Another pivotal element in the financial strategies has been that of maximizing the efficiency of managing inventories. This was necessary in order to continually strengthen the brand as well as achieve the profitability goals. Alongside with operating principles, supply-chain renovation and inventory management, financial management represents the pillar of the Nike business model (Filbeck, Krueger and Preece, 2007).
7. Discussion
It is extremely difficult to generalize the approaches of multinational organizations to financial management as each individual entity will employ those courses of action which best suit its needs as well as its characteristics. Whilst Ford continued to invest its resources in the manufacturing of large and luxurious vehicles in an attempt to drive the market, McDonald's has recognized the necessity in satisfying customer needs and has as such made financial decision based on market demands. It can be argued that Ford's approach failed in the current context of growing environmental concerns and the internationalized financial crisis, and that given a different macroenvironment, its business model would have succeeded. This is possible, but in the current context, it becomes obvious that the financial management decisions of international players must be adapted to the unique needs of each market. McDonald's has offered another positive result in this instance by diversifying the menus based on the local cultures. The process did require additional resources, but it paid off. Nike's financial management approach was also different and it revolved primarily around manufacturing cost reduction to invest more in marketing.
8. Conclusions
The contemporaneous business community is extremely challenging and mostly characterized by two forces -- globalization and the adjacent competition. In order to respond to these emergent challenges, organizational leaders are developing and implementing a wide series of strategic approaches in fields such as marketing, human resource management or financial management. The later concept is defined as the totality of practices involved in managing organizational assets in a way that ensures positive financial returns. The first concept refers primarily to organizations which conduct businesses in more than one country.
In order to best assess the features of financial management within multinational organizations, it was necessary to identify three corporations -- Ford, McDonald's and Nike and look at their financial management endeavors. Each of these organizations is a leader within its market and has proved its worth along its multi-decade...
Ford is currently facing the negative consequences of the internationalized financial crisis and its financial management approach has been that of reducing costs. Some of the most notable measures to achieving this desiderate have been those of cutting employee bonuses or expenditure associated with engineering, marketing or information technology. The McDonald's Corporation on the other hand has continued 2008 with sustained investments and has managed to retrieve the best possible results. Most likely, its success was due to its ability to quickly respond to market needs. Finally, Nike Inc.'s financial management strategy remained focused on manufacturing cost reduction to maximize profits and brand strength.
Overall, it can be concluded that each organizational implementation of financial management is different and determined by the specific features of the respective economic entity. What is however known for sure is that the pressure for adequate and efficient financial management strategies is greater for multinationals.
