Foreign assignments are usually met with the need for cultural adjustments by the respective managers. It is important to note that cultural adjustment is a continuing process that imposes new demands when a foreign manager undertakes his duties during the foreign assignment. According to research conducted by Gregory Trivonovitch, there are four distinct phases of cultural adjustment that are cyclic due to the fact an individual persistently encounters a period of adjustment when moving from one cultural context to another. The four stages identified by most models of cultural adjustment for the case of foreign managers include honeymoon, cultural shock, adjustment, and mastery phase. The honeymoon phase of cultural adjustment is characterized by a positive perception of the cultural differences between the home and host cultural values. This is usually due to an increased fascination concerning the new cultural aspects such as new types of foods, types of buildings, individual Continue reading
International Business Strategies
Case Study of McCain Foods: Dominating the Frozen Food Industry with Business Expansion
McCain Foods Limited was established in 1957 in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada. The McCain brothers identified the need for frozen food in Canada and they decided to come up with a company that would satisfy this need. Andrew McCain discovered that there was a vast market for potatoes across the globe. Therefore, he established McCain Produce Company with an aim of exporting seed potatoes. Later, his sons came up with an idea to establish a business that dealt with frozen foods. The company started by hiring thirty employees, and during the first year, it made sales worth $152,678. Today, McCain Food Limited is one of the multinational companies that deal with frozen foods. The company’s operation is so massive that it processes one million pounds of potato products each hour and sells one-third of the world’s frozen french fries products in over 110 countries. Moreover, the company offers jobs to thousands Continue reading
Case Study: McDonald’s Entry into the Chinese Market
The history of the McDonald’s Corporation dates back to 1954 when a man by the name of Ray Kroc heard about Mac and Dick McDonald, two brothers who were running a burger and shakes joint in San Bernardino, California. Kroc paid the two brothers a visit and this visit culminated in a franchising agreement to use the McDonald’s name limitlessly. Seven years later and with more than one hundred and thirty McDonald’s restaurants across the United States, Ray Kroc bought the chain from the McDonald’s brothers for 2.7 million dollars. The growth of McDonald’s Corporation continued in the United States and soon Kroc set his eyes on markets away from home. Today, the McDonald’s Corporation is the leading fast-food chain globally, and owns the restaurants in different continents: South America, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and even Africa. McDonald’s Entry into the Chinese Market Due to the diverse cultural beliefs and practices Continue reading
Case Study: Fiat Automobiles Survival From Turbulent Times
Fiat is a manufacturer and a seller of the common Fiat brand vehicles based in Italy and with many sales branches around the world. It has been successful for many years in the production of its vehicles and has made a lot of returns from that. However, the company has faced a lot of challenges, especially the effects of the global financial crisis, factors that have caused it to undergo a recession and a great fall in its business resulting to very low returns. On the other hand, the company has undergone a lot of pressure from its competitors in Italy and also other car manufacturers from prominent countries like Germany and Japan and this has resulted to a lowered competitive advantage. All these factors have contributed to what has been referred in the vehicle business world as the fall of Fiat. In addition, the company suffered a lot of Continue reading
What Can Be Protected under Trademark Law
The trademark laws are meant to protect business entity. It takes years and a significant amount of resources for a company to develop a strong brand that is largely acceptable in the market. Top global brands such as Apple Inc., Coca-Cola, and Samsung are worth billions of dollars because of the heavy investment the relevant companies have placed in their promotion. One of the biggest problems of counterfeiting that trademark laws seeks to fight is the possible loss of value of a given strong brand. Most of the counterfeited products are of poor quality. When a customer chooses to purchase a specific brand over others, one of the defining factors is quality. They feel cheated. The main problem that emerges from such a scenario is that such customers will not only avoid the company’s products but will also influence others against the brand. It is unfair for a company that Continue reading
Strategic Outsourcing
The opposite of integration (a firm’s growth, in number of businesses) is outsourcing value-creation activities to subcontractors. In recent years there has been a clear move among many enterprises to outsource non-core or non-strategic activities. Any function can be outsourced, if it is not critical to a firm’s success (is not one of its distinctive competencies). Outsourcing begins with a identification of a firm’s distinctive competencies–these will continue to be performed within the company. All other activities are then reviewed to see whether they can be performed more effectively and efficiently by independent suppliers. If they can, these activities are outsourced to those suppliers. The relationships between the company and those suppliers are then often structured as long-term contractual relationships. The term virtual corporation has been coined to describe companies that have pursued extensive strategic outsourcing. Advantages of Strategic Outsourcing There are several advantages of strategic outsourcing. First, by outsourcing Continue reading