I am taking a Business Policy and Strategy course and one of the assignments for homework is asking us to assume we are in charge of developing the strategy for a multinational company selling products in some 50 different countries around the world. One of the issues you face is whether to employ a multicountry strategy or a global strategy. (A) If the company's product is personal computers, do you think it would make better strategic sense to employ a multicountry strategy or a global strategy? Why? (B) if the company's product is washing machines, would it seem to make more sense to pursue a multicountry strategy or a global strategy? Why? and (C) An online MBA degree would a multicountry strategy or a global strategy seem to have more appeal? Why?

So, basically you want me to do your homework for you, do you?

Here is a hint: it depends on the nature of the product.

The more standardised, the more likely to be distributed and marketed with out changes around the world.

The less standardised, the more likely you need to adapt to each region (or country) standards both for distribution and marketing. It's called topicalisation

Now you tell me, which strategy would you follow and why ;-)

Hi,

For (A) Multicountry- Answer lies in user interraction,
For a computer, the user interaction is very heavy ...


people do computer programming with computers, word processing, excel spreadsheets, etc ... therefore computers need to be in the predominant local dialect or each country's official language.

For (B)

Global Strategy.

As for the washing machine ... the language really doesn't matter ... why because the controls are usually basic ... on, off, wash, dry, etc. In this case, you can employ a Global Strategy because people inherently know what a particular button should do.

Online MBA
: well, this is a question of personal desire - how relevant do I want to be in the world and after answering that question, you then ask - what products currently use a Global Strategy? Or Multicountry? Would I like to be involved with those kinds of products or services? So it's a personal matter.

Sorry, wrong analysis. It is a very good attempt though. You need to understand a bit better what goes into manufacturing and selling the products, so I reckon you need to do some more research. Try to answer this questions:

How are the products manufactured?
How are they installed in their final working place?
What kind of interaction they have with the user?
What provisions need to be taken to distribute and retail them?

Once you understand the whole manufacture-distribute-retail-use process for each of them, try to rank them in terms of how standardised they are and then it should be a lot easier to see which one requires a global rather than a multi-country strategy and viceversa.

I'll give you feedback on your second attempt if you are still interested 8-)