Internationalization strategy for
[The name of your company]
Table of contents
List of figures
List of tables
Appendixes
1. Description (1-2 pages)
I expect you here to describe the selected company. Here you can emphasize the place
of its headquarter, evolution over the years, current subsidiaries, sales, number of
employees, etc. This should give the reader a clear overview of the company.
2. Framework for Global strategy (7 pages approximately)
2.1. Global ambition
At this level of your education, you should know how to describe the mission, vision,
objectives, competitors, etc. of a company. This is not difficult to find or write up if
you have done sufficient research about your company of analysis.
2.2. Business model
In this subsection, you need to describe the business model of your selected company.
There are many definitions and categorizations of business models (e.g. Chesbrough,
2006; Govindarajan and Trimble, 2011; Johnson et al., 2008; Osterwalder and
Pigneur, 2010) but you can choose the preferred one. Just be careful on not mixing
interpretations and carefully citing your main source.
Value creation refers to the characteristic mechanisms or processes designed to satisfy
customer demands.
Value capture or revenue architecture refers to managers’ decisions and mechanisms
for assigning prices and exacting payment.
Value chain denotes the internal and external resources, competences and processes
needed to meet customers’ demands. Resources include people, technology,
equipment, information channels, partnerships and alliances (Johnson et al. 2008).
Market segment covers market size, matching the firm’s goods and services to:
market volume, current and future customer requirements, geographic and
demographic characteristics.
Value network or ecosystem refers to managers’ identification of the main cooperative and complementary points of differentiation to enable sustainable, nonimitable arrangements among suppliers, customers and competitors.
Competitive strategy refers to managers’ decision regarding present and future
activities for securing and sustaining competitive advantage over their competitors.
2.3. Global organization
In this subsection, you should briefly explain the distinct departments e.g. sales,
operations/production, HH.RR, marketing, innovation of the company you selected.
This is about the current state of the selected company. For example, many companies
may have a centralized R&D and productions units close to the headquarter office and
only sales offices distributed throughout the world. Here, you can read (Bartlett and
Ghoshal, 1986; Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1998) for further insights.
2.4.Global positioning
In this subsection, I expect you to: a) describe how is the company globally positioned
AND/OR b) provide a comparison of attractive markets to internationalize your
company.
Here, you have to use the CAGE Framework (see chapter 2 Ghemawat, 2007). This
framework will allow you to explore the differences between countries from four
different dimensions: Cultural distance, administrative distance, geographic distance
and economic distance.
Your selection and evaluation of tentative places is based on sound market data that
could assure the success of your strategy. In this course, we won’t discuss specific
tools and mechanisms for doing market research (as I assume you have done this at
your home university) but I expect you to implement the CAGE model.
3. ADDING Value Framework
In this section, I expect you to explain “why” your case study company should
internationalize or has chosen to internationalize using the ADDING framework. As
discussed in class, your group can select a new location where the company could
internationalize its current activities. Alternatively, you can discuss the current
internationalization strategies of the company you’ve selected in one specific country.
Certainly, your decision between proposing a new internationalization strategy vs.
providing insights about an already conducted strategy has direct implications on
sections 3, 4 and 5. There is not a right or wrong approach but I will evaluate your
effort on gathering data, exploring the previous internationalization strategies of your
company, analysing available information, recommending further steps, etc.
Volume– For example, as a group you need to evaluate whether your case company is
moving to a new market to gain new market share with the same product
Margin–
Cost saving. You can explore how and if the company save costs by internationalizing
some of its activities. For example, you can begin thinking if doing production in a
foreign country may lead to cost reduction, similarly what about the best strategies to
perform sales.
Differentiation. Here you can propose initial insights on why and how a company can
provide products that are useful for the local contests. For example, remember how
some companies like Pepsi decide to develop specific type of snacks for the Indian
market.
Finally, I would recommend you to explain what strategy should the selected
company adopt: a) cost reduction or b) differentiation to address the local demand.
Industry attractiveness– You could provide an evaluation of the industry/sector
competitiveness, attractiveness and opportunities for your selected case company in
the new market segment.
Uncertainty/risks – Here, I recommend you to work on providing some insights
about potential risks to moving to a new market. For example, you could consider
supply- demand–side risks; financial side risks, competitive risks, nonmarket risks.
Knowledge/resources – Furthermore, internationalizing to new emerging markets
requires personnel who have to sell products, conduct administrative process, produce
new machinery and adapt technologies to a local context. So, you should explain how
knowledge from the local headquarter can be transfer to the subsidiary. You could
explain some issues of training people to adopt headquarters’ practices, process,
methods but also develop local specific knowledge that is valuable to guarantee a
local adaptation.
3.1. Strategies for value creation
In this section, you will work on one (1) of the recommended strategies for global
value creation: a) adaptation, b) aggregation and c) arbitrage.
We will work on this section on the 17th of April (with Per-Aman) and 23rd of April
4. Building a global business
4.1. Global information systems strategy
In this section, I expect you to elaborate on the insights received on Douglas
DruckeMiller classes of global Information Systems (IS). You should give some
insights on how [the selected company] should implement an IS strategy to facilitate
international communication, coordination, etc. between the headquarter and the
subsidiary. For example, you can give what are the initial tools to be implemented to
facilitate exchange of documentation and arrange global conversations.
4.2. Global Human Resource Management
Here, you can begin thinking about the possible problems operating in the “new”
selected market or where the company is currently operating. Certainly, operating in
new markets represent a new business challenge for companies, business teams, etc.
e.g. cultural, legal, administrative, etc. Please, based on Douglas DrukenMiller lecture
discuss the potential barriers operating in distinct time zones, languages, education,
religion, etc. and proposed solutions to facilitate the adoption of a corporate cultural
4.3. Global operations and product development
We will work on this section on the 26th of April
4.4. Global innovation strategy
We will work on this section on the 26th of April
4.5. Global marketing
We will work on this section on the 24rd of April, using the example of Subway
5. Recommendations
We will work on this section on the 29th of April
References
Bartlett, C.A., Ghoshal, S., 1986. Tap your subsidiaries for global reach. Harvard
Business Review 64, 87-94.
Bartlett, C.A., Ghoshal, S., 1998. Managing Across Borders: The Transnational
Solution, 2nd ed. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
Chesbrough, H., 2006. Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation
Landscape. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts.
Ghemawat, P., 2007. Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Borders in A World
Where Differences Still Matter. Harvard Business School Publishing India Pvt.
Limited.
Govindarajan, V., Trimble, C., 2011. The CEO's Role In Business Model
Reinvention. Harvard Business Review 89, 108-114.
Johnson, M.W., Christensen, C.M., Kagermann, H., 2008. Reinventing your business
model. Harvard Business Review 86, 50-59.
Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., 2010. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for
Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Wiley.