Reflective Journal of International Business Planning and Marketing
Student’s Reflective Journal
Subject : MNM41 International business planning & marketing
Identify the theory/model/case
Case name: Wal-Mart’s German Misadventure
I really like this article. It provides a comprehensive view of a huge corporation entering a new market. It indicates how a difficult it is for a corporation to enter a market based on completely different culture, language, consumer concern and regulation environment. Especially in a highly-developed economy, the competitive level would rise because of more transparent information exchange, historical business background and the government intervention. It tells how
What was the most important new learning that I gained?
There are many factors that worth discussing in this case. These are all good concerns when a company is trying to expand toward new and unfamiliar markets.
1. Merger with Wertkauf and Interspar: Merger is probably the fastest way of expanding the territory toward different market, but it is always easier said than done. In this case study, Wal-Mart faced several difficulties during and after merger. Several difficulties has been revealed in the case, i.e. the unpopularity of these 2 supermarkets, the operation integration difficulties, the cultural recognition and the effect it brought to employee relationship, and so on.
It reminds me of the glocalisation. Since Wal-Mart is such a big retailer in size. The greater they are, the harder it is to merge. Merging with the 2 supermarkets may be of limited alternatives, but it is still one of the most important issue that should be considered deliberately, since the later effect is huge. Many of the failures that Wal-Mart made may blame to the merger, especially for the cultural issues and employee relation issues. E.g. the official language within the organisation is English, though the market they focus on is Germany. It is mentioned that the local hire employees feel like an outsider and therefore lowers
Subject : MNM41 International business planning & marketing
Identify the theory/model/case
Case name: Wal-Mart’s German Misadventure
I really like this article. It provides a comprehensive view of a huge corporation entering a new market. It indicates how a difficult it is for a corporation to enter a market based on completely different culture, language, consumer concern and regulation environment. Especially in a highly-developed economy, the competitive level would rise because of more transparent information exchange, historical business background and the government intervention. It tells how
What was the most important new learning that I gained?
There are many factors that worth discussing in this case. These are all good concerns when a company is trying to expand toward new and unfamiliar markets.
1. Merger with Wertkauf and Interspar: Merger is probably the fastest way of expanding the territory toward different market, but it is always easier said than done. In this case study, Wal-Mart faced several difficulties during and after merger. Several difficulties has been revealed in the case, i.e. the unpopularity of these 2 supermarkets, the operation integration difficulties, the cultural recognition and the effect it brought to employee relationship, and so on.
It reminds me of the glocalisation. Since Wal-Mart is such a big retailer in size. The greater they are, the harder it is to merge. Merging with the 2 supermarkets may be of limited alternatives, but it is still one of the most important issue that should be considered deliberately, since the later effect is huge. Many of the failures that Wal-Mart made may blame to the merger, especially for the cultural issues and employee relation issues. E.g. the official language within the organisation is English, though the market they focus on is Germany. It is mentioned that the local hire employees feel like an outsider and therefore lowers