Global Issues in Business
Week 5 Case Analysis
DeVry University
Federal Way, Washington

Summary In the case study “,” it discusses the history of Procter & Gamble’s foreign business strategy and some of the problems they incurred along the way. It also covers some of their business strategy changes the company introduced in order to become more profitable in a changing world economy along with a more globalized less restrictive trade and business environment. It’s summarized with a detailed discussion regarding P & G reorganization and complete restructuring of the company to control its costs by having European plant closures and layoffs.
Questions 3 a, b, c
a. What strategy was Procter & Gamble pursuing when it first entered foreign markets in the period up until the 1980s?
Procter & Gamble clearly used an international strategy for their expansion into foreign markets throughout a large portion of the 20th century. Not until they began to experience slower growth, profits and sales in the in the early 1990’s did they take a serious look into their business model for international expansion. But up to this pint they were unparalleled by any other competitor as the chart shows below. (2)

b. Why do you think this strategy became less viable in the 1990s?
I feel there are several defendable reasons that P&G’s business strategy began to lose its effectiveness it has had years prior. First, the changing global market created a better market for companies to expand and compete with less restrictive policies from host nations and more openness to foreign direct investment have all aligned to make the older strategy almost doomed to be defeated. Second, a combination of cheaper more efficient transportation of goods and markets more free for the import and export of materials aided to P&G losing some market share and