International Management

This paper will present an international management strategy of my soft drink company dubbed Easy drink ltd. currently located in New York, US. Recently, the management has resolved that the company should diversify and target the international market opportunity in order to enjoy some economies of scale in production processes as well as marketing activities. By assessing the international environment there are a number of issues necessary for consideration. First, the nature and general characteristic of the target market for our soft drink. Here after a thorough research some aspects that needs more attention will involve assessing the type of customers in market by considering their social, cultural as well as their occupational activities in order to ensure that the major approaches to be used by my company in marketing do not conflict with the peoples way of life(Hofstede,2001)  

Second, the company will consider the current readiness and awareness strategies in order to utilize any opportunity in the international market so that the business remains competitive enough. Finally, we shall involve an apt strategy in helping us remain flexible enough in the diverse multicultural aspects of the international market. The flexibility will involve changes in the communicational approaches used by the business I reaching and offering feedback to the target customers. This may involve use of the locals in offering a bred in language and communication techniques. Our multinational MNC stakeholders will include company CEOs designated in the different nationals, regional managers, professional employees staff such as food and beverage specialists and other supportive staff.

 All the stakeholders in the international business will be required to integrate different national and cultural thinking of the people in order to remain at par with the population expectations from the company products. In an attempt to attaining the above success we shall involve a wide scope of MNC stakeholders’ responsibility which will include the following. Our regional managers will be required to develop uniform corporate identity in order to enable the company employees from different cultures to identify with the corporation. Here the role of the regional managers will be both global and local linking one (House, 2002). The regional managers will be required to develop independent strategies in order to focus on the company growth and innovation in the business unfamiliar global markets. These strategies will include the social corporate management strategies and the marketing ethical considerations. It should be noted that since each different country or national market offers different backgrounds in terms of employees’ skills and values, the managers’ independent strategies to integrate these diverse cultures will help the business to identify with the local market and probably be head of competition in the first two years of operations. The company will never at any time contradict with the people’s social identity which forms the basis by which people identify where they socially belong.

            The company CEOs in different nationals will be required to alias with the local and global managers in order to understand the type of market the business is serving. Similarly, in order to succeed the CEOs too will be required to pursue the global linking role in order to dissect and understand the impact of cultural aspects across the borders. As leaders the CEOs will be required to exhibit effective leadership strategies aimed at earning the organization good reputation among other soft drinks company in the different international markets. Here the CEOs will be required to reflect and focus on developing effective relationships between the followers and the leaders; the departmental managers, supervisors and other specialists in the firm (House, 2002).CEOs global linking role implies that the company CEOs will be responsible for developing business connections and interdependencies between the mother country and the region or national market one is serving. The company CEOs roles will also stem from diverse identification processes which will involve crisis management among other strategic strategies. Finally, the employees’ roles and responsibility will be contained in the job description documents which will be accessed from each regional company following the criterion given by the mother company in US.

            The diverse culture in different international market plays various roles to our company. These roles may be favorable or offer threats to the company’s marketing strategies, production, research and development activities, recruitment and training of employees, and the company’s social responsibility to the different communities’ orientation. The major cultural consideration will be the different personality exhibited by different target markets niches. Personality will impact heavily on the marketing strategies adopted by the company. The message communicated by the firm’s advertisement should be at par with the different personality exhibited the target market. In order to counteract this, the company seeks to do some research aimed at offering necessary feedback so that the adjustment made puts into consideration the diverse personality. Secondly, wealth as cultural aspect will relates to the income levels of the people in the given cultural set up. People’s income levels from one household to another, from one nationality to another and therefore proper consideration should be made since the consumer behaviors of the people is solely determined by the financial status of the target markets. Here the R& D will evaluate this cultural; aspect by putting an arbitrary figure for very household in the different country target market as the simplistic analysis in deriving the consumers behaviors of the customers(Hofstede, 2001).

            Another cultural aspect to be considered is the general consumer behavior or habits which are normally influenced by several things. The management will seek to identify the market better in order to understand why the consumers do whatever they do or respond to their product the way the respond. Logically, some of these aspects may be difficult to understand but one thing is crystal clear, that these consumer behaviors will affects the consumption levels of the people in the designated region and heavily impact on the business profitability in the region. Form the reach activities previously d0one in the world of soft drinks, it was discovered that majority f the consumers rate tastes and flavor to be the most deciding factor before one goes for the drink of his/her choice. In responding to this complex concept, the sugar levels in our soft drinks and the flavor consideration will be made as per the market  preferences such in some regions in the middle east the sugar levels in the drink will be higher as compared to some part of central Africa or American markets.

One more impact of the culture diversity is accrued to the existence of diverse cultural languages which will impacts heavily on the company brands names, logo and the marketing activities done in the given region. Culturally, different language orientation may be used to refer to a different concept depending on the country region in question. A slogan used by a marker may be mist interpreted by the locals in different market simply because the language used contradicts the cultural orientation of the target market. In order to counteract this, the company will concentrate on developing effective dialogue and healthy relationships with various consumers in the business target markets. This interaction will give necessary feedback in order to ensure that the language used in marketing or even on the brand name or company logos locally acceptable (House, 2002) Finally, the age factor is a cultural aspect the company cannot afford to ignore and thus understanding this aspect will help the company a great deal. Our ideal clients’ age is totally different from one target market to another or from one national region to another. Age differences impact heavily on the consumer preference in terms of tastes, advertisements methods and the company’s involvement in the social corporate activities. The company will consider these diversities and develop strategies that will keep at bay the different consumers profiles.

Easy drink ltd will develop an effective mergers and franchise arrangements in some regions. These will be determined by the competition levels in the market or any political-legal influences on the market (Hofstede, 2001). At some regions the will opt to franchise its operations to the local drinks company in order to help the business products gain easier acceptability among the locals. This may be for some five years before the company decides to go sole in its operations. The major assumption done at this level is that, the hostility and product resistance associated with the skeptical consumers will be melted and thus paving way for the new company operations in the foreign land .At the early stage of internalization the company will use ethnocentric approach in appointing the staff members. In this case the business will appoint a home or regional country nations to head the foreign subsidiary. The main objective here is to help Easy drink ltd establish the mother company culture in the foreign country or the subsidiary. Here the expatriates will be careful not infringe the locals cultural values. Later, Easy drink ltd will use appoint a host country to work along with the mother company executive. The remuneration rates will be based on the host country currency which will be harmonized to reach the standards of mother company status.

In conclusion, Easy drink ltd will adopt the above strategies in implementing the recent decision by the management to go global. In all the businesses activities, the prime decisions made by mother country will influence the preliminaries decisions made by the hosts’ country. These decisions will mainly relate to economic crisis affecting the host country operations or decisions based on the legal framework of the company. Future adjustment in the areas of staffing, advertisement, production capacities, regional expansion and on research and development will done in an attempt to make the company remain competitive enough among other firm in the same field.

References

Hofstede, G. (2001).Culture consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations across nations. London, UK: Sage Publications Press.

 House, R. (November 10th, 2002). Leadership and cultures around the world: Findings from GLOBE. A Journal of World Business: 37 (2)1-12.