Respond to the below discussions:

1. Jaliza Cabral -Discussion – Week 7

Tata Steel (TS) was based out of Mumbai. TS made strategic changes to accommodate the increase in steel demand and grow the company. Joseph (2009) explains several approaches that helped Tata Steel (TS) in becoming the 5th largest steel firm in the world. The organization transitioned to a global strategy to address challenges. Mergers and acquisitions made the organization more competitive. Tata Steel developed tools to establish a strong firm through management accounting methods and strategy (Joseph, 2009). Tata Steel established an environment open to new learning. A code of conduct, team building activities and new training programs were a part of the learning environment. Additionally, the organization strengthened the Balance Scorecard (BSC); the BSC was combined with key measurements and initiatives to obtain feedback on the organization (Joseph, 2009).

An example of strategic alliance comes from when I was younger and worked in a local grocery store. My organization partnered with Starbucks. The partnership resulted in putting Starbucks location inside the store, towards the front, by the door. The Starbucks did well as it targeted shoppers. Finally, since this was the only Starbucks in a 10-mile radius, we also had customers come into the store just to get Starbucks coffee. This alliance was beneficial to both the store and Starbucks.

Reference

Joseph, G. (2009). Mapping, measurement and alignment of strategy using the balanced scorecard:

The Tata Steel case. Accounting Education, 18(2), 117–130.

2. De Wayne Stringer – Discussion – Week 7

Flexible Footprints: Reconfiguring MNCs For New Value Opportunities explains how multinational corporations (MNCs) evaluate their business functions, process, and assets. The article explains how companies like GM evaluate functions, process, and assets so the company can make a decision on continuing to do business the same way or outsourcing certain procedures and or processes to be more profitable and of course cut cost. Flexible Footprints evaluate the business assets like locations where the facilities are located, equipment, and name recognition. Flexible Footprints gives you an understanding how complex MNC’s validation can be. Like job specific training versus generic casual labor employees, example Disney employees have specific training that only applies to Disney. Casual labor would be like GM line workers which can easily be converted to work on the line at another car manufacture. Location are evaluated based on where the facility is located i.e. Detroit Michigan. A plant will be worth more if it is located in a demographic area where some other company may be willing to move its production to, if the plant would be put up for sale. Could another company move into the plant and utilize it with little to no modifications to run its operations. Equipment could another company use the equipment in the same way the plant is viewed, could some other company purchase the equipment and use it with little to no modifications to produce its goods. These are just a few ways that Flexible Footprints value MNC’s because MNC’s are not restricted to just one area of the world they are in different continents and plant, equipment, and other assets may not be valued the same way GM value its assets versus a water heater manufacturer. Even though both GM and my former company are manufacturers the companies still would have different values for the same plant because my former company doesn’t have a plant in Australia and GM does, so my former company would not have the same value for the plant in Australia but the plant would be Flexible instead of specific because both are manufacturers. If GM didn’t sell its assets to auto manufacture then location flexibility would not be good because some of the machines used are job specific and have little to no value to other manufactures, the machine could be a machine that is special to GM and what they do, it even may require special training on using the machine. GM plant in Australia may not be feasible for other manufactures to move into that market because of culture, religion, government, or people with the skill set need to produce a different product. All these variables play a role in the Flexible Footprint. As many MNCs have also discovered, governments can resort to threats and penalties to forestall exit. GM’s operations in its second- and third-largest country markets of China and Brazil, in particular, illustrate the complexity of its footprint of global assets and value chains. (Maitland & Sammartion, 2012)

References

Maitland, E., & Sammartion, A. (2012). Flexible footprints: Reconfiguring MNCs for new value opportunities. California Management Review, 54 (2), 92-117.