Chapter 14: The International Business Plan Flashcards
Steps in the planning cycle
1. Step 1: Defining the Mission Statement
○ The mission statement describes the firm’s primary purpose, its direction and what management expects to accomplish. It explains what the company does and what needs the company fills. These objectives should be expressed in a concise manner to ensure they are clearly and quickly understood.
- Step 2: Defining the current status of the business
○ This step involves preparing a comprehensive summary of everything that is significant about current operations. A skills audit is a component of this and may include:
§ Language capabilities
§ Existing contacts and personal relationships
§ Summary of ability to handle tasks associated with new international business opportunities
§ Recent in-market travel experience
§ Experience with logistics and documentary requirements
- Step 3: Determining corporate strategy
○ The results achieved in the second step enable planners to identify ways of improving the company’s performance and to build those into the plan. The planners can use their planning tools to test various scenarios and devise an optimal corporate strategy
- Step 4: Identifying international opportunities
○ Once an optimal domestic strategy has been articulated, planners can use the results to identify promising international business opportunities
- Step 5: Revising the Business plan
Once one or more potentially attractive ventures are identified, they should be incorporated into the overall corporate plan. The plan itself should be adjusted to accommodate any impacts on the existing business arising from the proposed international transactions.
Assembling International Business Plan Components
- corporate structure
- corporate history
- strategic objectives
- description of top management and key staff
- description of business
- market analysis
- product evaluation
- competitor analysis
- human resources
- suppliers
- current financial performance
- financial forecasts
- financing strategy
- corporate structure
Ownership, management, divisions, key assets
-corporate history
Foundations, key milestones, awards, major changes
- strategic objectives
Mission statement,, short-and long-term objectives, timetable
- description of top management and key staff
Names, positions, qualifications, contributions, job-output measures
- description of business
Industry served, customer base, assets, operations
-market analysis
Market location, size, characteristics, trends, opportunities
-product evaluation
Features, advantages, life cycle, replacement, extension
-competitor analysis
Number, size, market share, advantages, disadvantages
- human resources
Number of employees , skills levels, performance gaps, development programs
