Great Lakes Case Study

Great Lake: Great Decisions

Michael Swinson

Strayer University

Senior Seminar and Business Administration

Professor Mike Petty

July 7, 2007

Great Lakes: Great Decisions

Introduction

Great Lakes are the largest producer of methyl bromide in the U.S. As leaded gasoline began to be banned in many developed countries, the company developed international markets. One of the few remaining producers of lead additives, Great Lakes must decide whether to continue producing them in developing countries. This paper will attempt to identify how the six segments of the environment affect an industry, identify the five forces of competition, and analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact a firm.

Perform an analysis of the Social/Demographic, Technological, Economic, Environmental/Geographic, and Political /Legal/Government segments to understand the general environment facing Great Lakes. Describe how Great Lakes will be affected by each of these external factors.

Social/Demographic. Great Lakes major consumers of lead additive products are developing countries such as China, African countries, and the Middle East. These countries are vast in population size and have very low income families who can’t afford leaded gasoline vehicles so they mostly use Tetraethyl Lead (TEL). Socially, this has the potential to impact both business and individual’s livelihood. There are the potential health related problems as “the globalization of leaded gasoline has made TEL responsible for nearly 90 percent of airborne lead pollution in Third World cities today” (www.corpwatch.org, 1997). Studies have confirmed that exposure to TEL could be deadly. The demographics to consider are in adults and children of all ages affected by lead. Lead is ingested 40 to 50% in children and 10% - 15% in adults (Hitt, 2011, 2009). In Egypt, lead caused 6,500 to 11,600 heart attaches, 800 to 1,400 strokes and 6,300 11,100...