Question description

 

Point One

You spent the last week reflecting on both your appreciation of Deborah’s praise and the success of the organization, and then had a long weekend with your family. As you walk in to work on Monday, all you can think about is how excited you are about the future of the company.

You sit down at your desk and get started on your newest marketing proposal for Deborah when there is a knock at your door. When you call for the person to come in, Anna, the financial analyst, enters.

“Good morning,” she says. You are surprised to see that she looks nervous because Anna usually has a smile on her face.

“Hi, Anna. Is everything okay?” you ask.

“Well,” Anna begins, “I just finished our quarterly report. Our profit margins have dropped by 2% this quarter.”

After Anna leaves to send her report to Deborah, you start to wonder how you and your team can help fix this. Is a global strategy the answer, or should the company continue to focus on the domestic market?

You call a team meeting to learn about the progress of their research.

Tiffany, one of your team members, begins the discussion. “I think we need to look at some of the internal factors,” she says. “We know what our capabilities are on the domestic front, but what about in the global market? We have a fairly strong market presence here in higher-end markets, but how does that translate globally?”

“Well, I think we need to identify a benchmark to give us some more information to make a better decision,” you explain. Answer the following:

• What is your benchmark?
• Did it benefit from global expansion? If so, how? If not, why?
• Did this benefit or hinder the benchmark's domestic market share? Explain.
• Were there risks associated with the globalization?

• How were these risks minimized?

Point Two

Mike, one of the marketing strategists on your team, stops at your office door wanting to talk. “We use fabrics that are made domestically; however, there are issues with using these same fabrics globally. There are laws and regulations that prevent us from shipping these fabrics to other countries. This is a huge concern. One of our primary selling points is the consistency of quality of our product.”

You confirm Mike’s concern, “That’s an excellent point,” you say. “Now you’ve just given yourself and our team more work for the presentation. I’m sure that will come up. One of the board members used to run a textile plant in China.”

Mike nods his head in agreement. “I imagine textiles will not be the only resource concern,” he says.

Consider the following in your response:

• Why should resources be a concern in a global strategy?
• What resources may be a concern in the country you selected?
• How will this impact the decision to move to the country that you selected?
• How will this impact your competitive strategy in your global market?