‘Cheshire Puss,’ (LINK) she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, but Puss only grinned a little wider. ‘Come, its pleased so far,’ thought Alice, and she went on. ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat. ‘I don’t much care where—‘said Alice. ‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat. ‘–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’”
Strategist spend considerable time examining the broad external global ecosystem of international business. We looked at globalization, selected variables in the ecosystem to include the political, economic, social, technological, cultural influences and other factors impacting global trade and investment. We also need to examine selected global institutions, foreign exchange, capital markets and the international monetary system.
Strategist focus on the internal attributes, variables and issues that a firm must consider to successfully compete internationally. In large part, the success of a firm’s operations is dependent upon crafting and implementing a corporate strategy that exploits and levers the firm’s resources in such a fashion as to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Most businesses fail not because they can’t craft a strategy but rather because they fail to execute.
Unlike Alice, firms must care where they are headed. It does matter!
Resources are finite and cannot be squandered. Managers have a duty to obtain the best value for money for the assets deployed.
Businesses are like rose bushes (link). Over time ‘suckers’ grow sapping the energy from the bush. Your task as an international business manager is to be constantly vigilant and prune off initiatives (suckers) that are neither aligned nor any longer support the firm’s vision and mission statements.
Among other things a strategist considers is the strategic planning process (it is not linear but rather iterative… jumping back and forth in the process); which of Porter’s generic strategies (link) will be the best fit to move you to the position you are going to occupy in the market; and the modes of entry (link) a firm may consider when contemplating foreign operations in a host country.
There is much in the Blog to assist in crafting and executing strategies! Not quite clear? … Post a comment and I will respond!
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LINK Disney down the rabbit hole – Bing images Source: Down the Rabbit Hole. This spectacular vertical image from Disney’s movie, “Alice in Wonderland”.
Link Rosebush Organizational Analogy on blog site
LINK Modes of Entry (tutorialspoint.com)
LINK Porter’s Generic Strategies explained with lots of Examples. (consuunt.com)
