My Norwich University Experience : International Business

Finals Week

WheelCipher — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:55:00 GMT

This week is the last week of International Business. This seminar has given me a deeper appreciation for the complexity of managing a business engaged in international operations. I firmly believe that the United States of America through its political climate, its culture, its economy, and its legal underpinnings, is uniquely qualified to create and support multinational organizations that are highly competitive in today's world markets. Only in America can one find ethnic diversity coupled with a climate for developing cutting-edge technology.

Thomas Friedman once said, "A healthy global society is one that can balance the Lexus and the Olive Tree all the time, and there is no better model for this on earth today than America. And that's why I believe so strongly that for globalization to be sustainable America must be at its best – today, tomorrow, all the time. It not only can be, it must be, a beacon for the whole world. Let us not squander this precious legacy.”

The past week was spent working as a team getting our “country analysis” done. We chose Brazil. Our business is based around information technology. This week will be spent writing up the final project. I have volunteered to be the editor. It’s something that I’ve been doing for a while now. I like putting the work of all team members together into one piece. It is a sense of accomplishment for me.

Then we have a week off. I am so looking forward to it. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. One more class to go.

Add to:

Week Eight in International Business

WheelCipher — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:00:00 GMT

It is week eight in International Business. Four more to go until this class is over. I am counting the days. This week, we’re talking about International Human Resources Management. This is an interesting topic to me. An example of what we’re discussing is:

Briggs & Stratton is a company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the 1990s, Briggs & Stratton moved its production facilities to Mexico. They faced a huge hurdle in that they had to reeducate their entire Mexican workforce to meet their production quality standards. They had little to work with, the average Mexican leaves school somewhere between age 12 and 16 and only about 21% finish their secondary education (high school). Where were they going to find their worker base? With only 5% of Mexicans obtaining a college level education, how much would they have to spend on “knowledge workers” (engineers, managers, and technical specialists)? Would they have to staff the entire facility with US expatriate managers?

Briggs & Stratton's approach was to design in-house educational experiences in literacy, quality control, basic applied engineering skills, management development programs, and a host of other training programs. You could say that they are now in the business of primary and secondary education, as well as small-engine manufacturing. Naturally, they want to portray a positive image and that they have been good for the local communities near the production facilities, but the need to be a good corporate citizen arose out of the very real need to make production quotas. It is a win-win scenario for both Briggs & Stratton and the people of Mexico.

In the beginning, however, many of the middle and higher level positions had to be filled by US expatriates that were helping to establish the subsidiary since most Mexicans did not have the requisite competencies required by Briggs & Stratton. Typical of most expatriate assignments, these employees generally cost from 2 ½ to 5 times as much as a similar assignment would have in the expatriates' home countries (USA, in this case). These increased costs arise because most expats need some incentive to uproot and move. They will need to be compensated for travel expenses to and from the host country, which may occur several times per year if the expat is traveling alone and wants to come home to see family. On long-term assignments, the entire family will need to be moved. The number one reason for expatriate failure (coming home early) is that the family can not adjust to the host country culture, so everyone involved will need some cultural training to ensure that the assignment is completed. Briggs & Stratton quickly determined that sending even a technician to Mexico was very pricey. This section focuses heavily on what organizations can do to ensure expatriate success and how to develop these expatriates into an internationally savvy management cadre that can help to move the organization into the future.

Add to:

Week Seven in International Business

WheelCipher — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:03:00 GMT

Today marks the start of week seven in International Business. It just hit me. We’re over half done with this class. The end is in sight! Today, we talk about International Marketing.

Probably the single most important reason why firms decide to move overseas is to grow, to expand their business, to sell more. Together with new business opportunities it generates a new set of challenges and new decisions. Marketing variables are strongly impacted when firms operate overseas. Segmentation in other countries differs from that in the US. Brazil has a large Afro-Brazilian middle class, Mexico has large families with several children, or China, has a large single child family base, or in other words, a large adult population with traditional values.

To succeed, we need to know how the marketing mix must be adapted.

Products must be adapted. McDonald's must sell veggie burgers in India, where large part of the population is vegetarian. Barbie, who has a strong American image, encounters some cultural resistance in the Middle East, or racial differences in Latin America or East Asia.

Branding must be readapted. Companies such as BP need to adapt their brand image when they establish in countries with different alphabets. Some firms can use the strong national image such as German's cars, while others need to overcome the poor image of their countries such as Indian cars.

Distribution changes: Bimbo has a very good penetration in the Mexican countryside, which differs from the retailing system in the US.

Some firms need to re-think their entire strategy: Ranbaxy exports low price generic drugs which is competitive overseas, while in India they develop and produce a wide spectrum of drugs.

Why Wal-Mart is so successful in the US and encounters difficulties when it goes overseas, such as the limited infrastructure in Mexico or the intense competition from Carrefour in Argentina is partially related to marketing.

International Marketing is a very interesting aspect of International Business Strategies, where converge cross cultural dimensions, international strategies, international trade and finance, environmental factors, and even international politics.

The goals this week are:

Evaluate which stage of structural evolution an international company has attained.
Make recommendations towards achieving an appropriate structure (form) for an internationally-active company.
Explain how global operations should be controlled to maximize structural efficiency and effectiveness.
Understand why it is important for a multinational to align organizational structure with stated international goals and objectives.

Add to:

What a Great Weekend

WheelCipher — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:01:00 GMT

Yesterday was the beginning of the sixth week in International Business. Before I get started on that, I will tell you about a very exciting weekend I had. I took Friday off so I could have a 3-day weekend. I drove to my mom’s house in Houston (3 hours away) and arrived early Friday afternoon.

When I got there, I buried myself in my homework. I was able to get it done by early Friday night. That left about two days where I had no school obligations. It was a great feeling. I used my time wisely! I read a good book (Inside Drucker’s Brain) from cover to cover. It was a great read. Here’s the review I wrote for it on Facebook:

This is a great Drucker primer that will have even the youngest manager going back for more. If you have never read a Drucker book, this is a good one to start with.

His exposure to philosophy, art, history and other subjects as a child played a huge role in the way his mind worked. The man was a visionary on multiple dimensions simultaneously. He correctly predicted the Holocaust in '39 and formulated his management style based on a few very important influences as a young man.

He says that he is a horrible manager and maybe this is because he put himself in the shoes of the customer and the front-line employee. He was indeed humble, if nothing else.

His approach is Jeffersonian in nature and his approach to problems is honest. And if properly executed, you will see results and redefine the way you think about business theory. He shaped the way corporations operate and think and was an influence on millions of managers. He did this behind the scenes with little to no credit for his work.

This is not a self-help book. If you are looking for that, go read Dr. Phil or join Oprah’s book club. This is a real-world example of how things get accomplished.

This week in International Business, we’re studying “Global Alliances and Strategy Implementation”. One of the major downfalls in internationally-active organizations is that they do not learn from their mistakes. The key to implementing the less complex market entry strategies like importing, exporting and countertrade is to keep some overarching goal in mind and build international competencies as quickly as possible. In this way, choosing to stay an exporter (or importer) becomes a conscious strategic decision instead of simply the “easiest” way to get at some foreign customers.

Since the USA has become a net importer of goods, a vast array of governmental resources is available to US companies wishing to export. In particular, the EXIM bank serves as an excellent source of loans for small US business wishing import or export. This section of the class focuses on building and maintaining international business partners and how these alliances and joint venture arrangements can help to implement a long-term internationalization strategy.

Here we go!

Add to:

Week Four in International Business

WheelCipher — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:43:00 GMT

Well, the holidays are over. My week of not having to worry about school is over. It’s back to the daily grind. I absolutely enjoyed my time off. In previous holiday seasons, I was usually chomping at the bit to get back to school. I missed the daily challenges that school provided me. This time was different.

Every day that passed where I had no school obligations showed me how much of my life school actually consumes. I didn’t have that need to get back to school in such a hurry this time. I just compared the free time I had during the Christmas holiday to the complete lack of free time and was amazed at the workload. Anyway … onward and upward.

Today marks the start of week four in International Business.

The previous assignments introduced how international trade was a central component of international business; this chapter presents the financial counterpart of trade. The world has suffered severe financial crises and speculative attacks on currencies, especially when we had fixed exchange rate regimes. Developed countries replaced these regimes by floating currency systems during the 70’s, which have functioned relatively well and dodged several crises successfully In the last two decades many large developing countries suffered severe financial crises and also switched to float currency systems, but still some of them have not done so.

The process of structural change and macroeconomic stabilization programs during the end of the last century was quite widespread throughout the world, especially in developing nations. It adopted different forms of currency anchors, currency boards, and dollar pegs, to struggle inflation. The inflation was effectively controlled. The insertion of the economies into the global markets, resulting in more perfect competition, lower cost inputs, and economies of scale, modernization and technology transfer also contributed to such inflation control.

This week we will analyze the impact of the financial system on the real economy, how interest rates and exchange rates are inter-related with economic activity, how can a country export its internal recession or inflation, and why these factors are so central for business.

Looking forward to future weeks, this doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. I love it.

Add to: