IB Professionals are experts in sustainable and responsible business internationalisation. They
help businesses and organisations develop and conduct sustainable and responsible
international activities, and thus cope with and flourish in a rapidly changing international
business environment, with intercultural sensitivity.
In essence IB Professionals are responsible change consultants/managers regarding business
internationalisation. They facilitate sustainable international (global) business development by
identifying viable opportunities, recommending internationalisation strategies to utilise these
opportunities (sustainably and responsibly) to create multi sided value and contribute to the
execution of these measures. In doing so, they are acutely aware of their global influence and
the impact they can create regarding sustainable and socially responsible business.
Their strength is in fully immersing themselves in different local contexts, cultures and
ecosystems, interacting locally, which allows them to add valuable in-depth local insights to
the mix for good decision making in an international or other-national context. Their grasp of the
impact of the characteristics of the local context on the business —be it strategy, marketing,
HRM, finance, operations, supply chain management or ethics— provides decision makers with
crucial information to do business in foreign markets in a responsive and responsible manner.
An important part of the IB Professional’s job is to forge international partnerships and create
bridges between cultures and contexts. They have an uncanny ability to understand and profile
businesses (organisations), markets and cultures, approaching every situation from the
perspective of the specific context. They can make creative combinations of their vast
contextual knowledge —acquired through constant study and analysis of large amounts
international data and local contexts— to solve issues or identify opportunities. ‘People’ and
‘planet’, regarded from the point of view of the specific context, are top of mind in everything
they propose, without losing track of ‘prosperity’ and ‘profit’
Obviously, IB Professionals are travellers; they understand that in order to fully grasp a local
context they have to become part of it, not study it from afar. They feel comfortable with an
internationally mobile lifestyle, being cross-cultural individuals. IB Professionals have
developed an identity that is rooted in people rather than places, which —together with their
broad world view, deep cultural, ethical and moral awareness, and adaptive communication
skills— allows them to adapt to and comprehend any environment fairly quickly and deal with
changing dynamics.