Nabila Suayd Gold
131039
November 17th, 2015.

CASE WRITE UP
“KENT CHEMICAL: ORGANIZING FOR INTERNATIONAL GROWTH”
INTRODUCTION
Kent was established in 1917 as a rubber producer, established its corporate headquarters just outside of Akron, Ohio in a small town called Kent. Kent became a leading global specialty-chemical company when it chose to diversify into additives and other specialty chemicals, developing these products within their own research laboratory in 1953. Kent Chemical Products has grown throughout the years from its core domestic business to an international operation struggling to fully integrate globally.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
In 1998, CEO Ben Fisher decided global expansion would be Kent’s top priority stating, “Our goal is to remake Kent from a U.S. company dabbling in international markets to one that develops, manufactures, and sells worldwide”. This goal proved to be more difficult than first anticipated, when after two reorganizations Kent’s Chemical International president Luis Morales had not yet been able to align the international side of the business with the core domestic side.
ANALYSIS
1. What were the problems facing Luis Morales as he began implementing Ben Fisher’s international expansion strategy?

Morales began implementing the global integration strategy by taking majority interests in Kent´s offshore JV´s, acquiring other overseas companies, and generally expanding global presence.

As overseas operations grew, Morales became concerned that his organization was not adapting well to changing pressures and demands. His first concern was the impact of new systems. As Kent acquired majority positions, corporate reporting systems had been added to allow operations to be controlled and financial reports consolidated; having the data sometimes tempted the staff to second-guess local country managers. Capital