Wi Ti Ge R .

MGTC44H3S

Int'l Business Management A 3rd year undergraduate course in the Division of Management,  University of Toronto at Scarborough

changes were last made to this web page 2004 Dec 01
 

Section A

Section B.

Section C.

Section D.

Section E.

Section F.

Section G.

.
.

.

The purpose of this section is to introduce the student to the important of the Supply Chain in International Business. Upon completion of this section, students will be able to  explain the basic activities of an Intranet and Extranet in the context of a Supply Chain and international business understand the role that Customer Relationship Management plays in enhancing the effectiveness of the Supply Chain appreciate the increasing role of Human Resource Management in the context of the "environments" being equal

.
Countertrade - see  www.witiger.com/internationalbusiness/countertrade.htm
.

Chapter 18 page 631-633     Global Mfg. Strategies "The success of a Global Manufacturing Strategy depends on four key factors 1. Manufacturing Compatibility 2. Manufacturing Configuration 3. Coordination 4. and Control" 1. Manufacturing Compatibility cost minimization strategies - AKA trying to save money economies of scale "low-cost labour areas" - labour the biggest component so this is how companies save money 2. Manufacturing Configuration three basic configurations centralized in one country - like heavy machinery company Caterpillar manufacturing facilities in specific regions to service those regions - like IBM multidomestic facilities in each country - like Bata shoes 3. Coordination "the linking or integration of activities into a unified system" 4. and Control" "... one aspect of control is the organizational structure" org charts by geography - Latin America division by product - men's clothes, women's clothes by customer - wholesalers, government accounts, institutional accounts by function - shipping dept. mrkgt dept., accounting dept. control is also - for lack of a better word, bossing, - that's telling people what to do and when and how

.

Global Manufacturing Strategy       Plant Location Strategies "Once MNEs determine that they will engage in FDI to supply foreign markets, they need to determine which countries to invest in and where within each specific country" text page 633 Textbook discusses General Motors choice of Thailand over the Philippines text notes "... there are more auto suppliers..." They don't say this explicitly, but it refers to the fact that in Thailand, there are a critical number of First Tier Suppliers and Second Tier Suppliers - which we in MGTC44 have discussed earlier in this section as being important. Attracting large MNEs to invest is a bit like a country winning the Olympics - a very contentious issue and raises many questions - some having to do with ethics.   Plant Location strategies is not a frequent consideration for Canadians in international business since our medium and large sized companies are more involved in resource extraction compared to manufacturing consumer goods. Global Manufacturing Strategy      Layout Planning Strategies Text discusses Samsonite using the manufacturing technique of autonomous cells - which has also been used to great success by Japanese auto manufacturing companies in Japan, and to some small extent in North America.

.
 

Chapter 18 page 636   Intranets / Extranets We [MGTC44] will discuss some of the material in the text re: Intranets but in addition, the professor will ask you to note some additional information below.   text says page 636  "... 40% of firms had customer extranets... 20-25% had supplier extranets..." These exact percentages are not so important -  keep in mind one thing:  in 2004, a reasonable number of large size companies have corporate intranets, and many medium sized companies are also learning the advantages of intranets, but still only a small portion of SME's actually use extranets for supply chain management. Extranets remain primarily a tool used by large sized companies.   "The real attraction of the Internet in the global supply chain management is that it not  only helps automate and speed up internal processes in a company through the intranet but also spreads efficiency gains to the business systems of its customers and suppliers" Page 636 Text translated - it helps our company be more competitive it also helps our partners be more competitive

...

Intranets and  Extranets

go here to download the ppt for Chpt 7  http://www.prenhall.com/divisions/bp/app/turban/cw/ppt/ Applications of Intranet page 244- Turban Text the major functions that an Intranet can provide corporate / departmental / individual web pages database access for better information about customers inventory assets and resources search engines and directories for companies handling massive quantities of text documents eg. insurance and banking companies interactive communication chatting, audio, videoconferencing in order to save costs document distribution and workflow very helpful in organizations were more than one person handles a file eg. government agencies, eg. licensing agencies, health offices etc. groupware telephony integration with electronic commerce internet based sales have to be processed processing can be economized with intranet structure for order fulfillment eg. Amazon.com extranet geographically dispersed parts of the organization

.

Intranets and  Extranets

Information that is most often included in Intranets (this list comes from some notes in the Turban text on page 244 - additional points added in by WTGR)   corporate policies corporate procedures for caring out complex actions with many variables timetables for people and events scheduling information directories people names, tel contacts titles and functions departments part of reducing duplication of activity enhanced use of existing resources departmental "evangelism" (common in large organizations) Human Resources benefits and services to employees performance evaluations guidelines employment equity information and guidelines stock information intra-corporate employment opportunities educational information corporate training programs schedules descriptions, curriculum, participation forms example  http://www.worldbiz.com/library.html   International Business Reports for Corporate Intranets product catalogs purchase orders manuals to enhance capability of service technicians  to empower wholsalers and retailers services travel services in-house services , eg. printing archives text, stories, documents, records images (eg. for a newspaper) video clips (eg. for a broadcaster)

.
 

http://www.witiger.com/ecommerce/intranets~extranets.htm This is a Unit on Intranets and Extranets which is mostly used for e-commerce classes - however since many medium and large sized companies involved in international business have online situation, the use of Intranets and Extranets has become a part of "doing International Business"

.

.
 

..
..

.
KAISEN see  www.witiger.com/internationalbusiness/kaizen.htm 

Supplier Networks

Inventory management

FTZs - Foreign Trade Zones

Transportation Networks
(the fourth P - Place,  in "The 4P's)
 
 
 

.Key Points for Understanding

The environments within which international business is carried out in 2004 and beyond, are increasingly competitive. The technological environment is such that technology supremacy is fleeting and since it does not last long - cannot be considered a strong advantage of a company. The economic environment is effected by too many uncontrollable factors which means a stable economic situation is less certain and can be effected negatively by things which large companies and federal governments have no control over. The political environment responds to the socio-cultural environment - which in many countries, is undergoing the stresses of large immigration movements and cultural and religious frictions. Very few regions of the world are free of conflict in this area so no place has a distinctively advantageous political environment The one area in which companies can become more competitive is having the best people and having those people serve their customers in the best way. Therefore one of the key things for companies in the "new new" economy is to focus on the people in the company, and the customers they serve - ergo, Human Resource Management has become a "big issue" for international business. WTGR

.
 

Human Resource Mgmnt                     Human Resource Mgmnt

Chapter 21   Human Resource Management in International Business .   . Although Dilbert has many jokes about Catbert, the "Evil H.R. Director", fact is, morale of employees is increasingly important, especially in international business, since companies are more and more challenged to cut expenses, and the # 1 expense cut is staff cuts - meaning, more productivity out of fewer people. The way to get more productivity is partly by enhancing morale. WTGR .

Human Resource Mgmnt                           Human Resource Mgmnt

. . There is good information in the text on this topic, which we will refer to, and there are also a good number of sites which discuss HRM issues in an International Business context. WTGR . This web site discusses HRM issues specific to the Asia Pacific region.  There are a number of good articles available herein which would be useful for you to read.

  Prof. W. Tim G. Richardson © www.witiger.com