Maximum 3000 word report - excludes Executive Summary and Appendices. Max 4 pages for appendices Requirement: Student selects one of the following topics and discusses as require: Topics: 1. Choose a...

MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
Executive Summary
This assignment deals with managing business across the globe. The impact of globalisation on business has been explained in the initial part of the assignment. The steps that should be taken by the international managers for attaining the competitive edge follow it. The contribution of outsourcing and offshoring has also been discussed. The challenges and the opportunities faced by the firm have been described in detail in the later part of the assignment. Certain recommendation to cope up with the challenges and exploit the opportunities has been mentioned towards the ending part of the assignment. The challenges include risk of imitation, high competition and others. The recommendation to cope up with such challenges includes analysing the strategies of the competitors. In addition to that, training should be provided to the employees so that the cultural differences can be removed. Flexibility should be provided in designing the stores as per the local culture. This will lead to an improvement in the satisfaction level of the customers.
Table of Contents
Introduction    4
Impact of globalisation on business    4
Steps should international managers do to beat the competition    6
Outsourcing and offshoring    7
Challenges and opportunities    8
Recommendations    9
Conclusion    10
References    11
Introduction
Globalisation refers to the opening up of the economy for world market for attaining international competitiveness. It leads to free flow of goods and services by removing the trade barriers between countries. It also leads to free flow of capital and technology across the globe. Globalisation has paved the way for multinationals to operate across the globe. Organisations such as Walmart, Amazon and others operate across the globe. The same has been possible due to globalisation.
Globalisation has a significant impact on the operation of a firm. The competition tends to increase, technology tends to improve and others. There also seems to be a rise in the cultural issues and issues in managing operations across the globe. According to the opinion of Velthuis (2014), globalisation leads to an increase in the size of the developed economies. It also leads to development of developing and under-developed economies. While operating across the globe, firms need to adjust to the labour law, taxation laws and other legal issues of the nation. It also requires a change in the production process as the quality of labour changes with a change in the area of operation.
The company that has been selected here is Walmart. An American retail corporation operates a chain of discount departmental stores, grocery stores and hypermarkets. It has high level of operational efficiency and this is one of the main reason behind the success of Walmart. The unique selling proposition of the firm is low price and variety. It has operations across the globe; and is also facing tough competition from e-commerce giants such as Amazon and others. This assignment deals with the impact of globalisation on a business. In the recent times, Walmart has faced certain issues in China. When an organisation operates at a global level, it faces a number of issues such as cultural differences.
Walmart outsources majority of its operation. It procures products from vendors in bulk due to which it enjoys a high bargaining power. It has been facing tough completion in recent times from other retailers. According to the opinion of Hernández and Nieto (2016), Walmart has been successful in implementing a number of strategies that has enabled it to be at the top position in the list of retailers. The assignment mentions the challenges faced by the organisation dues to globalisation. Few recommendations have also been provided for the challenges faced by the firm.
Impact of globalisation on business
With the advent of globalisation, there has been a significant impact on the business. The affects can be both positive and negative, depending upon the external business environment. In earlier times, when the economies were not integrated, local seller dominated the market. However, with the advent of globalisation, there has been increase in competition. According to Aljuwaiber (2016), the competition can be seen in various aspects such as market share, price, quality, promotion, and others. Multinational take the advantages of economies of scale that helps them in keeping the price of the product low. On the other hand, the local players have dominance in terms of brand loyalty and others. The increased in competition has led to shrinkage of margins. Higher the competitors, higher are the benefits for the end consumer. The managers have to take steps to deal with the competition. In earlier times, organisations used to focus on developing the strategies of the company. However, with the advent of globalisation, firm keep an eye on the strategies of the competitors to ensure that they have an idea of the developments of the competitors (Hernandez and Nieto, 2016). This helps them to prepare themselves in according to that. Before globalisation, strategies were not given much importance. However, after the advent of globalisation, the senior level managers are involved in framing strategies to increase the market share and thus the profit.
Globalisation has also helps in significant improvement in the level of technology that is used in business. Technology has improved the operational efficiency of the business that has helped in keeping the cost of production low. In addition to that, technology helps multinational to operate in foreign countries with the use of technology. It has help in the development of e-commerce. The data is stored on servers using high tech technology that ensures any time anywhere access (Yeung, 2017). Globalisation has led to the development of technology at a fast pace. Due to globalisation, local firms have also started using technology that ensures standardisation of process. Firms invest heavily in the technology to ensure that the operations can be managed effectively.
Globalisation has also increased the employment opportunities across the globe. Firms try to reduce the employee turnover as a healthy investment is made on employee training and others. It has increased the insecurity for business. Due to globalisation, the same product is offered by a variety of sellers. Therefore, any issue in the quality of the product, price and others can lead to shift of customers to products of other brands. Since, the option with the customer has increased significantly the organisation have to put in due efforts to attract and maintain the customers. According to Castellani et al. (2018), the investment level has also increased significantly. Organisations need to invest heavily in production capacities to enjoy the economies of scale. The opportunities for business to export have increased...