Management Any Business That Seeks to Become

Management Any business that seeks to become internationally viable needs an export strategy. There are certain steps that managers must follow to create such a strategy. According to Adams (n.d.), such a strategy must be well planned in order to create a profitable international venture. According to the author, this involves steps like determining the target market, recognizing internal and external expertise, establishing marketing tactics, and determining the amount of commitment to international ventures within the company.

After the international venture has been implemented, there should also be a long-term strategy in terms of evaluation and re-evaluation throughout the stages of the strategy. As the first step, proper planning is the most important component of ensuring the success of the export strategy. Planning means the assessment of information like facts, constraints, goals, and objectives. Plans also need to include time schedules and milestones. These will then help to assess the degree of success during the assessment and reassessment process (Export Strategy, n.d.).

Managers must also be aware of the importance of motivating employees to maintain the strength of the international company. This part of the strategy, along with the assessment and re-assessment of the business in general, forms part of the strategy after implementation. Apart from these strategies, the International Trade Centre (2005) suggests an involvement in interacting clusters to ensure the success of international business. This means interactions among interest parties such as competing firms, suppliers, supporting organizations, educational institutions, and the government.

At its basis, the first cluster that should be recognized is the basic interactions among the firm, its suppliers, and its customers. The nature of these should be assessed at the local level in order to create a proper model for an international cluster of relationships. Question 2 The most obvious difference between Carrefour and the other two companies, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson, is its nationality of origin. Carrefour started its operations in France and expanded internationally form there.

Although the company has had some success in its foreign markets, its success in the United States and the UK has been limited. One of the central requirements for success in foreign markets is the ability to find local partners with knowledge of the market and customer needs. While the company has had several successful partnerships, there have also been others with less success, particularly as a result of a lack of local resources, as well as certain management issues.

Despite the fact that partnerships have been integrated in the company's overseas operations, there has not been an opportunity for partners to manage operations themselves. The main structure has been for Carrefour to control all operations. Hence, there have been some discrepancies between the company's products and customer requirements. If the structure of Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson is taken into account, Carrefour might benefit from their overseas management strategies. The structure for these two companies has been to yield management to the target local companies.

Another concern is the competition. In the UK and United States, competition form significant retailers such as Tesco has overpowered the company's operations. At the basis of competition strength is the ability to cater to customer needs. Furthermore, to be able to compete effectively in the foreign market, competitors and their offerings to the public. This is key to the ability of the company to differentiate itself from the competition. Coca-Cola's attitude towards its global partnerships is one of the keys to its success.

Bottlers, for example, are considered the backbone of the company. These bottlers then are provided with franchise agreements, providing them with the power to manage operations such as marketing and product delivery to suppliers. As such, these operators are in touch with the requirements and needs of the local markets. This optimizes the profitability of the bottlers in their local environments, while they also benefit from new products created by the parent company. As such, a profitable, mutually beneficial partnership exists between the parent company and its franchisees.

This is not an element that seems to prevail for Carrefour. Perhaps a good suggestion for them would be to offer franchise options to foreign partners and to relinquish more management control to these partners. An important element of trust should however also be cultivated. Johnson & Johnson seems to have the same focus on foreign partnership to enhance its operations. Its industry is somewhat more specialized than that of Coca-Cola's and Carrefour's, but its strategies can be usefully implemented for more profitability at Carrefour.

This is particularly so in the U.S. And UK markets, where franchise and management opportunities are highly sought after and can be entered successfully by the correct investors.