Multinational Companies : The New Standards, Quality Goods, And Low Prices

Conditions have changed. Global trade has rapidly increased in both volume and value, reaching nowadays more than $4 trillion in 1997 (Daniels J.D., Radebaugh, 1998, pg. 529). Competition is fierce from all corners of the world. Failure at the global level can backfire and may consume existing brands and business relationships. At the same time, global opportunities have emerged that offer possibilities for growth, profit, and an improvement in worldwide standards of living.

Globalization refers to the “tendency of investment funds and businesses to move beyond domestic and national markets to other markets around the globe, thereby increasing the interconnectedness of different markets. Globalization has had the effect of markedly increasing not only international trade, but also cultural exchange”³. Globalization is closely related to foreign investment in the sense that foreign investment is a contributing aspect of globalization. It has also been noted that globalization can especially impact developing countries as it “helps developing nations "catch up" to industrialized nations much faster through increased employment and technological advances” . McDonald’s is a prominent example of a company that has embraced the opportunity to globalize and achieve success doing so. McDonald’s is the largest fast food restaurant chain in the world consisting of more than 35,000 outlets spread across 118 countries. Although the company was founded in the United States, they have not limited themselves to North America; they now spread worldwide into every continent. Similar to their global growth increase, the company has also seen their revenue tremendously increase as they continue to share their product with more and more people around the world. “McDonald’s key to success is its business mantra of “think global, act local”. This has allowed the company to achieve financial success in every region it opens its fast food restaurants”4. McDonald’s has clearly found the right strategy in terms of growing their product internationally as they’re seen to be one of the most successful companies doing so, their numbers support their success as they receive around 65% of their revenue from international

1. The benefits and obstacles of globalization for Natura Globalization can be described as the process of the increasing worldwide interconnectedness in many areas such as economics, politics, culture, communication, environment, etc. The consolidation of the global relations occurs on the level of individuals, societies, institutions and countries. The digital revolution, the technical advance in general and especially in regard to communication- and transport technologies as well as the political decisions to promote liberalization of world trade can be mentioned as main drivers

Multinational companies operate in more than one country outside of its originating country. Due to the vast sizes of most MNC local communities are developed by the creation of jobs and increasing community wealth. The growth strategy of MNC have positive and negative effects on the host countries economy via the reduction in market and production costs and increasing technology and efficiency. The largest down fall is from the competitor stand point as most MNC will put surrounding store owners out of business. Wal-Mart is currently if not the world largest MNC and throughout this discussion I will critically discuss the cost and benefits likely to have occurred as a result of its takeover of Asda.

The process of globalization has important effects on companies' strategies. These effects mostly refer to their marketing strategies that must be adapted to the increasing competition in most industries, and to the challenges of the business environment. In order to improve their position on the market, some of these companies prefer to expand their business on international level. This means they develop global and domestic marketing strategies.

There are many opportunities available for companies willing to venture into new, international markets. Reaching more customers and therefore, turning a larger profit are two fairly obvious reasons for companies to consider global expansion. However, the potential benefits do no end there. Expanding to international markets can hold less obvious, yet extremely beneficial appeals such as access to new and different talent pools, grander output requires great advances in efficiency, and international expansion can, in some cases, aid in “future proofing” the company.

The world offers significant business opportunities for every company, however, opportunities are accompanied by significant challenges for managers. Managing global operations across diverse cultures and markets represents a big challenge and opportunity for companies. To compete in the global market and be successful, companies must learn the strategies, policies, norms and technology necessary to conduct international business. The opportunities for global expansion are numerous, and attaining success is a matter of developing the right strategy to win local markets and its consumers.

Carrefour’s global presence gave the company experience in enter new markets. Carrefour store formats gave them the ability to engage in all levels of retail ranging from large Hypermarkets to small cash and carry food stores (Deresky, 2014, pc3-19). Carrefour’s size and profits, gave them the ability to enter new markets through the acquisition of firms in the target regions. Carrefour also invested in pre-entry offices and studies to determine risk factors of going into a new country. Carrefour global strategy mixture of short and medium term success also help the company gain a competitive advantage in the market by establishing the company as a top player.

McDonald is one of the largest fast food chains in the world. Founded in USA, it has more than 12,000 stores in its hometown and has been expanding spectacularly outside the USA. Despite the great number of its stores around the globe, McDonald is well-known for its uniformity of product (Love, 1995; Ritzer, 1993). This uniformity can be achieved as a result of the Multinational Enterprise (MNE). Nevertheless, as different countries have distinct national legalization and units of operating, it is highly impossible for McDonald to have perfectly the same labour

Business management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Globalization in short, points to the whole effort towards making the world global community as a one village. Globalization on business management is interconnection of international markets and managing businesses in a global industry. This includes foreign investments whereby a company expands its business and invest in foreign countries.

Globalization is an inevitable phenomenon that is leading the entire world towards becoming one market, a global village. With the world becoming a single market, globalization has had a major contribution in enabling the organizations worldwide to step out of the restricted domestic markets and to set up their operations across the globe with confidence. This has largely led to a decline in the importance in national borders and a greater emphasis on what the consumers actually demand no matter the consumer is located in the very country in which the organization exists or an entirely different part of the world. Moreover, with the rapid increase in global competition, companies that strictly adhere to and cater to the needs of the local markets are finding themselves at a disadvantage and gradually losing the competitive advantage that they so much strived to achieve. However, for some products and services the tastes and preferences of consumers in different nations are beginning to converge on some global norm.

It is natural if one sees the move towards globalization as a move that benefits multinational enterprises primarily. However, the improvements in transportation, communication and trade links that drive globalization can also be harnessed by small and medium-sized enterprises as well. In order to succeed in global business, however, there are several recommendations for those companies. These considerations derive from an increasing understanding that exporting to foreign markets is simply not enough to succeed in the globalized marketplace (Uchitelle, 1989).

With globalization and development of advanced communication systems, many firms and corporations are becoming multinational enterprises. The term multinational firm describes the situation in which a firm extends beyond the borders of its individual mother country, state or nation and operates with affiliates and branches in more than two countries. Multinational firms also extend beyond continental boundaries and hence it’s always desirable to understand the reasons and factors which prompt firms to go multinational. In most cases, multinational firms replicate the same products in their host market. However, others distribute the phases of productions beyond their nation boundaries as a way of integrating the whole process (Contessi,

The demand for global service market increases rapidly. The global flow of talents along with the expansion of multinational business are brought in by global technical transmission and economic cooperation. Therefore a multinational company has become a significant participant of globalization.

There are two contrasting pressures that put opposing demands on an organization’s international strategy: global integration and local responsiveness. High pressure for global integration implies an increased need to concentrate and coordinate operations globally. This kind of approach cannot be applied to a food retailer for logical reasons.