 14. Commodity investing — investor types, diversification & correlation regimes, inflation/USD hedges, risk premia, S&P GSCI spot/ER/TR, the roll-yield myth, total return swaps, ETCs/ETFs/ETNs, capital-protected, basket, income, reverse convertible, autocallable, outperformance & worst-of notes

Contaduría

• 1. La contaduría — historia (Pacioli, Ordenanzas de Bilbao, tres épocas en México), CINIF y NIF, marco jurídico, organización de la profesión, Código de Ética (12 postulados), dictamen y certificación · en español
• 2. La contabilidad, la entidad y la información financiera — proceso contable, información útil y confiable, postulado de entidad (NIF A-2), personalidad jurídica, los cuatro estados financieros, usuarios, ecuación contable y estado de resultados · ejercicio de completar espacios
• 3. La cuenta — debe y haber, cargos y abonos, movimientos y saldos, naturaleza deudora/acreedora, esquemas de mayor (T), catálogo de cuentas codificado · ejercicio de completar espacios
• 4. Las cuentas de una entidad comercial — movimientos, saldos y presentación de cada cuenta de activo, pasivo, créditos diferidos, capital y resultados; IVA; estructura del estado de resultados · 110 operaciones para clasificar
• 5. Las normas de información financiera — estructura de las NIF, Marco Conceptual (serie A), los 8 postulados básicos, usuarios y objetivos, características cualitativas, elementos básicos, reconocimiento, presentación, revelación, supletoriedad y juicio profesional · respuesta escrita y completar espacios
• 6. La partida doble y los asientos de diario — nueve combinaciones, reglas de cargo y abono, obtención y aplicación de recursos, asientos de diario, ejemplo de 12 operaciones en la ecuación y en cuentas T, primer informe financiero · registrar asientos y seguir la ecuación
• 7. Sistemas de compraventa de mercancías — comparación de inventarios (mercancías generales y método analítico) vs inventarios perpetuos, costo de ventas, compras y ventas netas, auxiliares de almacén · asientos con códigos, cálculos y 45 preguntas

How we build lessons here

1. Outline topics from reputable public sources (CISG text, ICC Incoterms® summaries you paraphrase, UCP concepts, your own notes).
2. Rewrite in teaching voice — never paste handbook chapters or long case excerpts.
3. Interact — guided choices, checklists, and (later) document-matching simulators.
4. Wiki — catalog reusable procedures (e.g. “assemble a documentary pack”) when a pattern stabilizes.

Copyright

Do not dump ICC Guide / textbook pages into MDX. Use them as a study outline only; publish original explanations and short fair-use paraphrases of public rules (CISG, published Incoterms definitions you restate).

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Scaffold live — expand chapter-by-chapter as you finish each rewrite.