International dairy queens decision Essay

outside(a) dairy farm queen is a successful comp either that owns licenses and services to dairy queen restaurants, orange Julius stores and karmelkom shoppes. Currently, supranational dairy queen ope place over 6000 chains glob on the wholey and the number is yet to increase as international dairy queen seeks to venture more into the midway East mart place. Environments supranational dairy farm promote Stores finale to open a subsidiary in Bahrain presents challenges and opportunities to the company.Before developing any strategy plans supranational Dairy sissy should perform a SLEPT analysis which is a critical look into social, legal, economic, political and technological influences. This is because it bequeath not operate in a hoover and these environments indirectly affect business activities. In addition these business environments are constantly in a changing state and companies need to be cognisant of these changes. This en commensurates the company to stay ahe ad of these changes and act in a proactive way rather than play offing hurriedly to adapt to the changes.In the Middle East, Bahrain particularly stands bug out as the ideal location because it has numerous opportunities. Bahrain is a vibrant terra firma with a multicultural population owing to the numerous tourists that visit. Many people have in mind to it as the Middle East lite due to its substantial resource endowment, vibrant market economy and state of the art infra social system, stable political frame and high investment rating. multinational dairy queen would do well having business in Bahrain. The population is large and diverse plus the hot modality and tourist attractions attract restaurants business.The description above of Bahrain demonstrates that, indeed there are untapped opportunities for international dairy queen. The general pointers to a mature economy that include a ready market for goods and services, a friendly legal environment as well as a stable p olitical system are evident in the case of Bahrain. in that location is need though to avoid over glorifying the country by giving a brief of some of the voltage challenges that international dairy queen forget have to contend with if entry into Bahrain market will prove to be a success. The political system comprises of all processes, structures and activities that prevail in a country.On the other hand, the legal system comprises of the laws and regulations enforced in a country. (Lucas, 2000) In international business, there are globular legal issues that prevail beyond countrys boundaries such as intellectual property, increase safety and li cleverness and anti-corruption regulations. The political/ legal framework in Bahrain lays out the regulations and laws governing trade. Particularly, there are rules governing registration of companies import tariffs, ownership, trade registrations, customs payment and so on. International Dairy pouffe Stores will have to comply with these laws and regulations if it is to trade in Bahrain.In addition, there are laws that stipulate environment regulations. This regulation prohibits creation of pollution, or any culture that contravenes honorable standards. International Dairy Queen is a well established company whose activities are eco friendly. Laws regarding registration of foreign companies are stiff but not impossible. The regimen permits wholly owned foreign companies. However, restrictions on the importing products from parent company are imposed. Laws regarding employment stipulate the number of employees who must be sponsored from the local community.Licensing is comfortable as the government stretches good will to foreign investors. International Dairy Queen has to critically look into these laws and rules and their impact to its operation before proceeding any further. Lastly, health and safety laws are enforced to protect the clients from substandard goods that may cause harm to consumers. Internati onal dairy queen should pay attention to the rules that directly affect its operations. Social factors and cultural factors are equally important. These factors encompass the tastes, preferences, supportstyles, fashion, demographic factors and patterns of behavior.(Lucas, 2000) it is important to note that the tastes and preferences of people are very dynamic. The attitudes of people also change. The colossal population largely comprises of young and aged fun loving people. The numbers of foreigners, who visit the country, make the setting ideal for International Dairy Queens products. Citizens of Bahrain get along the good things in life. They have an expensive taste and International Dairy Queen Stores products match this standard. The current trend towards eating healthy diets and sugar cease products may have an impact on international dairy queen.Cases of obesity in children and the negative effects of high sugar consumption raise pertain among consumers. This will mean th at international dairy queen invests in promoting it desserts and probably develop tasty and high tincture sugar free desserts to cater for the clear consumers. Although the change in customers tastes and preferences differ across different age groups, International Dairy Queen Range of products caters for all. When evaluating the economic factors in the external environment, the key areas that oneness needs to look at is the interest rates, wage rates, general level of prices i.e. inflation rate and the customers purchasing power. (Lucas, 2000).The economy of any country tends to fluctuate from time to time. This characterized by periods of booms and repressions. The direct impact of these changes is price increase. Currently Bahrains economic condition is stable. Interest rates are low and hire high. People disposable income are high and they are willing to spend more on luxuries as dining out and International Dairy Queen comes in. by locating its stores at strategic location s where impulse buying is constant for 8instance the shopping malls, beaches and gas stations.International Dairy Queen can take prefer of this situation to expand in the Middle East in this case Bahrain. Technological factors are vital and need to be considered. This is because technology gives judicatures a matched favor and facilitates globalization. Whenever one assesses the technological factors of any place the following questions come to mind. Does the technology enable production of high quality goods and at a cheaper comprise? Does the technology offer innovative products that allow better ways of operating? Most importantly, does the technology provide better or new ways of communicating with customers?These questions incline a guiding role in deciding what technology to utilize in nightclub to gain a competitive edge. Technology in Bahrain can be described simply as state of the Art. Their transportation and communication system is highly advanced and the people ar e highly skilled. assumption that international dairy queen is a dedicate company to quality it has to ensure that the franchisee are highly educated and its employees do not compromise on quality service delivery. Hence the highly skilled population in Bahrain should come in handy when a franchise opens.International Dairy Queen being a company involved in mass production is particularly keen on acquiring fast and efficient technologies. Total quality management is also of great importance to International Dairy Queen Inc. This is because its dairy products are very sensitive to quality. International Dairy Queen Inc is dedicated to satisfying customers expectations and the technological advances in Bahrain facilitate this. Bahrain has all the facilities the company needs thus setting a part Bahrain as the country of choice in the Middle East.The advanced communication system in Bahrain will facilitate easy communication with customer if international dairy queen decides to use c ustomer relationship management to market its products. Markets The characteristics of the market place are vital in international dairy queens decision on pricing. There are various types of markets and they include commodity markets, controlled and uncontrolled markets, vertical high and vertical low markets. In the case of international dairy queen, it operates in a commodity market.This is because it has many buyers and competitors and at the same time non unique products. Thus, they enjoy minimal price flexibility. (Sunjen, 2000) The pricing of International Dairy Queens products will greatly depend on the front line of competition, economic conditions, monetary value of production and laws regulating prices in the new market (Bahrain). In addition, factors such as product awareness, prospects perceptions, ability to pay, products life cycle, elasticity and cost of channels of distribution will similarly affect pricing of international dairy queen products.(Sunjen, 2000) Most countries impose laws which work prices of goods such that prices dont fall below a predetermined level. This is meant to prevent dumping. In this case International Dairy Queen is not abnormal however, the economic conditions will influence pricing of International Dairy Queen Products. How so? Inflation causes increase in prices of virtually everything raw materials, wages, interest rates hike. The cost of production reflects on final cost of a product. If the technology used to produce a product is costly then final cost of a product is also high.International Dairy Queen has invested greatly in modern facilities and state of the art technology. Most of the processes are automated. This will play a significant role in minimizing cost of production. In addition, costs of acquiring raw materials increases during inflation which eventually translates to high price of goods. Pricing of a product is influenced by the force of demand and supply. This is because if demand for a produc t increases prices of the product will also increase. This is the theory. However, this is not always the case.In the presence of competitors firms react by reducing their prices so as to retain customers to competitors. International Dairy Queen being a new company in Bahrain should consider to competitors and its comparative advantage. International dairy queen is a new company in Bahrain. This being the case its existence is unknown to people in Bahrain. The goal of International Dairy Queen should therefore be creating awareness and penetrating the market in Bahrain. This in itself will influence pricing. for example, using a promotional strategy.This is whereby it lowers prices of its products as a way of promotion. The effect is that customers get attracted to sample the range of products and make repeat purchases. A customers perceptions about a companys product greatly influence pricing. How so? Positive perceptions regarding quality and superiority enable a company to pric e its products highly. Alternatively, the intention or desire to cost and identify its product with the high class group should influence pricing. This is called premium pricing and a company using this strategy will price its products expensively as an indicator of quality.The availability, quality and cost of distributive channels influence pricing in that the eventual cost is transferred to the consumer. International dairy queen uses franchises to market its products thus eliminating the risk of long distribution channel and ensuring quality service to its customers. (Idq website) products usually undergo life cycles and each stage in a products life cycle dictates its price differently. Products in n early life cycle attract higher prices. International dairy queen being new to Bahrain enjoys this advantage as its products are still new to the market.D1 D2 This graph shows the effects of S changes in production (supply) and P1 purchasing power (demand) and P2 how these changes offset the equilibrium. Q1 Q2 Source Self physical composition Organizational structures vary across giving medications depending on the objectives of a firm and its culture. This structure is important because it gives a frame work of allocating functions and processes to different departments in the organization. In order for a company to be successful in its operations it needs a good structure.A good structure is one that is efficient and on the table yet facilitates smooth communication and relationship among different sections in the organization (salaman, 2001) there are different types of organizational structures. They include centralized and decentralized structure, vertical structure, tall structure, matrix structure and flat structure. It seems to me that international dairy queen uses the hierarchical structure. This is because each level is one above the other and each double-decker has a given number of staff directly under his span of control.The organizational structure International Dairy Queen Inc has both formal and easy structure. The formal structure shows the flow of hierarchy from the top level management to the lowest level. An organizational chart has been used to show the level of hierarchy in International Dairy Queen. International Dairy Queen has a centralized system and all the subsidiaries follow the same centralized system. That is all the department newspaper publisher to the director and all the employees report to their respective managers in the various departments.The informal structures within the company although not written on paper has strong presence within this company. Staff groupings are productive because they improve level of motivation and sharing of information. The company encourages productive groupings. The concept behind International Dairy Queen having this organization structure is to clearly show the relationship among the people in the organization. It also gives little of different position. Th e departments also have their own department organization structures.The purpose behind having this organizational structure is that flow of information is enhanced. This is especially so true for a big company such as International Dairy Queen. Absence of such a structure would cause distortion of information, and inefficiency. The structure shows a diagrammatic illustration of how departments should relate and the hierarchy of authority. The organizational structure allows free flow of information which enables the company to coordinate its various activities. This in turn increases the efficiency of services.Corporate Chart Source Self Process catch the business process assists in gauging the success of a company in terms of higher profit gains, physical expansion, better quality products, increased market share and accumulation of assets. According to Davenport (1993) he defines a (business) process as a structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specific tak e for a particular customer or market. It implies a strong emphasis on how work is done within an organization, in contrast to a product focuss emphasis on what.A process is thus a specific ordering of work activities across time and space, with a root and an end, and clearly defined inputs and outputs a structure for action. Taking a process approach implies adopting the customers point of view. Processes are the structure by which an organization does what is necessary to produce value for its customers. The business process allows an organization to measure how well the business is doing and measure whether the products and services meet customers needs and requirements.(Barnes, 2001). The success of International Dairy Queen Stores investment depends a lot on how much its consumers get value for their money. Consumers of the companys dairy products should observe that they get the best their money can buy. Therefore, value adding should start right from the suppliers, product ion and packaging to distribution and selling process. At each stage, the product should be improved without adversely hiking price of the final product. Consumers should get best quality at minimal cost.Customer process analysis focuses mainly on acquiring and retaining customers as well as satisfying their needs. Adding value to customers requires in depth study into impacts of pricing, timely distribution, variety and so on. Time and cost is essential and should be analyzed so that it is cost effective. In the case of International dairy Queen Stores, its success in Bahrain depends greatly on the strategy the company will employ in attaining its goals. The marketing program should anticipate customers needs and cater to them. A modernized system of informing customers and getting feedback is essential.Relationship marketing, where customers queries and suggestions are in person addressed needs to be analyzed. Furthermore, the efficiency of implementing market programs and the ded ication of employees to quality service delivery needs to be analyzed. The production process can be enhanced through the use of modern technology so that the time needed to produce a product is reduced. Conclusion In summary the decision to venture in the Middle East is timely. As seen the business environment tremendously affects the business. They can either affect your business negatively or positively.Therefore, it is advice able for international dairy queen to manipulate their effects to work out for its benefit. Markets are dynamic and there influences on pricing of products are significant. International dairy queen has a variety of options in determining its prices depending on its goals. A clear understanding, consideration and implementation of the issues discussed plus international dairy queens vast experience trading in foreign countries will come in handy in building a successful subsidiary in Bahrain. Bibliography Barnes, W. ed. (2001) Understanding Business Process .London Routledge. Davenport, T (1993) Process innovation Reengineering work through information Technology. Boston. Harvard business school press. Lucas, M. ed. (2000) Understanding Business Environments. London Routledge.International dairy queen The Middle East. Retrieved from http//www. dairyqueen. com/en-Intl/DQ+Around+the+World/Middle+East/default. htm accessed on August, 29, 2007 Salaman, G. ed. (2001) Understanding Business Organizations. London Routledge. Suneja, V. ed. (2000) Understanding Business A four-dimensional Approach to the Market Economy. London Routledge.