Additionally, studies should be carried out for concluding if the company's products or services are adequate to a certain foreign market. For instance, a company wishing to sell beef on the Indian market where the cow is considered to be a sacred animal or an organization which designs white packages for its products sold in Japan where this color represents mourning will surely lead to collapse. Let's take, for example, the McDonald's case which has developed a successful transnational strategy. The king of fast-food chains has tailored its menus according to the gastronomic habits of the foreign markets it has entered. Just imagine the disastrous outcome of a hamburger with pork sold in an Arab country. In conclusion, molding over the foreign culture's requests is a must and this process may be facilitated by recruiting personnel from the respective country itself.
Moreover, a successful multinational should share its assets among subsidiaries by taking into account the most beneficial location and should design a structure that combines both geographic and product divisional characteristics (http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Tr-Z/Transnational-Organization.html).
9) the main obstacles to change derive from the mechanistic structure of the company. This consists of a rigid pattern with many management levels, clearly established jobs, division of labor and top-down commands. It is considered to be appropriate for stable environments but as these don't exist anymore, mechanistic structures have become a certain path to failure (http://telecollege.dcccd.edu/mgmt1374/book_contents/3organizing/org_process/org_process.htm).Thus, the organization isn't able to adapt to changes as its stiff structure doesn't allow that. Moreover, the management has noticed a gap between actual and desired performance and this may be generated by exaggerate bureaucracy, work specialization that makes employees feel bored with their daily tasks and, consequently, not motivated, the lack of autonomy etc.
Consequently, in order to adapt to changes and respond to the stakeholders' desire, the company should redesign its structure from an organic perspective and should restructure activities according to the market's needs. This way, the organization will become more flexible and will save a lot of time that has previously been lost in unnecessary operations like obeying rules and respecting the chain of command.
10) the organizational life cycle comprises five stages: birth, growth (with its fast growth and slow growth phases), decline followed by renewal or bankruptcy. The second stage is characterized by a boost in sales and the emergence of new products and services which increasingly gain market adherence.
According to Greiner, each stage includes an evolutionary phase and ends up in a crisis which represents the debut for the next phase. Thus, phase 1 implies growth through creativity and culminates in leadership crisis. Phase 2 is based on growth through direction and ends up in an autonomy crisis. Within the framework of phase 3, the growth occurs through delegation and is eventually accompanied by a control crisis. Phase 4 focuses on coordination and culminates in the red tape crisis while phase 5 implies collaboration and may result in a crisis such as "the psychological saturation of employees which grow emotionally and physically exhausted by the intensity of team work and the heavy pressure for innovative solutions" (Johanssen, 2007).
In conclusion, the company is undergoing the growth phase in its early stage because of the fast pace at which growth occurs. The crisis faced by the organization refers to the lack of autonomy which may be inferred due to the "strong top management team" responsible for the positive outcomes. This dilemma can be solved by delegating authority to the managers situated on the basic and medium levels of the organizational hierarchy.
11) Production costs are said to be due to decisions made from the very beginning of the conception phase (70-80%), decisions made during the manufacturing process (10-15%) and post-production decisions regarding marketing, distribution, administrative issues and so forth (10-15%) (Crow, 2000).Consequently, if a company doesn't meet projections, either it fails to correctly estimate production costs or it spends too much on secondary issues like distribution,...
On the other hand, the following scenario is possible. If projections are too high, managers rethink the product's design in order to cut off costs. This results in starting the conceptual phase from scratch, and implicitly, determines higher overall costs and a longer period of time for bringing the product to its customers. Therefore, I think that projections should be made in a more accurate manner. Those in charge of forecast must pay higher attention to the previous quantitative and qualitative needs that have been claimed by developing a certain product. They should focus on price modifications for the raw materials on the market as these have a significant share in the final cost. Moreover, the company could compare its forecasts with other similar companies' predictions to see if there are major discrepancies. Another alternative could consist of searching for more appropriate suppliers who are capable of providing the same materials in terms of similar quality and lower prices. Furthermore, a long manufacturing cycle may derive from the problems regarding motivation, work specialization etc. Thus, personnel may be another clue when delving into the causes of higher costs.
12) Frictions between the manufacturing and the marketing departments often exist within organizations as marketers accuse production managers of not considering their predictions regarding the customers' needs while production managers have little confidence in the marketers' findings. According to Greiner, this collaboration crisis occurs at the end of phase 4 that has been previously mentioned when talking about the organizational life cycle. In other words, the company has overcome the fast growth stage and is undergoing a maturity phase. Consequently, the renewal stage is approaching and its success highly depends on the cohesive force existing among the organization's departments. Additionally, the functional structure implying a strong emphasis on work specialization is an important impediment to communication. Therefore, in order to foster linkage between manufacturing and marketing departments, managers should redesign the organizational structure for allowing an appropriate information flow.
Secondly, in order to convince belligerent parties of the productive results that interaction generates, the general or HR manager should offer edifying examples from the history of the respective organization or other similar organizations with regard to the negative consequences that can result when departments refuse to communicate.
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