Summary Chapter 8: Strategy Formulation and Implementation - Comprehensive

Chapter 8: Strategy Formulation and Implementation Learning Objectives and Chapter Summary 1. DISCUSS the meaning, needs, benefits, and approaches of the strategic planning process for today's MNC. There is a growing need for strategic management among MNC’s. Some of the primary reasons include: the increase in foreign direct investment, the need for planning to coordinate and integrate increasingly diverse operations, and emerging international challenges that require strategic planning. 2. UNDERSTAND the tension between pressures for global integration and national responsiveness and the four basic options for international strategies. Globalization is the production and distribution of products and services of a homogeneous type and quality on a worldwide basis. National responsiveness is the need to understand the different consumer tastes in segmented regional markets and respond to different national standards and regulations imposed by autonomous governments and agencies. In recent years, globalization has begun to be de-emphasized and the need for local focus has gained in importance. 3. IDENTIFY the basic steps in strategic planning, including environmental scanning, internal resource analysis of the MNC's strengths and weaknesses, and goal formulation. A strategic plan can take on an economic focus, a political focus, a quality focus, an administrative coordination focus, or some variation of the four. In addition, an MNC typically is predisposed toward an ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric, or geocentric orientation. Companies may use a combination of these orientations in their strategic planning, but geocentric is the one employed most commonly by global companies. 4. DESCRIBE how an MNC implements the strategic plan, such as how it chooses a site for overseas operations. Strategic planning is used by more MNC’s every year, although no definitive evidence proves that this process always results in higher profitability. As with other aspects of international management, the particular situation largely will dictate the success of a strategic plan.