The Finsbury Institute at City St George’s, University of London, has opened Global Commercial Awareness, its first short course, with the first cohort starting on 12 November. The five-week blended programme gives mid-career professionals a structured way to connect social, technological, economic and political developments to commercial decisions.

Led by Professor Michael Mainelli, who served as Lord Mayor of London in 2023/24, the course combines two in-person sessions at Finsbury Square with three live online sessions, totalling 21 hours of learning, and costs £975 with no VAT. Participants who attend at least 70% of sessions receive a certificate of completion, though the course carries no academic credit and is not formally accredited.

Themes include global cities, technological disruption, sustainability, regulation, geopolitical risk, strategic foresight and scenario analysis, taught through horizon scanning, systems thinking, case studies, structured discussion and an applied project on a real challenge from each participant’s own work. The course targets managers, business owners, entrepreneurs and consultants.

City St George’s, University of London, formed through the 2024 merger of City, University of London and St George’s, University of London, is based in London. The Finsbury Institute, which describes itself as the City of London’s dedicated policy hub, is led by Professor Diana Beech and is expanding into policy, education and business through the new course. Mainelli chairs Z/Yen, the City of London think-tank he co-founded.

The structural driver is the interaction of global pressures rather than any single factor, with the course teaching the Z/EALOUS decision-making methodology and risk-reward analysis to help participants judge how developments in one place shape outcomes elsewhere.

Mainelli said participants should stop reading the news as a list of events and start reading it as “a set of connected pressures.”

He said everything is more connected so shocks travel further, AI is changing what work is while people are still doing it, and politics has moved back to the centre of commercial life.

Professor Diana Beech, director of the Finsbury Institute, said expanding into executive education creates “a new platform for business leaders to engage with big ideas.”

For the sector, the course confirms that universities are extending executive education into policy-led short courses that bring higher education, policy and business audiences together.

Source: citystgeorges.ac.uk / zyen.com