Control Mechanisms for Multinational Enterprises

Controlling is tool for achieving organizational goals and activities. Control is management’s planning, implementation, evaluation, and correction of performance to ensure that the organization meets its objectives in the short, medium and long terms. In the case of Multinational Enterprises, the top management’s toughest challenge is to balance the company’s global needs with its need to adapt to country-level differences. Read:  Control in Multinational Enterprises Some of the mechanisms that Multinational Enterprises  use to help ensure that control is implemented are given below: 1. Corporate Culture Every company has certain common values that its employees share, expect fellow members to follow. Corporate culture is a form of implicit control mechanism that helps enforce the company’s explicit control mechanisms. Employees conform to company traditions of work commitment, interactions with customers and so on. These are unwritten, informal, but more effective. But MNEs have more difficulty relying on a corporate culture for Continue reading

Place Component of the Global Marketing Mix

The American Marketing Association defines channel of distribution as “An organized network of agencies and institutions, which in combination, perform all the activities required to link producers with users to accomplish the marketing task.” Distribution is the physical flow of goods through channels; as suggested by the definition, channels are comprised of a coordinated group of individuals or firms that performs functions adding utility to a product or service. The major types of channel utility are: Place (the availability of a product or service in a location that is convenient to a potential customer); Time (the availability of a product or service when desired by a customer); Form (the product is processed, prepared and ready to use, and in proper condition); and Information (answers to questions and general communication about useful product features and benefits are available). Since these utilities can be a basic source of competitive advantage and product Continue reading

Selection Criteria for International Assignments

Making an effective selection decision for an overseas assignment can prove to be a major problem. Typically, this decision is based on international selection criteria, which are factors used to choose international managers. These selections are influenced by the  Multinational Corporations experience and often are culturally based. Sometimes as many as a dozen criteria are used, although most  Multinational Corporations give serious consideration to only five or six. 1. Adaptability to Cultural Change Overseas managers must be able to adapt to change. They also need a degree of cultural toughness. Research shows that many managers are exhilarated at the beginning of their overseas assignment. After a few months, however, a form of culture shock creeps in, and they begin to encounter frustration and feel confused in their new environment. One analysis noted that many of the most effective international managers suffer this cultural shock. Organizations examine a number of characteristics Continue reading

Business Environment Scanning

The Concept of the Environment Philosophically, the environment of a corporation includes all those realities whose existence may effect the corporation directly in any perceptible way. These realities may be sorted out in the following four categories: The “Community” that is made up of all the human begins that inhabit it and all their social organizations of all kinds The “Culture” that is made up of all the constructs of the human mind that affect the behaviour of all these individuals and organizations The “Habitat” that includes all the physical features of this environment The “Product” that includes all things made and services rendered by man Applying the prevailing culture and using and consuming natural features of the habitat and the product of past periods, the entries of the community have an existence and generate goods and services. Operationally, however, there are two main types of business environment: corporate environment Continue reading

Inter bank deals in forex trading

Primary dealers quote two-way prices and are willing to deal either side, i.e. they buy and sell the base currency up to conventional amounts at those prices. However, in interbank markets this is a matter of mutual accommodation. A dealer will be shown a two-way quote only if he / she extends the privilege to fellow dealers when they call for a quote. Communications between dealers tend to be very terse. A typical spot transaction would be dealt as follows: BANK A : “ Bank A calling. Your price on mark — dollar please.” BANK B : “ Forty forty eight.” BANK A : “ Ten dollars mine at forty eight.” Bank A dealer identifies and asks himself for B’s DEM/USD. Bank A is dealing at 1.4540/1.4548. The first of these, 1.4540, is bank B’s price for buying USD against DEM or its bid for USD; it will pay DEM Continue reading

Promotion Component of the Global Marketing Mix and Global Promotion Strategies

Marketing communications–the promotion “P” of the marketing mix–refers to all forms of communications that organizations use to establish meaning and influence buying behavior among existing and potential customers. Marketing communications should be designed to tell customers about the benefits and values that a product or service offers. The principal forms of marketing communications that is/ the elements of the promotion mix are Advertising, Personal selling, Publicity and Sales Promotion. All of these elements can be utilized in global marketing; however, the environment in which marketing communications programs are implemented can vary from country to country. Advertising may be defined as any sponsored, paid communication placed in a mass-medium vehicle. Advertising plays a more important communication role in the marketing of consumer products than industrial products. Frequently purchased, low-cost products generally require heavy advertising support. Not surprisingly, consumer products companies top the list of big advertising spenders. Global Promotion Strategies Companies Continue reading