Challenges of Expanding Globally: Strategies and Management Insights

Going global requires proper preparation as it is one of the most demanding strategic objectives. At a glance, we anticipate managerial hurdles such as meeting global legal and regulatory compliances, responding to the changing global consumer behavior, local competition, transborder political issues, international human resources challenges, and supply chain complications, among other challenges. As the corporate manager in charge of establishing the global expansion strategy, I settled on a team of eight members. Upon constituting the team, we must first schedule all the events we are planning to undertake within the stipulated three months project formulation period. The critical activities we will undertake include environmental scanning, market identification, market survey, competitor analysis, labor assessment, and supply chain evaluation. The findings will inform the best method of getting into the selected global markets. Nonetheless, I acknowledge that we must deal with certain team dynamics for us to ensure the project remain on course.

Several team performance problems may arise in the course of working on the project. I anticipate team conflicts, which may be a result of various team characteristics. We are likely to face difficulty understanding and accommodating individual differences. Such team performance challenges may evolve from varied principles the members hold, age differences, and professional perspectives since I am having a multidisciplinary team. Karunathilaka (2022) assert that every team will always have at least two members with diverse natures. The best corrective action is to regard the team as a single unit and hence we will set the team’s purpose together and listen to everyone’s view but align responses/actions with the project’s goals. Moreover, I will assign roles as per individuals’ competencies and suitability. Additionally, we will be meeting bi-weekly to review our findings and suggestions. Notwithstanding, I will endeavor to support each teammate since I appreciate the team’s diversity.

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We are also likely to experience communication challenges. We will rely heavily on technology for communication and thus we will blend in-person and virtual meetings. Communication issues in teams often arise due to the diversity of the members (Morrison-Smith & Ruiz, 2020). As such, I foresee communication barriers emerging because of personalities and cultural differences, such as group members failing to communicate or give feedback, communicating late, communicating wrong information, or communicating using the wrong approach. Also, organizational structures, rules, and bureaucracies may propagate communication breakdown. Furthermore, technological hitches and complexities may undermine our communication flow and efficiency. Since effective communication is paramount for a team to perform well, I am going to establish team interaction guidelines, specifically on the agreed communication channels, time, and format. I am also going to emphasize the need to practice communication etiquette by cultivating active listening, respect, and giving feedback culture and I will have frequent check-ins for the same.

Expanding globally is advantageous in various ways. Going international enhance sustainability and resilience. Due to increased business risks, having an international business spread the risks across a larger geographical area, where there can be failures in a few markets and success in the majority of the global markets. Rygh et al. (2022) confirms that going global contributes to sustainable development goals and opens doors for multinational enterprise development. Having international growth also offer many growth options. Verbeke et al. (2018) suggest that globalization offers public good, which is beneficial to both businesses and consumers. In this respect, developing an international business support robust market and product developments, limit competition pressure, and make market targeting more practical.

Despite the good side of expanding globally, there are also its disadvantages. From the corporate manager’s perspective, I am worried about the significant cost of expansion. I acknowledge that invading the international market demand heavy investment capital. Moreover, it may take a considerable time for us to break even and there are costly legal compliances. Accordingly, international expansion seems to favor only financially stable entities. Additionally, it may become frustrating to establish an efficient and stable supply chain. For instance, getting supplies may become challenging as well the demand may become low for a substantial time. Thus, businesses going global suffer from market instability and volatility.

Management theories are useful in shaping managerial decisions from a global perspective. Systems theory explains that some actions/activities involve complex systems and not a single unit. The systems theory affects managerial perception of international expansion as a multi-system act and not a single-system role. Systems theory recommends interdependence and interaction of components in a complex system (Khuzwayo, 2020). Accordingly, systems theory helps put all systems and departments together for successful global expansion. Moreover, it guides corporate managers to understand that global growth should be multidisciplinary and thus it involves the entire organization. The scientific management method is another crucial management theory. Scientific management theory primarily focuses on workforce efficiency. The theory encourages the application of scientific methods in managerial decisions for increased productivity (Dar, 2022). Correspondingly, scientific management theory is useful in finding the most efficient production methods in the international markets. Furthermore, the theory is fundamental in directing global staffing decisions, such as deploying evidence-based staff selection, role allocation, and employee motivation methods. Notably, scientific management theory aids in the systematic handling of management challenges.

References

Dar, S. A. (2022). The relevance of Taylor’s scientific management in the modern era. Journal of Psychology and Political Science, 02(06). http://journal.hmjournals.com/index.php/JPPS

Karunathilaka, G. S. (2022). Virtual team adaptation: Management perspective on individual differences. Businesses, 2(2), 118-128; https://doi.org/10.3390/businesses2020008

Khuzwayo, D. Q. O. (2020). The systems theory conceptualised and pasted to teaching and learning. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 8(10), 01-16. https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol8.iss10.2593

Morrison-Smith, S., & Ruiz, J. (2020). Challenges and barriers in virtual teams: A literature review. SN Applied Sciences, 2(1096). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-2801-5

Rygh, A., Chiarapini, E., & Segovia, M. V. (2022). How can international business research contribute towards the sustainable development goals? Critical Perspectives on International Business, 18(4), 457-487. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-08-2020-0123

Verbeke, A., Coeurderoy, R. & Matt, T. (2018). The future of international business research on corporate globalization that never was…. Journal of International Business Studies, 49, 1101–1112 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-018-0192-2