...Walmart case 1. To what extent is WalMart’s performance attributable to industry attractiveness and to what extent to competitive advantage? WalMart´s performance is not attributable to industry attractiveness due to the high internal rivalry within the retail sector. Such rivalry results in margin compression and lower growth for WalMart. By using Porter's 5 forces, we see that supplier power for WalMart is weak because many of WalMart's suppliers are consumer product companies. These companies are commodity companies since their product has little differentiation. As a result, they have little bargaining power against retailers with large market share such as WalMart. Buyer power for the consumer is average because there are a large amount of substitutes. Buyers can easily go to another retailer such as Target or Kmart for their shopping needs. Internal rivalry is high as the market is very competitive. Many retailers are forced to lower prices in order to compete. As a result, some retailers are forced to file for bankruptcy. Substitutes for retailers such as WalMart are moderate. This is because there are many alternatives such as local grocery stores, department stores, and local mom and pop stores. Barriers to entry for WalMart are high due to the high fixed costs associated with running retail stores as ...
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...Problem Solution: Global Communications The first section of the problem solution focuses on the most important past events that led to the issues and opportunities listen in Table 1. This is an analysis of the situation Global Communications finds itself in. These events are not the problem of the case but are what started the problem. In the stakeholder perspectives and ethical dilemmas section you will find various stakeholders identified, their interests, rights and values. The conflicting interests, conflicting rights, and ethical dilemmas are discussed here using the information in Table 2. The problem statement section includes what Global Communication aspires to be and the range of opportunities it must seize to achieve that vision. The end-state vision section focuses on where the company would want to me in the next few years. If all the challenges overcome, all the problems were solved and all the opportunities are realized then where would Global Communications stand. The statement directly reflects the desired end state Global Communications targets. The visions statement helped formulate the end-state goals listed in Table 3. The alternative solutions section you’ll find solutions that support my problem statement. These solutions summarize the benchmarking findings related to the problem statement, the relevance of benchmarking to Global Communications and specific solutions that give us details for Global Communications findings. Analysis of alternative solutions...
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...overseas. They are focused on the developing markets of South East Asia, Middle East/North Africa, China and Indonesia. The main two countries chosen for this report are China and Indonesia. Goulburn Valley Milk does have local and foreign competitors as well as direct and indirect competitors competing in the dairy/fresh milk industry. • What form of competitors are these: company size and product range? As of the year 2012, results show that Devondale Goulburn Valley is the leading dairy industry and the company exported 740,000 tonnes of dairy products including fresh milk, instant milk powder, butter, cheese, cream etc. Local/ domestic brands in China such as Tianjin Haihe and Shangai Bright Dairy are rising quickly. Research shows that the market size in 2015 maintained at least 20% growth rate than 2014. These are all domestic and direct dairy companies, which produce more than 68133(Ton) of milk a year. Indonesian milk companies such as Frisian Flag and Indolakto Indonesia are two of the main leading brands in Indonesia with a value share of 36% for the year of 2015. This good performance was the result of packaging innovation. Foreign competitors in New Zealand competing in the same industry are Fonterra and Guardian. Some of these big companies are responsible for more than 50% of the world’s dairy exports. Global demand for dairy foods is increasing fast, particularly in Asian countries. The more demand grows the more competitors enter the market. Indirect competitors...
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...Chapter 6 1. What is strategy? What is strategic planning? * Strategy = the basic means by which the firm competes * Strategic planning = The more complex than domestic strategic planning because of more complex variables a. List the reasons a company would have if it wants to operate internationally. Have a two reasons a company would have is it wants to operate internationally . Which is Reactive/Defensive & Proactive/Aggressive Reactive/Defensive * Globalization of competitors * Trade barriers * Regulations and restrictions * Customer demands Proactive/Aggressive * Economies of scale * Growth opportunities * Resource access and cost savings Incentives b. List the seven steps in the strategic management process. * Define/clarify mission and objectives * Assess environment for threats, opportunities * Assess internal strengths and weaknesses * Consider alternative strategies using competitive analysis * Choose strategy * Implement strategy through complementary structure , system and operational processes * Set up control and evaluation systems to ensure success, feedback to planning 2. What is environmental scanning? What areas are most commonly focused in environmental scanning? Environmental scanning is a process that systematically surveys and interprets relevant data to identify external opportunities and threats. An organization gathers information about the external world, its competitors...
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...Drink Industry Five Forces Analysis: Soft drink industry is very profitable, more so for the concentrate producers than the bottler’s. This is surprising considering the fact that product sold is a commodity which can even be produced easily. There are several reasons for this, using the five forces analysis we can clearly demonstrate how each force contributes the profitability of the industry. Barriers to Entry: The several factors that make it very difficult for the competition to enter the soft drink market include: * Bottling Network: Both Coke and PepsiCo have franchisee agreements with their existing bottler’s who have rights in a certain geographic area in perpetuity. These agreements prohibit bottler’s from taking on new competing brands for similar products. Also with the recent consolidation among the bottler’s and the backward integration with both Coke and Pepsi buying significant percent of bottling companies, it is very difficult for a firm entering to find bottler’s willing to distribute their product. The other approach to try and build their bottling plants would be very capital-intensive effort with new efficient plant capital requirements in 1998 being $75 million. * Advertising Spend: The advertising and marketing spend (Case Exhibit 5 & 6) in the industry is in 2000 was around $ 2.6 billion (0.40 per case * 6.6 billion cases) mainly by Coke, Pepsi and their bottler’s. The average advertisement spending per point of market share in 2000 was...
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...The Strategy of International Business Learning objectives • Explain the concept of strategy. • Understand how firms can profit from expanding globally. • Understand how pressures for cost reductions and pressures for local responsiveness influence strategic choice. • Be familiar with different strategies for competing globally and their pros and cons. In this chapter the focus shifts from the environment to the firm itself and, in particular, to the actions managers can take to compete more effectively as an international business. This chapter looks at how firms can increase their profitability by expanding their operations in foreign markets, the different strategies that firms pursue when competing internationally, and the various factors that affect a firm’s choice of strategy. Subsequent chapters build on the framework established here to discuss a variety of topics including the design of organization structures and control systems for international businesses, strategies for entering foreign markets, the use and misuse of strategic alliances, strategies for exporting, and the various manufacturing, marketing, R&D, human resource, accounting, and financial strategies that international businesses pursue. OUTLINE OF CHAPTER 12: THE STRATEGY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS Opening Case: MTV Networks Introduction Strategy and the Firm Value Creation Strategic Positioning Operations: The Firm as a Value Chain Global...
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...The purpose of this assignment is to identify the entry of the U.S. Company Wal-Mart that has expanded internationally and the applied strategy for entering the German market. Additionally assessed will be the barriers that were faced and Wal-Mart’s failure in Germany. Finally there will be recommendations by the author of what they could have done differently. Wal-Mart operates nowadays over 11,500 stores in 28 countries world - wide (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, 2015). As further domestic success for Wal-Mart in the U.S. was limited because of competitors like Target and K-Mart, they decided to expand internationally (Arndt, 2003). Wal-Mart entered the German market in 1997 (Jui, 2011). The management was confident that their success in USA can be replicated elsewhere all over the world and the German market seemed to be very attractive at that time as the world’s third largest economy (Arndt, 2003). Wal-Mart designed an international expansion strategy, which was also used for the German market (Brunn, 2006, p. 261). Instead of building their own stores as it is typical for Wal-Mart in the U.S., they focused internationally on takeovers of already existing chains (Brunn, 2006, p. 263). Germany’s leading supermarkets are usually privately owned, whereas Wal-Mart got only the possibility to buy the weak chains Interspar and Wertkauf, which also generated the first problem with their entry into the German market (Brunn, 2006, p. 263). Consequently, their start in Germany was rough...
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...Unit 39 – International Business Scenario You are employed by the local Business Development Agency and have been asked to independently research international business in relation to an international case study business of your choice. From your research you are required to put together a research report document which can be used to assist businesses who are considering trading internationally. Your work should be a result of your own independent research and contain references throughout and a bibliography. Your research should follow the guidelines set and give your own supported judgement where indicated. Learning Outcomes 1. Understand the international business environment 2. Know how cultural differences affect international business 3. Know how international business is financially supported 4. Understand the strategies used by international business Task 1 – covers P1 – Hand in date 11/4/2014 P1 – Explain the international environment in which a selected organisation operates in 1. Choose a business which operates internationally, it is suggested that you use one from the following list as they make good international case studies. You may chose an alternative that is not on the list but you must get prior agreement with your tutor. Aviva Dyson Burberry M&S JCB Barclays Britvic Tesco JLR Cadbury GSK Costa Premier Foods B&Q Ikea 2. Write a 400 word background introduction on the company and...
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...The Strategy of International Business The chapter reviews basic principles of the strategies available for globally expanding businesses, it also reviews the different ways in which a business can maximize their profit while maintaining a well planed and followed expansions/global strategy. One important fact is to focus on the main objective of any firm; “Maximizing shareholder value” any strategy is mostly designed and built around this objective. To evaluate and review the strategies presented in this chapter two current events are visited at the end of the paper; Nokia’s cost reduction strategy and Hollywood’s Global Expansion strategy. Hollywood for one is focused on the global market and the ability to successfully expand through these markets, since 1980s as mentioned by Jeff Kleeman the executive producer of “The Change-Up” (Lang, 2011) Hollywood were targeting the global market but now they are more focused on the how rather than just the revenues from these global markets. Nokia’s global strategy on the other hand is aligning workforce with site operations. Nokia is one of the successful telecommunication companies worldwide with more than a billion users worldwide. (Nokia Corporation, 2011) Chapter Summary The Strategy of International Business chapter reviews some basic principles of international business strategies and how these strategies can be used to profit from international expansions. The chapter defines strategy as “the actions managers take...
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...What changes, if any, should Grupo Bimbo make to its global strategy in order to be more successful internationally? Grupo Bimbo’s global strategy is experiencing growing pains at different international markets but I think it’s natural and makes sense for them to go global given that they already have a huge market share in their domestic market. In order for Grupo Bimbo to be more successful internationally, they need to follow the changing consumer demand patterns and customize their products to match to the different cultural tastes and preferences. The production and distribution processes need to be more flexible and not just simply follow the process that they have in Mexico. As long as they have the continued stream of cash flow coming from the cash cow, Mexico, Grupo Bimbo should continue to implement its global strategy to expand and adjust to the challenges that other markets present. What changes should they make in the US market? Because of the high proportion of unsold inventory in the US supermarkets, as high as 14%, compared to the Mexico supermarkets, margins are being cut. This could be due to the high competition and not enough of a recognizable core brand in the US. This problem could potentially be solved by increasing marketing and branding so that they be distinguish themselves a bit more from their competitors and thus reducing that unsold inventory. Grupo Bimbo should also reduce the number of products that it offers in the US. Some products...
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...Global Financing and Exchange Rate Mechanisms Michael C. McGee MGT/448 November 6, 2012 Ian Finley Global Financing and Exchange Rate Mechanisms Globalization is ushering in tremendous business opportunities, competitive advantages, and greater profitability for companies that choose to set up operations in foreign countries. However, along with these opportunities come various risks to these companies. One of the main risks these companies will face is foreign currency exchange rate risk. Companies that plan to set up operations in a foreign country must exchange its domestic currency into the currency of the host nation to buy the necessary building materials, supplies, and other necessary resources that the operations will require (Hill, 2009). For example, if a U.S. company desires to set up operations in the country of China, it will have to exchange U.S. dollars currency into Chinese currency-the Yuan. If a company in Japan wants to set up operations in Spain or Italy, it would have to exchange its currency- the Yen into these countries’ currency, which is the Euro. The foreign currency exchange rates between these countries consistently fluctuate causing one to appreciate or depreciate against the other. The unpredictable movement of the foreign currency exchange rates can have adverse effects on a company’s investments, and profits that have operations in a foreign country. Foreign companies with operations in the U.S. normally convert the dollars it earns back...
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...I chose to talk about is about Apple and Samsung; they have both been competing to be number one in the market for phones, TVs, and now watches and new advances in technology. Apple has a huge a range of customers who are very loyal to them and that are what had made them so successful in expanding their business. Samsung is also very successful because of the advances that they have been making with Android and the new Tizen strategy. Tizen is a new form of technology that allows manufactures to turn phones in watches and other everyday items. Tizen and Android are very similar and most people cannot tell them apart if the systems are switched. Apple has a huge disadvantage with Samsung because they do not move as fast as Samsung. Samsung’s disadvantage is that China can easily make knockoffs of the brand and sell them for as low as $35 compared to $700. * Samsung’s marketing strategy is to cover everything that they can internationally, spending 4 billion dollars. * Apple’s business strategy is to keep its loyal customers happy with the products that they currently own. * Samsung’s business strategy is to keep the customers that they have while trying to gain new customers. * Samsung and Apple’s main challenges are environmental because people care about what their phones can do. Which means applications like Facebook, Instagram, and Candy crush? * Another area that they are competing in is the tablet market, Apple used to be 50% of the tablet market in...
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...Wednesday before class Kary A. Company analysis. Write a brief history of Ben and Jerry's, especially in their efforts to expand internationally. Mika B. Customer analysis. Write a customer analysis for Japan. Included in this should be a segmentation analysis. Identify possible segments that Ben and Jerry's should target. Kary C. Competitor analysis. mika D. Marketing environment. Discuss anything else in the Japanese environment that may impact Ben and Jerry's marketing efforts in Japan, including the supply chain for ice cream. Lehi E. SWOT analysis. Finish the situation analysis with a SWOT analysis. II. Overall Marketing Strategy. A. Targeting strategy. In the customer analysis, you identified segments that Ben and Jerry's may consider targeting. In this section, give a final recommendation on which segment(s) they should target, then write a vivid profile of their target segment(s). B. Positioning strategy. How should Ben and Jerry's position its brand relative to competing brands? What should the Ben and Jerry's brand stand for in the minds of Japanese customers? C. Value Proposition. Write a powerful, one-sentence value proposition targeted at Ben and Jerry's target customers. D. Goals and Objectives for the first three years of Ben and Jerry's entry into Japan. III. Marketing Mix Strategy. A. Product. What products should Ben and Jerry's offer in Japan? How should they package their product? What sizes of packages...
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...Chapter 6 1. What is strategy? What is strategic planning? a. List the reasons a company would have if it wants to operate internationally. b. List the seven steps in the strategic management process. 2. What is environmental scanning? What areas are most commonly focused in environmental scanning? a. What is the difference between environmental scanning at the multinational level and the regional level? b. Describe the various sources of information that are available to managers. 3. What is a SWOT analysis? How is it used in strategic planning? a. What are the two levels of strategic alternatives that a firm must consider when competing internationally? b. Compare and contrast globalization and regionalization. 4. Describe the strategies of globalization and regionalization. When can each strategy be used most effectively? Chapter 7 1. What is global alliance and why should a company seek a global alliance over other forms of market entry? a. What motivates a company to develop a cross-border alliance? . b. Briefly explain FIVE (5) challenges in implementing global alliances? 2. What is the "dual nature" of strategic alliances? a. What are the benefits of outsourcing abroad? What should firms do when implementing a global sourcing strategy? 3. What is international joint venture control? Why is it important? a. Describe the process of knowledge management in international joint ventures. b. What are some of the complexities...
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...this point to point model Southwest has made a profit for the past 39 years, and has grown into a $15.7 billion business operating 140 aircraft. Based on Gwynne (2012), Southwest started as a low cost point to point airlines operating from 3 Texas cities in 1971. They offered ticket prices as low as $40 per seat between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Southwest flew from small airports and was able to get people in and out quickly with fewer hassles as compared to the major airlines of the time. Their market strategy at the time was simple. Get people where they wanted to go, on time, for the lowest price possible. This follows the production concept as described by A Framework For Marketing Management (2012). The early Southwest airlines offered many flight schedule options with very basic service at a low cost. Based on A Framework For Marketing Management (2012) having a mission statement is an important part of strategic planning. Are Southwest Airlines strategies similar today to their 1971 vision? The Southwest Airline (2012 July) customer care commitment states their mission statement is “The mission of Southwest...
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