The most long-term source of integration difficulties however will be in aligning domestic vs. international channel partners, specifically on the issue of synchronizing demand forecasts to the shared Altria Group supply chain. The need for making the Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment (CPFR) process which is used for coordinating the demand for tobacco through its many suppliers and procurement partners as efficient as possible (Bowe, 2007) is both a process- and system-related challenge that is long-term in scope. In conjunction with the challenge of disengaging the CPFR process from a single location to a domestic and international one, Altria Group will in turn have to define unique supply chain, order management, manufacturing and new product development processes for each geography. These added costs will be more than offset by the stock repurchase program and the reduction in operating expenses. Manufacturing locations that are specifically designed from a process, systems and information technologies standpoint are also needed to make the specific product strategies in each geography profitable as well.
Additional sources of integration difficulties will be in the areas of marketing and branding (Smith, Malone, 2003). As Philip Morris International looks to both capitalize on the strength of the Marlboro brand in the U.S. By propagating and promoting the brand internationally, it must tread a fine line between the American-based brand the need of creating a unique identity for itself. The branding challenges for Altria Group will be made more significant and therefore also become a source of integration difficulty as the company attempts to penetrate larger, high growth Asian markets with significantly different values and perceptions of smoking. While smoking is not seen with nearly the level of health risk in China, India or other Asian nations, there are specific cultural and in some nations, religious norms and values that must be respected in advertising any product. These specific aspects of branding in countries with significantly different cultural values that westernized nations will force Altria Group to invest in learning about new cultures with greater...
These acquisitions are serious business dealings that require a lot of forethought and a lot of work to get through, but they are well worth it in the end because they cause a great benefit to the company that made the acquisition. Often, any problematic conditions also improve for the company that was acquired, although this is not always the case. For companies that acquire other companies for brand name
Most critical is the ability to capitalize on core competencies while also alleviating any cultural conflicts inherent in pursuing any diversification strategy (Doving, Gooderham, 2008). Related diversifications are related to core competencies can be seen in many industry value chains, especially in the financial services industry (Milberg, 2008). As related diversifications reduce the cultural, system and process risk of a merger or acquisition, they have been proven empirically to
Current Problem Diagnosis The problems within Marks and Spencer began in the 1990s, starting with financial difficulties, aggravated by fierce competition in the industry and consequently decreased sales and profits. Market analysts blamed the occurrence of the problems on a poor quality of the management. M&S was accused of not having paid enough attention to the changes affecting the market and as such, they had failed to adapt to the
The appendixes. Answer number 3 The online community presents the reader with a multitude of information on how to write the business plan. A valid source in this sense is represented by Maire Loughran's article on the About.com website. Throughout this article, the author identifies a total of eight key elements to be integrated in the business plan. These refer to the next ones: The executive summary which states the objectives of the
Business Strategies and Decision-Making Choosing a business structure can depend on a wide range of variables and it is thus essential for a manager to have a complex understanding of his company, the industry it is associated with, and business forecasts. The process of choosing a business structure needs to be considered before starting any businesses in spite of the fact that this respective process can take a significant amount of
The graphic shown in Figure 1 was also provided in the article (Porter, 2008). Figure 1: Five Forces Model (Porter, 2008) This model's effectiveness does not however capture the increasingly critical role of tacit and explicit knowledge in businesses. The tacit knowledge, of the type that is learned from the continual streamlining of core processes, is not easily captured and communicated. It is often called tribal knowledge as this type if intelligence
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