AIU Management Operations Function & Competitive Strength Discussion

In your own words, answer this unit’s discussion questions in a main post, and respond to at least 2 peers’ postings 

A firm’s global operations function is focused on managing the development, production planning, sourcing, and distribution of the company’s products. Consider an international firm with which you are familiar, including the products that it produces and sells. This could be a firm that you used to or currently work for or a firm that you have heard or read about in the news.

For this assignment, respond to the following:

• Discuss the role of marketing, human resources (HR), and finance in successfully managing the supply chain. 

Review and consider the roles discussed by two of your peers. One way to respond to each of your peers is to share your thoughts on the role that these functions play in managing a global supply chain. Another approach would be to expand the discussion by suggesting one other way that these functions contribute to the successful operation of the supply chain.

Luis Guzman

Many businesses offer their products world wide. Invicta Watch Group is one of them. A business with world wide operations can be classified as either International, or Multinational. An international busiess refers to a business who maintains their operations, and headquarters within a single country. If a company has a productin operations in several countries, they are said to be multinational. They reference the global market place to make decisions.

“LATIN FOR “INVINCIBLE”, Invicta was founded more than a century ago in 1837 in Chiasso, Switzerland. Dedicated to offering expertly built time pieces at a price accessible to all…” (Invicta, 2023) They remain privately owned and have their headquarters in Florida, and have production lines in other countries like Switerland. Ehere they produce an exclusive colleciton appropriately named, The Swiss Made collection, never the less it makes them a multinational company. They , like many other businesses outsource materials and processes which create a supply chain. Being multinational, they have to apply a global management perspective when creating their global management plan.

Invicta Watch Group markets their products as time pieces which offer the best in engineering and design for an economical price. This market offfering is what differentiates them, or is it? It is not them offering the watch at economical prices that differentiates them, it is their supply chain which is included in their global management plan. They can control the costs of production using a just in time inventory management system. “Rather than hold raw material on hand unnecessarily, afirm can mange inventory more effeciently , only takin ownership of it when it can be processed into a finished good.” (American Intercontinental University, 2023) If they need to enter a new market, Invicta Watch Group can compare the ROi, return on investment of several markets in order to choose whi;c;h one they will enter. Each markets profitabliity will be assessed based off of an FDI, Foreign Direct INvestment, which can be a merger, alliance, or partnership with a foreign supplier.

If Invicta Watch Group purchases a company in a foreign market, their Human Resources needs to accont for exchange rates when assigning payroll. Their headquarters are in Florida, they us US currency, and for their Swiss made Collection, they neeed to exhchange that for the Swiss Franc, Switzerland currency. They also need to account for literacy rates when choosign their FDI’s in an under developed country because they will need to hire a local workforce. Meeting need to be scheduled accounting for different time zones as well.

The global management plan will also be referenced by Invicta Watch Group’s finance department. They also outsource material, produciton, and labor costs to save money and achieve growth in their target markets. They also account for exchange rates in order to communicate profit margin requirements to marketing. They will make the decision if the market is worthy of investment, calculating its profitablity analyzing different FDI opportunities.

Invicta Watch Group’s global management plan, “serves as the blueprint… to expand globally. It specifically defines the financial, operational, logistical, and service goals and objectives for the company as it moves into foreign markets.” (American Intercontinental University, 2023) 

Katherine Brown

Hello

Marketing in the business world according to out textbook Global Business Today (Hill, C.W.L. 2021) “the marketing and sales functions of a firm can help to create value in several ways. Through brand positioning and advertising the marketing function can increase the value (V) that consumers percieve to be contained in a firms product.” This means that the way the product in marketed into the world of business will predict the sales for that product . For instance JEEP produces the Wrangler vehicle but it is produced in many different ways in order to market the vehicle around the world. There are many different things done to the vehicles differently for different countries and states. The business has done this for years and will continue to do so in order to sell the product freely in differnt places. When the vehicle is being marketed for Japan they build all right hand drives , the vehicle vin must be a certain size, the vin etch must be clear to read on the frame and have absoloutely no rust present on the vin etch. The harnesses have to be roughted a certain way for it to be acceptable in Japan. The back up Cameras are not allowed to have covers on then at any time. No tire covers are allowed. All radios are standard model builds no satellite radios are allowed. Every one has to have a sticker of certification for the vin etch, gas cap, oil cap and transmission fluid. The dipsticks have to be shorter than a standard US dipstick to check fluids. A;so when they were still manufacturing the JEEP Liberty when selling to certain companies they would have to relabel the vehicles as JEEP Cherokees because of what the word Liberty means in the US and it is offensive to some countries as a symbol of dominance. Some of the Jeeps as the ones sent to Austria and Australia are built basic standard models with roof racks because of the countries they are going to.

Human Resources (HR) IN a global business HR is key to survival. It is also key to survival for the home front. According to our M.U.S.E. (AIU Online 2023) lesson for this week “some of the barriers to trade internationally and multinationally are social differences, cultural differences, economic, legal and political differences.” These are all things that HR can help with when setting up standards of work or trade. When dealing with The different engine plants for manufacturing for Chrysler, Fiat, Stellantis etc. Some are manufactured in Italy and some are manufactured in Detroit at the Detroit Mack Engine Plant. They are also built in the Trenton Engine Plant, Trenton Michigan, anf in the Saltillo Engine Plant in Mexico. For all of these plants there are different standards of dress, language, roles, and standards. Some are required to wear uniforms supplied by the plant. Some are not. Some of the biggest things that involve HR are the barriers between two different countries whether across seas or just down the road. Language can be a real problem because some words in one country mean different things in another or hand gestures are different. Cultural beliefs need to be known before going into another country to set up shop also and these are all things that can be handled by the HR department because it is thier job to identify and solve these types of problems. HR carries a big role in international and global business.

Finally Finance in the business world. Finace is responsible for ensuring there is going to be enough money for the business to succeed over seas internationally and globally involving all circumstances of the business. The finance department of the business will be involved with both the HR department and the marketing department in order to come up with a budget for the endevour that will keep the business growing and out of trouble.

The three departments are a whole for international business because it takes all three to come up with a strategy and plan that will work across the board for continous business across seas. 

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