International Marketing

1.      Examine the pros and cons of having home-country nationals as top executives of global companies.

The pros of having home-country nationals as executives of global companies are that they are more familiar with the company’s culture and the country’s business culture as a whole. Moreover, executives that are home-country national are able to better communicate to all company levels since they do not require a translator and are able to communicate fluently. In a nutshell, home-country nationals would be more familiar with the country’s political system, language, culture, customers and effective advertising means.

The cons of having home-country nationals as executives of global company are; that, they would not be able to communicate effectively with the company’s employees. Even if that executive has a translator that translates every single thing to him, we all know that some things are lost in translation which can affect his business decisions. They would not be able to assimilate with employees and the customers as well since he/she is not from the same place and did not grow up in the same culture.

2.      Asses the differences and benefits in the automobile industry between “Lean production” and the assembly line approach

Lean production is a Japanese approach to management that focuses on cutting out waste, whilst ensuring quality. This approach can be applied to all aspects of a business – from design, through production to distribution. Lean production aims to cut costs by making the business more efficient and responsive to market needs. This approach sets out to cut out all activities that do not add value to the production process, such as holding of stock, repairing faulty product and unnecessary movement of people and product around the plant. There are many benefits of lean production such as: waste reduction, production cost reduction, manufacturing cycle time decrease, higher quality, higher profits and more strategic focus.

The...