Task This assessment item is Part 2 of your International Business Report and focuses on Topics 7 to 12 of this unit. Having now completed a major analysis of the environment in which your business...

International Business strategy for coles
Executive Summary
The report offers the reader to understand which environment should be preferred for Coles to successfully run business in country chosen India. Considering the company is looking for international expansion, analysis of the background of the company and country is done at first place. This helps us understand various factors that are dependent on business and information that can be leveraged to address the challenges while pursuing strategy for international business. A deeper country analysis is done to understand the customer segments, demographic factors, economic environment and regulations that impact business. This analysis also helps in understanding the challenges that one faces in launching of business due to huge economic and cultural diversity. For any business to succeed it is important to understand the middle and bottom part of pyramid and what factors drives to growth. Economic factors help in giving an understanding about the prospects of market and growth potential for Coles in next few years. On the basis of this analysis, strategy to enter the market is recommended which can be done by joint ventures or partnering with local players. This has been done to address the challenges that organization faces due to external environment. This can help in smooth operation and give more focus on future strategy. Later, Coles franchises can be opened to expand the business even further which will also help the company to foster with less risk. The market entry will also be influenced by FDI policies that have relaxed by the Indian government in the recent scenario. Further, marketing strategy and changes in the marketing mix are recommended to ensure this aspect does not lead to failure of the company. Competition strategy is also discussed to address the growing challenge of competitors in the market. The key to success for most of the big ventures lies in how the supply chain is being handled by the organization. Recommendations like making strategic alliance with suppliers to make production process smoother and maintaining a global supply chain for efficient operations is given. To address issues related with HR departments strategy is proposed for the same.
Table of Content
Executive Summary
1. Introduction
2. Background of the company
3. Country chosen
4. Country analysis
5. Recommendation for entry mode and multinational structure/competitive strategy with
justification
a. Market entry
b. Market structure and Competition Strategy
6. Marketing and R&D considerations
7. Recommendation for production
8. International HRM issues and considerations
9. Conclusion
10. References
Introduction
The report given an understanding to the user about the company business and the attributed related to international business. The aim of the company has been to make an impact by expanding in international markets. The country that has been chosen to enter is India. It is important to understand the aspect related to Indian business because the business operations and environment will be very different from what Coles used to do in its home country. The entry strategy requires a complete analysis of various factors that will play significant role to enter the Indian market which will be quite different from what they faced in Australia. To get a better understanding of various entry strategies has been researched and appropriate strategy is recommended which is best mapped with the country’s market. Analysis has been done of the Indian market conditions and recommendations are made on the basis of that for successfully creating a strategy that will help the company to sustain and become profitable in long term.
Synopsis of Previous Report
Background of Company
Coles is one of the biggest Australian retail chain which has been serving to the customers from more than 100 years. The company which is headquartered at Melbourne has expanded itself by opening more than 800 supermarkets which is handled by employees over 100,000. The brand recall is very high amongst the customers and the market penetration is more than 40%. The company success can be attributed to its efficient customer service. The company focus has been providing value to the customer by constantly innovating with maximum convenience. The last few decades has been an era of confidence which helped them expand at a rapid pace. They became one of initial players who introduced scanners for products and bills. The operation has been smoothly handled by the organization due to their early adoption of latest technologies. For maintaining a track of inventory, machines were adopted which helped them in further expansion as the cost of inventory was substantially saved. Constant efforts were made to keep their customers happy. Especially for loyal customers various reward program were kept that were awarded free goodies of high value (like air tickets) who showed high instances of repeat purchases. The company successfully entered the e-commerce platform and started their sales through that during 1990s. Post 2000, the roadmap of growth for Coles can be seen full of challenges and opportunities. The economic factors started taking toll due to higher interest rates which impacted the business which was accompanies by falling value of dollar. But innovation helped them find new ways of growth even though there might be small hiccups at the start. The next phase was a season of mergers and acquisitions for the company. Wesfarmers was acquired by Coles in year 2006 as company planned to expand their operations even further. The company success can be attributed to the lower prices they offered to customers with unique experience that their store offered. Coles produced various brands which saw early success. Some of them were Coles, Coles outline, financial services(CFS) and hotel chain (Spirit hotel). After achieving success in domestic market, the company management aims for increasing the market share at global level and boost up the revenues. To achieve this, they are looking forward for opportunities in international markets after establishing their foot in domestic market. (Knox,2015). The company has given special focus on their CSR initiative by contributing in various ways. To promote local business, they run an initiative called Australian First Sourcing which ensures Australian grown food is sourced as much as possible. To protect environment, the company has given special focus on packaging by promoting environmental friendly packaging and promoted recycling of plastic bags. Coles(2018).
Chosen country: India
The market of India has seen tremendous growth in retail segment which helped them achieve 3rd position in Asian markets and 4th overall in world. This has come after...