Reference no: EM131347768

Assignment

Two Parts,

Only need questions answered, paragraph style on both parts with referecnes.

Part 1 Global Business

Modes of Entry

Provide a scenario where a company would enter a foreign market using the following modes of entry. Be sure to provide one scenario for each mode:

• Exporting
• Licensing
• Franchising
• Creating a turnkey project
• Establishing joint ventures
• Setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary

Give justification for your choices using the advantages or disadvantages for each mode discussed in course readings.

Read the closing case and respond to the following questions: (bottom of page)

• GM entered the Chinese market at a time when demand was very limited. Why? What was the strategic rational?
• Why did GM enter through a joint venture with SAIC? What are the benefits of this approach? What are the potential risks here?
• Why did GM not simply license its technology to SAIC? Why did it not export cars from the United States?
• Why has the joint venture been successful to date?

Part 2 Strategic Management

Corporate Governance

Governance mechanisms are considered to be effective if they meet the needs of all stakeholders, including shareholders. Governance mechanisms are also an important way to ensure that strategic decisions are made effectively. As a potential employee, how would you go about investigating a firm's governance structure? Would that investigation weigh in your decision to become an employee?

Identify a firm that you would like to join or one that you just find interesting. Complete the following research on your target firm:

• Find a copy of the company's most recent proxy statement and 10-K. Proxy statements are mailed to shareholders prior to each year's annual meeting and contain detailed information about the company's governance and present issues on which a shareholder vote might be held. Proxy statements are typically available from a firm's website (look for an "Investors" submenu). You can also access proxy statements and other government filings such as the 10-K from the SEC's EDGAR database.

Alongside the proxy, you should also be able to access the firm's annual 10-K. Here you will find information on performance, governance, and the firm's outlook, among other things.

• Identify one of the company's main competitors for comparison purposes. You can find this information using company analysis tools such as Datamonitor.

Some of the topics that you should examine include:

• Compensation plans (for both the CEO and board members; be sure to look for any difference between fixed and incentive compensation)

• Board composition (for example, board size, insiders and outsiders, interlocking directorates, functional experience, how many active CEOs, how many retired CEOs, what is the demographic makeup, age diversity, and so on)

• Committees (how many, composition, compensation)

• Stock ownership by officers and directors-identify beneficial ownership from stock owned (you will need to look through the notes sections of the ownership tables to comprehend this)

• Ownership concentration-evaluate the firm's outstanding stock owned by institutions, individuals, and insiders and identify the no. of large-block shareholders (owners of five percent or more of stock)

In addition, answer the following questions:

• Does the firm utilize a duality structure for the CEO?

• Is there a lead director who is not an officer of the company?

• What are the activities by activist shareholders regarding corporate governance issues of concern?

• Are there any managerial defense tactics employed by the firm? For example, what does it take for a shareholder proposal to come to a vote and be adopted?

• What is the firm's code of conduct? List them.

Prepare a double-spaced memo summarizing the results of your findings with a side-by-side comparison of your target and its competitor.

Your memo should include the following topics:

• Summarize what you consider to be the key aspects of the firm's governance mechanisms.

• Attach to your memo a single graph covering the last 10-year historical stock performance for both companies. If applicable, compare both using a representative index such as the Standard & Poor's (S&P), National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (NASDAQ), or other applicable industry index.

• Highlight key differences between your target firm and its competitor.

• Based on your review of the firm's governance, discuss any change in your opinion of the firm's desirability as an employer. How does the competitor stack up, governance wise? Why or why not?

Closing case: General Motors in China

The late 2000s were not kind to General Motors. Hurt by a deep recession in the United States and plunging vehicle sales, GM capped off a decade where it had progressively lost market share to foreign rivals such as Toyota by entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Between 1980, when it dominated the U.S. market, and 2009, when it entered bankruptcy protection, GM saw its U.S. market share slip from 44 percent to just 19 percent. The troubled company emerged from bankruptcy a few months later a smaller enterprise with fewer brands, and yet-going forward-some believe that the new GM could be a much more profitable enterprise. One major reason for this optimism was the success of its joint ventures in China.

GM entered China in 1997 with a $1.6 billion investment to establish a joint venture with the state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC) to build Buick sedans. At the time the Chinese market was tiny (fewer than 400,000 cars were sold in 1996), but GM was attracted by the enormous potential in a country of more than 1 billion people that was experiencing rapid economic growth. GM forecast that by the late 2000s some 3 million cars a year might be sold in China. While it explicitly recognized that it had much to learn about the Chinese market, and would probably lose money for years to come, GM executives believed it was crucial to establish a beachhead and to team up with SAIC 387388(one of the early leaders in China's emerging automobile industry) before its global rivals did. The decision to enter a joint venture was not a hard one. Not only did GM lack knowledge and connections in China, but also Chinese government regulations made it all but impossible for a foreign automaker to go it alone in the country.

While GM was not alone in investing in China-many of the world's major automobile companies entered into some kind of Chinese joint venture during this time period-it was among the largest investors. Only Volkswagen, whose management shared GM's view, made similar-size investments. Other companies adopted a more cautious approach, investing smaller amounts and setting more limited goals.

By 2007, GM had expanded the range of its partnership with SAIC to include vehicles sold under the names of Chevrolet, Cadillac, and Wuling. The two companies had also established the Pan-Asian Technical Automotive center to design cars and components not just for China, but also for other Asian markets. At this point, it was already clear that both the Chinese market and the joint venture were exceeding GM's initial expectations. Not only was the venture profitable, but it was also selling more than 900,000 cars and light trucks in 2007-an 18 percent increase over 2006, placing it second only to Volkswagen in the market among foreign nameplates. Equally impressive, some 8 million cars and light trucks were sold in China in 2007, making China the second largest car market in the world, ahead of Japan and behind the United States.

Much of the venture's success could be attributed to its strategy of designing vehicles explicitly for the Chinese market. For example, together with SAIC it produced a tiny minivan, the Wuling Sunshine. The van costs $3,700, has a 0.8-liter engine, hits a top speed of 60 mph, and weighs less than 1,000 kg-a far cry from the heavy SUVs GM was known for in the United States. For China, the vehicle was perfect, and some 460,000 were sold in 2007, making it the best seller in the light truck sector.

It is the future, however, that has people excited. In 2008 and 2009, while the U.S. and European automobile markets slumped, China's market registered strong growth. In 2009, some 13.8 million vehicles were sold in the country, surpassing the United States to become the largest automobile market in the world; in 2010, the figure was close to 18 million. GM and its local partners sold 1.8 million vehicles in 2008, which was a record and represented a 67 percent increase over 2007. At this point, there were 40 cars for every 1,000 people in China, compared to 765 for every 1,000 in the United States, suggesting China could see rapid growth for years to come. In 2010, GM sold 2.35 million cars in China, more than the 2.22 million it sold in the United States!

Hill, C. W. (2014). Chapter 13: Entering foreign markets. In Global business today (8th ed., pp. 387-388). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.