Global Strategy FrogPubs - Essay Example

 Global Strategy – FrogPubs 1. Introduction The entrance in the global market is a strategic decision quite important for entrepreneurs that wish to expand their current business activities; when there is no previous experience or presence in regard to a specific industrial sector, the expansion in a foreign market could hide many challenges. In this paper, the strategic options and prospects of a particular firm, the FrogPubs, is examined; the firm was created because of the willingness of its owners to enter the specific business sector; their potentials to achieve their target were not thoroughly tested in advance – and this can be characterized as the most important reason for the firm’s failure to survive within the French market – even if the prospects were many, as revealed through the research developed by the business owners, Paul and Thor. The examination and the evaluation of the strategic choices and actions of Paul and Thor have led to the conclusion that their business would not actually have many chances to survive within the French market; it could be further noted that signs existed even regarding the inability of the firm to be successfully established in the specific market; but it seems that these signs were ignored – or at least, they were wrongly interpreted. 2. FrogPubs - Strategic position The position of FrogPubs within the French market can be characterized as quite satisfactory; based on the fact that in Paris there is no similar pub – in accordance with the market research developed by Paul and Thor – it could be stated that FrogPubs would have many prospects to achieve a high growth. On the other hand, the market in Paris would be appropriate for the enterprise of such kind – having in mind that because of its geographically position, Paris has many tourists and visitors from England who would expected to visit FrogPubs – since there is no similar enterprise across Paris. However, the strategic position of FrogPubs would be evaluated using additional criteria: the type of activities of an enterprise is not decisive in regard to its potentials for growth; rather, various elements in the internal and external organizational environment should be examined in order to evaluate whether the specific enterprise would have chances to survive towards its rivals in the industry under examination. In this context, the strategic choices of Paul and Thor need to be examined and criticized; recommendations would be then produced based on the feasibility and the viability of the particular project – even in the short term. 3. Strategic choices developed by FrogPubs The strategic choices of the business owners, Paul and Thor, that are of critical importance are the following one: a) Paul and Thor decided to move to Paris in order to develop the activities required for the firm’s establishment; Paul and Thor have developed an extensive – and detailed – research on the potentials of such enterprises in the French market; however, they didn’t check the phases of the process required for the firm’s establishment in the specific market; moreover, they did not check the time and the resources required for the completion of the particular procedure; their research was focused on the firm’s prospects as part of the specific industry; b) under normal market conditions, the entrance of a firm in a foreign market need to be planned following specific principles; all the phases of the relevant project need to be examined in advance focusing on the requirements related to the firm’s establishment in the particular market; the development of the enterprise in the foreign market usually follows – under the terms that the process for its establishment is successfully completed (Moingeon et al., 2002); therefore, in the case of such business project, market research needs to be developed not only in regard to the market segmentation or the industry position/ performance but also to the legal and financial requirements for the establishment of businesses of similar activities (Stanco, 1995); local agents and consultants – dealing with the specific subject – should be contacted in order to provide the necessary information; at the next level, when the information required is gathered, the establishment of the firm would proceed (Kerzner, 2009); in the case under examination, Paul and Thor did not develop an effective business plan; being influenced by their willingness to proceed with the project, they focused on market research and they did not prepare an analytic business plan – before visiting Paris; rather, they prepared the business plan after visiting Paris – with the costs of this initiative to run; their failure to develop on time the required business plan has led to their failure to effectively complete the relevant procedure, c) when deciding to enter a foreign market, entrepreneurs do not have to visit the specific market; the procedure can be completed without visiting the place under the terms that all activities and transactions are proved through official documents; this process could save time and money for the entrepreneurs that would decide to enter a foreign market; of course, after a specific point of time it is necessary for entrepreneurs – or their representatives – to visit the host market (Bettley et al., 2005); however, this decision would be taken if the progress of the relevant process – establishment of the firm in the foreign market – is satisfactory; otherwise, there would be no point of visiting the place in interest; at this point another severe mistake was done by Paul and Thor; without having produced a business plan and without having any progress in regard to the establishment of the firm in the French market, they visited Paris and started their efforts to proceed with the establishment procedure. The above three failures, i.e. the wrong market research, the lack of business plan – on time and the early visit in Paris can be considered as responsible for the cancellation of the specific business project. In the context of the above failures, a series of recommendations would be made to Paul and Thor – emphasizing on the mistakes they made during the specific project and their potentials for entering the French market – i.e. for achieving their strategic goals in regard to this project – in the future. In any case, the partnership of Paul and Thor can be characterized as successful – under common market conditions. No problems regarding their cooperation or communication appeared during the development of their project; their failure to understand the market practices has been irrelevant with their potentials to establish a successful partnership – which is not evaluated only in terms of the profits achieved but also in terms of the quality of communication and cooperation between the partners. 4. Conclusion - Recommendations to Paul and Thor In accordance with the issues developed above and taken into consideration the current market conditions, the following recommendations should be made to Paul and Thor: a) the business plan of Paul and Thor had a series of weaknesses – as explained above – and it is for this reason that this plan finally failed to meet its targets; however, the potential re-development of the plan – under different terms could not be rejected; in fact, Paul and Thor could re-try to enter the French market but after having been appropriately prepared – in the context described above; information should be used wisely (Porter et al., 1985) – referring to the information referring to all the phases of this project, as described above - and this fact would offer the Paul and Thor the chances to have a positive outcome; b) taking into consideration the time and the money spent on the specific project up to now it would be suggested to Paul and Thor that they should not change their career paths at this moment of time – specifically taking into consideration the fact that the entrance in the job market is particularly difficult this period under the global recession; it would be preferable for Paul and Thor to continue their efforts in order to enter the French market – this time avoiding the mistakes described above; c) the partnership of Paul and Thor is characterized by high quality – referring to the cooperation and the communication between the partners, as described above; this fact, would be a positive element towards the success of their business initiatives; the initial failure of their project was related with key strategic mistakes and not with their partnership – in the context described above; d) taking into consideration the findings of the market research developed by Paul and Thor it could be stated that the specific business plan has many chances to succeed; moreover, the specific enterprises has all the potentials to achieve a high growth – under the terms that its owners will manage to complete the process related with the establishment of the firm in the French market – the failures in this procedure which took place in the past should be carefully reviewed ensuring that the new attempt of Paul and Thor to enter the French market will be successful. 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