BUSM 37844 Assignment 1 -The Global Business

BUSM 37844 | International BusinessAssignment # 1 – Individual Assignment Report – Country Selection AnalysisThis assignment asks you to apply the subject matters that you are exposed to in the Global BusinessEnvironment course to an international business situation. The assignment is also intended to helpyou develop the skills needed to conduct secondary research and analyze problems.AssignmentYou are working for a publicly listed Canadian company. The primary focus of your firm’sinternational activities to date has been associated with opportunities in the US market. Howevergiven the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency and after hearing a lot of his stated opinionsabout trade agreements (i.e. let’s rip up NAFTA) the senior executive of your firm have realized thatthe firm needs to prepare for a worst case scenario where the firm’s business activities in the USmay be severely curtailed due to possible US government action. At the same time, the Canadiangovernment had recently signed the CETA trade agreement with the EU. The executive thinks thatperhaps that is an opportunity for your firm, to offset any losses from a curtailment of the USbusiness. However the firm has had no experience in the EU, and as a consequence the CEO hasasked you to do an analysis of two EU country members by providing an analysis of the political,economic, social, regulatory, legal, cultural issues, etc. that might impact the firm’s success in thechosen country, and provide a recommendation as to which of the two countries would be mostsuitable for your firm to consider entering into. The CEO is a very busy person so it is important thatthe report be written in a clear and concise manner. It will be judged on the factual information itcontains, the clarity of your argument and the depth of your analysis.Working by yourself or with one other student, conduct research to identify a current example of apublicly listed Canadian company that has no EU presence, AND you are to pick one of thefollowing combination of countries to analyse for this assignment.•••••• France/GermanySweden/FinlandItaly/AustriaSpain/PortugalBelgium/NetherlandsRomania/Bulgaria You are expected to do independent secondary research on the company, the countries in question,and the business environment that the company is dealing with in order to support your report.Once you have identified a company and a clear challenge associated with your chosen company,prepare a report that includes the following:1. An executive summary of the paper (maximum half a page).2. Country comparison relevant to the Canadian company interests and characteristics.1 BUSM 37844 | International Business3. A PEST analysis that is appropriate to the nature of the country/company within thecontext of the current business environment in the EU. This analysis should naturally leadyou to a selection of decision criteria (next section) that will allow you to make arecommendation as to which country to choose as the preferred destination of your chosencompany, as well as the appropriate mode of entry keeping in mind the unique characteristicsof the firm you chose.4. Suggest decision criteria to be used to choosing between the two countries, and defendthem as credible. By way of a decision matrix determine your course of action (SeeAppendix A for an illustration).5. Clear recommendation with a well-argued rationale as to which country should be chosen.Your report is to be written in the 3rd person. It will be judged on the factual information itcontains, the clarity of your arguments, the incorporation of key concepts from the course in yournarrative, the depth of your analysis and the professionalism expected of an internal, yet formalmemo prepared by yourself as an employee of the firm in question. In this regard a discussion of thehistory of the company is redundant, as it is assumed that the company executive knows far moreabout the company than the external consultant.YOU SHOULD TREAT THIS PAPER AS IF IT WERE AN INTERNAL REPORT TO ASENIOR EXECUTIVE IN OF THE FIRM IN QUESTION. A VERY SIMPLE TEST OFWHETHER OR NOT IT MEETS THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF SUCH AREPORT IS WHETHER OR NOT THE READER WANTS TO CONTINUE READING THEPAPER. THIS IS PRINCIPALLY A FUNCTION OF CONTENT; BUT THE DESIRE TOCONTINUE TO READ A REPORT IS ALSO INFLUENCED STRONGLY BY ITSREADABILTY (E.G. FORMAT, GRAMMAR, SPELLING, WORD CHOICE, LOGICALFLOW OF IDEAS).Formatting•The paper is to be a maximum of seven (7) pages (12 pt font, 2.54 cm margins) plustitle page, references, endnotes, and appendices if any. If the narrative part of the report islonger than seven pages, only the first seven pages will be read and graded.•The title page must contain the names of your group members, and your respectivestudent numbers.•Do not forget to number the pages in your report.•You should use the items (left-hand column) listed in the “Deliverable #3” rubric asheadings in your report. In preparing your final submission you must abide by Sheridanpolicies and procedures governing academic integrity.•“Turn it in” will be used for Deliverable #3. Any “Turn it in” score of more than20%, will result in a discussion with the Professor.•Be sure to use APA style referencing whenever you incorporate ideas and content thatare not your own.•Relevant figures and tables can be included as appendices. References andappendices are not included when determining whether your submission exceeds themaximum page length.2 BUSM 37844 | International Business•If the PEST analysis is presented in table format, such tables will be inserted into thereport as Appendices. The relevant table can then be discussed in a narrative format in thebody of the paper.•The decision matrix table is permitted to be included in the main body of the report. DeliverablesOutlined below are the specific deliverables for this project.1.Deliverable 1 – you must identify your company and country combination chosen.Failure to provide this information on time will result in a 10% reduction of the final markthat you achieve in this project.2.Deliverable 2 – you will advise your Professor of the status of the project, byproviding a rough draft of the final paper, including a relatively completed PEST analysis,and a clear description of the criteria that you are considering using in your decision matrix.This is worth 25% of the total mark for this assignment.3.Deliverable 3 will deliver the completed report. Late assignments will not beaccepted. Turn it in will be applied at this time, and a turn it in score of 20% within the bodyof the report will be returned to the student with a request for an explanation. Thisdeliverable will represent 75% of your final mark. The report must cite at least ten different sources, which could include resources from theglobalEDGE Website (http://globaledge.msu.edu), institutions such as the World Bank(http://data.worldbank.org/) and the International Monetary Fund (http://www.imf.org/external/), theCIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/), countrywebsites, business journals, business newspapers, business websites, etc. Be wary of relying tooheavily on any one source, especially the country’s own websites as they will most certainly put apositive spin on the material. Do not use Wikipedia as a data source.Ensure that all data is cited in APA Style. Guidelines for APA Style can be found at the Sheridanlibrary. If you do use a quotation, ensure that it is in quotation marks and properly cited. If aquotation is not in quotation marks and properly cited, it is plagiarism. Deliverable 3 RubricItem Item %of Grade ExecutiveSummary 10 Both country’s 50 Sub-itemThis should be a concise and very well writtensummation of the whole report. Approximatelength one-half page.Country descriptions: This could include Sub-item% ofGrade 103 BUSM 37844 | International BusinessMacro/Microenvironment(benefits, costs,risks) as itpertains to yourfirm’s particularneeds andcharacteristics Analysis 20 Recommendation & Conclusion 10 Style &Presentation 5 evidence of the maturity or lack of maturity of theinfrastructure (e.g. transportation,communication) and the challenges associatedwith such, and identification of economic ties toother countries that may have an impact on yourfirm’s consideration of that country. Provideevidence of the history of inward foreigninvestment associated with your firm’s industry,any challenges such investment may have had, aswell as other measures of business climate suchas levels of corruption.Political description: Describe the nature of thepolitical system, identify the nature of the legalsystem and assess the stability/maturity of boththe political and legal systems. Does the reality ofthe political/legal infrastructure impact yourfirm’s proposed investment?Identify any existing, or currently undernegotiation laws/legislation (be it domestic orinternational) that could affect inward foreigninvestment into your country. This could includeitems related to tariffs, subsidies, informal tradebarriers, intellectual property protection, quota’setc.Economic conditions and stability includinggrowth statistics, various measures of the level ofdevelopment and the general wealth of thecountries and their citizens.Cultural issues that may affect business and socialstability, such as language, religion, workingconditions, education level, work force skills,specific norms or values related to the countries.Any employment rules (visas, immigration, lay offpolicies) that may impact/shape your firm’sactivitiesAn analysis of the business criteria relevant nyour firm’s interest in doing business in thecountry. This section must be a logicaldistillation of the most important facets of themacro and micro environment discussions(evidenced by the decision matrix) leading to apreferred country for investment purposes.Your recommendation(s) regarding which countryyour company should focus on. State the keyrationale (s) for your recommendation (s).Presentation: Spelling, grammar and clarity ofwriting. This is in recognition of the negative 10 10 10 10 4 BUSM 37844 | International Business Formatting credibility impact on an executive reader of apoorly written document.Accurate use of APA style citations/endnotes anduse of at least 10 reference sources. 5Total=100 Appendix A – Sample Decision MatrixDecision Matrix (1= low impact, 5= high impact)Decision Criteria (level ofimportance in decision) Country A Country B Decision Criteria 1 (50%) 4(2) 5(2.5) Decision Criteria 2 (30%) 3(.9) 2(.6) Decision Criteria 3 (10%) 0 4(.4) Decision Criteria 4 (10%) 5 (.5) 5 (.5) 3.4 4.0 Totals 5