You be the International Management Consultant

Amanda Brendhart, Jose Gutierrez, and Rhoda Schreiber founded and are partners in a small electronics firm, Electronic Visions, that has developed and patented some state-of-the-art computer components. Visions has had moderate success selling these components to large U.S.-based computer manufacturers. The biggest problem is that in recent months, the computer mar-ket has begun to turn soft, and many of the manufacturers are of-fering substantial discounts to generate sales. Therefore, al-though Visions has found an increasing demand for its product, it now is grossing less money than it was several months ago.

To increase both sales and profit, the partners have decided to ex-pand into Asia. Although this region is known for its low-cost computer production, the group believes that countries such as China, Malaysia, and Thailand soon will become more lucrative markets, because the U.S. government will make these countries open their doors to imports more fully. If trade barriers are re-moved, the partners are convinced that they can export the goods at very competitive prices. In addition, the partners intend to find a partner in each market so that they have someone to help with the marketing and financing of the product. Of course, if the components can be produced more cheaply with local labor, the partnership is willing to forgo exporting and have everything produced locally.

You be the International Management Consultant

At present, the group is trying to answer three questions. First, what is the best entry strategy to use in reaching the Asian mar-kets? Second, what type of marketing strategy will be most ef-fective? Third, if production must be coordinated between the United States and an overseas country, what is the best way to handle this? The partners believe that over the next two months, they will have a very good idea of what is going to happen re-garding the opening of Asian markets. In the interim, they in-tend to work up a preliminary strategic plan that they can use to guide them.

You be the International Management Consultant