- First list the title, date, and source of the selected news story.
- Next explain the intended purpose of the news story and provide a brief summary of the information given.
- As Director of Global Business Activities for your prior chosen company provide detailed explanations of how you could use the information given in the news story to advise your company on their global business operations.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
IB- Government and Global Business
Find a television, internet, or print news story relating to the governments role within the global business environment. Provide the following information:
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23 comments:
CNNmoney.com
March 9, 2009: 5:26 PM ET
UAW agrees to Ford contract concessions
United Auto Workers approve cuts to conserve cash amid industry-wide struggle
In the article, UAW agrees to Ford contract concessions its purpose is to explain how Ford and the United Auto workers agreed to a U.S contract concessions and a new funding arrangement for a retiree health care to help the industries financial downturn. Ford has negotiated with the UAW on the idea that the government will manage for GM and Chrysler, but will still place higher then there competitors. It then went on to explain how members of the Obama task force toured Gm and Chrysler and discovered that Chrysler is ahead for deciding in the issue. Having this approved will reduce Ford's labor costs, allows Ford to make up to half of required payments into the retiree health care trust; automaker also has cut salaried jobs. But to put this into effect everyone has to agree.
-As Director of the Global Business for Chevy I would recommend looking at the situation and watch what these car companies are doing to figure out weather it will effect us and or other car companies. One we completely understand what is going on it might be a good idea to fallow these big named car companies’ roles. Doing what they are thinking about will help with budget cuts. Last, it would be a good idea to communicate the idea to every branch domestic and internationally.
"Oil Above $47 on Production Cut Talk" 3/9/2009 from CNNMoney.com
The intended purpose of this article was to inform the public of the recent increase on the price of oil. Barrels now sell for $47 and up. The expectation is that "the slowing global economy could cause demand to fall further." The news was heard at an energy conference in Saudi Arabia. The author was alluding to the high unemployment rates and the difficulties people are having finding jobs, and now might have with the increase in oil prices.
As Director of Global Business Activities for Covanta Energy, we could use this information to our country's advantage. To be kept in the ranks of competition, we could ask our workers to get involved in promoting our go-green effect by joining our company to bring their excess waste to form energy. This saves our money on energy companies that use oil and it produces no hazardous fumes into our air. Furthermore, we could forecast our company's progress of burning trash instead of oil. Lastly, we could get together to create relationships with other outsourcing companies to strive for a greener and healthier planet, oil-free.
The article "Follow the Greenback Road" by Ian Cambell for the website breakingviews.com posted on March 10, 2009 describes how curriencies and banks overseas are suffering alongside America. Because of America's government's exorbriant amount of spending, the value of the dollar has actually risen over the past few months. The value of the Euro against the dollar is suffering, with its value being the weakest in twenty years.
If I was the Director Global Operations for General Motors, I would use this information to plan my strategy for the company's global business plan. GM may not have much of a choice but to expand into foreign water in order to keep itself afloat. But the current recession has strechted worldwide, and is even worse in European countries since their currencies' value is rapidly declining. This would come as extreamly negative news to me if I was trying to expand overseas, and it would empahsis that I would have to express low-cost cars overseas, possibly even more than in America.
Geithner: G20 must boost spending
CNN Money
This article is about the U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants the Group of 20 nations to boost their spending to help counter the economic crisis.The purpose of this article was to let people know of what our government wants people to do to help counter this situation and what they are trying to do themselves. I would advise us too begin spending internationally as the government intends so that we can start the chain of spending to hope to boost our economy and also to try and gain government sponsorship for taking action first.
Bernanke: Fix banks to get a recovery
March 10, 2009 www.money.cnn.com
This news story is intended in tell the public about what the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke thinks will get our economy back on its feet. He stated that the financial system could work its way out of a recession "later this year" and even have "a period of growth" next year. Bernanke also stated that making firms "too-big-to-fail" will also help our economy, because they would not go bankrupt as easily as they did during the recent banking crisis.
As Director of Global Business for Coca-Cola, I will use this article to provide insight on which banks to invest in, the larger banks that will be less likely to fail, and banks which are private. Global Spending and government spending around the world will most likely be the main help in providing help to the US and our goal of getting out of the current recession.
The article I found is titled "Chrysler Canada issues plant closure warning" on March 11th, which I found on cnn.com. The purpose of this news story is to alert the public to the fact that the Chrysler plants in Canada may be shut down due to lack of government aid, a tax dispute, as well as lack of sufficient labor concessions. If the plants were to close, close to 100,000 people would lose their jobs. As Director of Global Business Activities for Shell, I would first and foremost advise my company to create a set wage amount for the drilling of oil. It is important to be very clear on labor costs in relation to the government. It is also important to be wary of transfer pricing between countries, and the difference in taxes between the US and our foreign oil sources. One must monitor these changes, as it could prove detrimental to our company. In terms of government aid, we must be consider the exchange rate of currency, if we ever require aid, as the value of the dollar is decreasing, as well as the fact that our buying power is decreasing also. Due to this, it will be harder to request and receive governmental aid, therefore it could prove difficult to keep labor costs fair, as well as prices.
As Cities Go From Two Papers to One, Talk of Zero, 3/11/09, NY Times Online.
The article basically discussed how the recession is negatively affecting newspapers around the United States. It discusses the closing of the Rocky Mountain News, the Tucson Citizen and the Seattle Post- Intelligencer. The articl predicts that large areas with multiple newspapers are going to shrink to only one and may be as bad as to have no local newspaper at all. The article provides evidence by stating that the San Francisco Chronicle lost an average of $1 million a week last year.
This could affect Coca Cola in several ways.
-No more newspaper advertising
-Money from newspaper adds can be funneled into other sources such as television and magazines.
-Dip in sales because if people don't have enough money for a newspaper they likely won't be purchasing Coca Cola.
Title: Consumer demand slumps in China
Date: March 10, 2009
Source: Cnn
The purpose of this news article is to inform about the lack of demand for products in China. The article talks about how due to a decreasing demand for products in China, prices are dropping. Although this can be seen as a positive from the consumers perspective, it shows how poor the Chinese, and global, economy is. The demand for products is so low, that companies are being forced to drop prices to get their products to sell. Near the end of the article is talks about how the Chinese Premier plans to still grow economically and help other countries in the economic crisis.
As Director of Global Business Activities of Nike, I would advice my company not to do much trade with China for the time being. Although China is a big trade partner, it would not be in our best interest to trade with them. With their prices decreasing due to falling demand, we may not be able to get the money we would like out of the sale of our Nike products. Also, if demand is so low, our products might not sell at all in China. I would advise that we wait and see if the Chinese economy shows signs of improvement, but until that time not do too much trade with them.
1.) Article: Consumer demand slumps in China
Date: March 11th 2009
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/03/10/china.economy/index.html (cnn.com)
2.) The intended purpose of the article is to explain how a major decline in consumer demand in China is causing prices to fall sharply. It also intends to explain how Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, plans on correcting the issue. Jiabao explains that China will need to increase demand within the nation, focus on new technologies, and instill consumer confidence in the Chinese population.
3.) As Director of Global Business Activites for Brooks Athletics, the information in this article could be invaluable. As an athletics company, China is most likely a hotspot for factories and production warehouses, as well as a prominent market due to the fact that Brooks products are produced in its borders. Although the fall in demand will be unlikely to significantly impact the production aspect of Brooks goods, the fall in demand will ceratinly impact the company's revenue. A few suggestions I would prospose to the company are:
- decrease the amount of product put out on the Chinese market. This will cut profit losses, as well as increase demand within China by reducing the available supply; thus bolstering the potential revenue.
- focus strongly on advertising and advocating Brooks products in China above other athletic companies' goods
- research other markets around the world looking for new athletics products. This way, there will still be the possibility of profit in other markets until the Chinese market rebounds
Title: Tech's stimulus boost
Date: March 11, 2009
Source: CNNMoney.com (Fortune Magazine)
This story summarizes how the government has provided global stimulus packages to executives of large Tech corporations.
As Director of Global Business for Google, I would advise the company to first consider if the company is in need of the stimulus package, due to the strings that come attached to it. If yes, than I would recommend the best ways in which to use the stimulus money. This could include investing in new advertising schemes in order to reach a broader market as well as research for ways to make Google more useful and efficient for it's users.
Source:
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2214643/
I got a article form tradingmarkets.com called: "Healthy Coffee International, Inc.: Healthy Coffee to be Featured at Japanese Babyboomers Festival" March 10, 2009; Posted: 06:15 AM
Summary:
The purpose of the story is to show how American business are expanding to other markets around the world. Since the US market is struggling and the people aren't confident enough to spend money because of the struggle companies have to find money somewhere else. This article talks about a company called Healthy Coffee International, Inc., and they have just entered the Japanese market to sell their coffee over there, since Japan is the third largest consumer of coffee in the world. They started to offer different kinds of help to the Japanese baby boomers by providing help with their retirement options.
As the director of Global business of Starbucks coffee I would advise the company to focus on japan as well so that the company doesn't monopolize of get too far ahead. At first we would be an indirect competition since I would recommend to have the youth as our target market while they are mainly focusing on the older generations. We would try to provide student discounts and scholarships to the Japanese youth. After we have the youth on our side, we would try to approach the older generation with a similar approach as the Healthy coffee international did, but since we are bigger and have a lot more money to spend we can offer better plans that they can't afford.
Record number of Americans on unemployment
March 12, 2009: 9:29 AM ET
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/12/news/economy/jobless_claims/index.htm?postversion=2009031209
This article is an impactful note on how many people are filing unemployment due to the economic recession. According to the article, 9,000 people have filed unemployment in the last week. The total number of unemployment at this point is 654,000 people. It is the highest record since 1967. Obama signed a stimulus bill to help these people living off of unemployment benefits.
As the director, i would inform my employees to keep working hard and fight for their position, because people have a high risk of losing their jobs, so I would keep the people who are dedicated to their work and are consistent. You must be outstanding though, because people know that if they lose their job, they have a low chance of finding another one and if they do it will most likely be one that people are overqualified for.
Obama wants global financial plan
March 11, 2009
President Obama called on foreign governments to increase their domestic spending to stimulate their economices and asked for greater cprdination of regulatory oversight.
Being pat of discount tire i would tell my CEO that this is what we need to make business. If more people bought domestic products then that would create jobs and then we could hire people back. and we also would get more businees because people have jobs that give them money so they can buy tires. So I hope this happens beacuse it would be good for us.
Ford, UAW deal saves $500M annually
March 11, 2009
cnn.com
1. The article shares that Ford is cutting costs to be more competitive with foreign-based automakers. Ford created an agreement with UAW to suspend some performance and bonus payments, reduce overtime costs and cut paid holiday. Ford lost a record of $14.7 billion dollars last year so with the new agreement they will be saving about $500 million annually.
2. By cutting American wages, we will be getting closer to the wages of some foreign-based rivals.
We need to estimate the total costs we will be saving so we can use that money on other things.
We need to come up with a new product using the $500 million we are saving so we can spark the economy.
The Tiger Trap, 3/12/09,http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1884847,00.html.
This article talks about how South Korea's leader has helped the country out by improving their economy. The leader Park Chung Hee, expanded South Korea's global economy. South Korea stated to make items such as shoes and other clothing materials for well developed countries. With the recession in the Western countries that purchase most of these goods, consumers are spending less hurting the Southern Korean economy.
As Director of Global Business Activities for Apple, I believe Apply should cut back on their marketing and products being sold in South Korea. Since the western countries are not purchasing as many items that are produced in South Korea, the Southern Korea economy is starting to suffer, which means there is less money for the people of South Korea to spend. If we also, lower the prices of some of our products to a more affordable price for the South Koreans, therefore increasing our profit and sales in the region.
Period 4
The presidents inaugural speech affected business dramatically in ways that people might not have been able to see.
some businesses , however, were not affected by it all, at least not directly. a company like coke was not really affected by this speech because they have such a global company and are so vast that a speech could not really change anything. the only thing that could have possibly affected coke would be the changes in the stock market or the affects of the speech on their smaller businesses that they control.
The article I found talks about how production in the U.S economy fell for the fourth consecutive month.
- As director of Global Business for my company I would advise to maybe scale down in size, which might call for some job cuts, so that we can cut down on our budget, and be able to project in the future when we can expand and gain revenue.
1. The article I read was “China Says U.S. Ship Violated International Law” from CNN on March 10, 2009.
2. In the article, the Chinese government claims that a U.S. ship violated International laws, while patrolling the coastline over the weekend. Then two Chinese ships harassed the unarmed ship, without making it’s intentions clear. The article was written to inform about the seemingly outrageous actions of the Chinese ships.
3. As Director of Global Business Activities for Ten Thousand Villages I advise the company to…
a. Review the International Water Laws and retrain each of our ships to follow them.
b. Review each country’s laws and retrain each ship on their specific destinations laws.
c. Realize that each country is on edge because of the tough economic times and be sensitive to that in our business operations.
d. Because we deal with many countries, assure that each of our business operations is sensitive to each individual culture.
Demand down for foreign worker visas. March 5, 2009. CNN.com. The purpose of writing this article is that with the country on the verge of recession H1B's are easier to obtain. If a company is fortunate enough to be looking to hire. The demand for H1B visas has gone down dramatically and the chances of obtaining one are greater than ever before. The main reason is that with the slowing economy people are not looking to hire and the demand is down.
My chosen company is a international sports apparel company. We deal with many different countries and many different sports. Our main way of communicating and displaying our products with customers is via internet. Fortunatley our company is doing quite well and we are looking to hire. We would like to bring on some highly skilled foreign techworkers to help improve our website. We will look for the best foreign workers and know that the chances of getting an H1B visa are very high. These workers will benefit our company greatly.
"Japan unveils $150 billion stimulus plan" CNNmoney.com April 9, 2009
This article explains how the Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan has formulated a $150 billion dollar stimulus plan to save "the word's second largest economy" from completely crashing. It is the largest stimulus plan conducted yet, and if it works, it may increase the country's GDP by two points. If productivity and demand also increase, it could be a longer-term fix for the nation.
$30 billion dollars of this will go towards boosting struggling companies, and as director for global expansion for an international apparel business, it would be important for my company to weigh the possible benefits of this stimulus and receive some sort of aid to keep the company afloat, being an international business that extends to Japan. If the stimulus package can include struggling businesses such as ours, then the profit will slightly increase and shift business back to a more acceptable pace.
Taxing time for global business, April 15, 2009, Google News
In the article it talks about how the Obama administration has tighten its hold on global business corporations. They increased taxes on perceived loopholes which the corporations get around to make more money. This will help to control the income of the very rich so they don't get even a little more that they do not deserve.
As the global business director of Pepsi I would make sure that all tax deducted items are legal and they do not interfere with the new taxes. Also I would make sure that ll the extra taxes are paid in full and no more loopholes are exploited.
Government Role in Business
May 4th 2009
CNN.com
CAITLIN SALTRAY
The Role for the government in business is to regulate how business operates in America. If a company is doing bad and is going bankrupt its up to the government to renew the companies way of doing things for example the car companies. For big companies the government can bail them out or let them go bankrupt. Government initiate competition practices, copyrights, contract agreements, industry activity, and other monotary actions. As an owner of a restaurant i would like to know all of the regulations and i would like to be on the good side of federal regulatory agencies to avoid any fines or debt.
Toyota suffers big loss, warns of more red ink
May 8, 2009
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/08/news/international/toyota.reut/index.htm?postversion=2009050804
The purpose of this article is to describe how Toyota, the world's biggest automaker lost $8.6 billion the last year. The loss is much bigger than expected and it will take Toyota a while to recover from. But it is not only Toyota that is experiencing difficult times, it is all the automakers.
As director of Global Business Activities of Toyota I would advice my company to lower the costs of our cars, including production to save some money. But still have good quality work. In a big meeting I would inform all the employees what is going on and so they know that they still have to do a good job, because we probably need to lay off some people. I would also tell them that this are though times but it will get better soon. Toyota should invest money in commercials and advertising our products so customers get considerate of our product.
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