Assignment on International Business - Stated by Malinga

Running head: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Answer 1
As stated by Malinga (2020), coronavirus or Covid-19 is an important threat which the
different nations of the world are presently facing and this had taken a toll on the life of
numerous people. Yu and Aviso (2020) are of the viewpoint that Covid-19 while adversely
affecting the lives of numerous people had also affected the different business corporations of the
world. As a matter of fact, this had increased the risks faced by the corporations and because of
this the corporations had been forced to substantially change or modify the business processes
used by them as well. For instance, in the wake of the threat posed by Covid-19, it had been seen
that the corporation Samsung in South Africa is facing various kinds of economic and operations
risks like the potential loss of skilled laborers, loss of customers, possible disruption of supply
chain used by the corporation, increase in operations costs and others (Ft.com 2020). As per the
statistics offered by Enca.com (2020), till now more than 159 people of South Africa had been
affected by Covid-19 and this number is likely to increase even further.
There are various reasons for the unprecedented success attained by Samsung within the
nation of South Africa like the availability of cheap labor, large customer base, low operations
cost, effective relationship with the different suppliers and others (Malinga 2020). However, in
the face of the threat posed by Covid-19, it is seen that the laborers are not willing to go to the
workplace of the corporation in the fear of contracting the virus, the consumers are not
purchasing the products offered by it, the relationship of the corporation with its suppliers is
deteriorating and others. More importantly, the corporation in order to mitigate the threats posed
by these risks had shifted its manufacturing department to Vietnam for the time being and
intends to transfer the same to South Africa once the situation gets resolved (Ft.com 2020).

2INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
However, at the same time it needs to be said that this in turn had substantially enhanced the
operations cost of the concerned corporation which in turn had adversely affected the
profitability of the corporation as well. Thus, it becomes important for the corporation under
discussion here to take the help of effective risk management techniques for the identification as
well as the mitigation of the risks that it is presently facing on the score of the threat posed by
Covid-19.
Glendon, Clarke and McKenna (2016) are of the viewpoint that five of the most
important risk management techniques which are commonly used by the business corporations
are avoiding risk, transferring risk, preventing and reducing loss, spreading risk and retaining
risk. In the particular context of Samsung, it can be said that the best said that the best possible
risk management technique which the corporation can use is preventing and reducing loss. This
can be done by the corporation through the adequate identification of different risks (the risk
presented by Covid-19 is a preventable one), analysis of their causes and impact and thereby
formulating effective strategies for the mitigation of the same. The corporation has the
opportunity to take the different occupational health and safety measures, use cost-cutting
measures, insurance and others for reducing the impact of the risks presently faced by it in the
wake of the threats posed by Covid-19 and also for its prevention as well.
References
Enca.com. 2020. Impact Of The Coronavirus On South Africa's Economy. [online] Available at:
<https://www.enca.com/news/impact-of-the-coronavirus-on-south-africas-economy> [Accessed
14 March 2020].

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Ft.com. 2020. Samsung Shifts Some Smartphone Production To Vietnam Due To Coronavirus.
[online] Available at: <https://www.ft.com/content/79d80650-5f9d-11ea-b0ab-339c2307bcd4>
[Accessed 14 March 2020].
Glendon, A.I., Clarke, S. and McKenna, E., 2016. Human safety and risk management. Crc
Press.
Malinga, S., 2020. Tech Sector Should Brace For Drastic Coronavirus Impact. [online] ITWeb.
Available at: <https://www.itweb.co.za/content/mYZRX79Pb2nvOgA8> [Accessed 14 March
2020].
Yu, K.D.S. and Aviso, K.B., 2020. Modelling the Economic Impact and Ripple Effects of
Disease Outbreaks. Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability, pp.1-4.

4INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Answer 2
The three important job titles which are going to be important for the new manufacturing
unit of the Swedish corporation in the nation of Mexico are operations manager, quality
assurance manager and supply chain manager. Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger (2017) are
of the viewpoint that the operations managers within the corporations are required to oversee the
different high-level HR activities like recruitment and selection, analyzing the labor needs of the
corporations, offering the required training to them and others. More importantly, they are also
required to manage the different operations processes, manage quality, productivity and other
important aspects which directly influence the growth of the organizations (Meredith and Shafer
2019). These activities are going to be of great important for the new manufacturing unit in
Mexico and would also determine the success of the same. Thus this particular job title had been
selected for the new manufacturing unit in Mexico.
On the other hand, Fernandes et al. (2017) have noted that the customers more than ever
are effectively focusing on the attribute of quality because of the large number of service or
product related options that are available to them presently and thus it had become important for
the corporations to focus adequately on the aspect of quality. Furthermore, the quality assurance
managers are also required to ensure the fact that the products or the services manufactured by
the corporations are in compliance with the government and the industry quality standards, the
quality standards followed by the corporations and also in synchronicity with the quality needs of
the consumers as well (Chukwulozie, Nnaemeka and Chigoziri 2018). The job title of quality
assurance manager had been seen that these activities are likely to be of great importance from
the perspective of the new manufacturing unit which the corporation intends to establish in

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Mexico. Lastly, the supply chain manager had been selected since this particular manager will
help the manufacture unit to procure the required raw materials which are being needed by it for
the manufacture of the high-tech medical equipment. However, at the same time it needs to be
said that since all of these expatriates are from Sweden thus they would have to familiarize
themselves with the national culture of Mexico, the business style of the concerned nation, its
etiquettes, greeting styles and others. These measures are likely to help the expatriates to
overcome the initial cultural shock and ensure that the same would not affect the quality of work
which would be performed by them within the manufacturing unit of the corporation in Mexico.
Language training is another important aspect that needs to be taken care of since the languages
which are being spoken in the two nations under discussion here are very different from each
other. Furthermore, the corporation also needs to offer these expatriates adequate amount of
compensation, incentives, perks and others for working in the nation of Mexico. These are likely
to offer the required extrinsic motivation to the expatriates to work in the new manufacturing
unit of the corporation in the nation of Mexico.
References
Chukwulozie, O.P., Nnaemeka, O.E. and Chigoziri, N.I., 2018. Quality and Productivity
Management. In Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer
Science (Vol. 2).
Fernandes, A.C., Sampaio, P., Sameiro, M. and Truong, H.Q., 2017. Supply chain management
and quality management integration. International Journal of quality & reliability management.
Fredendall, L.D. and Hill, E., 2016. Basics of supply chain management. CRC Press.

6INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Ivanov, D., Tsipoulanidis, A. and Schönberger, J., 2017. Global supply chain and operations
management. A Decision-Oriented Introduction to the Creation of Value.
Meredith, J.R. and Shafer, S.M., 2019. Operations and supply chain management for MBAs.
Wiley..

7INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Answer 3
Wahby et al. (2017) are of the viewpoint that the majority of the business corporations
which are presently operating globally take the help of the process of outsourcing for the
effective completion of their work, for enhancing the effectiveness of their corporations and
other similar purposes. In this relation, General Motors (USA) is an important corporation which
in the year 2019 finalized an outsourcing deal with Tata Consultancy Services (India) through
which it transferred its production of vehicles in India to Tata Consultancy Services (Tcs.com
2020). There are various benefits that this deal offers to the corporation General Motors which in
turn had propelled the corporation to maintain its outsourcing relationship with the above
mentioned corporation. For instance, this particular outsourcing deal that had helped General
Motors to resolve the manufacturing issues that it had been facing within the nation of India
particularly in Bengaluru. General Motors earlier used to export the manufactured vehicles to
India which in turn substantially increased its operations cost and also the cost that the customers
needed to pay for the vehicles (Chandrashekhar and Mendonca 2020). However, through this
particular deal it is now being able to manufacture low-cost vehicles in India itself and the
customers also do not have to pay a higher price for the purchase of the same. This in turn had
positively affected the sales volume of the vehicles offered by the concerned corporation in India
which had enhanced its profitability as well (Tcs.com 2020). More importantly, this had also
helped the corporation to utilize the technological resources of India, cheap labor offered by the
nation and others which in turn had significantly improved the quality of the vehicles
manufactured by it and also its profitability as well (Chandrashekhar and Mendonca 2020).

8INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
As discussed by Globerman and Vining (2017), despite the different benefits offered by
the process of outsourcing to the corporations it is seen that there are various negative aspects or
negative connotations associated with the same as well. For instance, in the particular context of
General Motors it is seen that because of this deal, the corporation had to part with more than
1,300 workers who had shifted to Tata Consultancy Services and this in turn is likely to
adversely affect the human resources along with the other departments of the concerned
corporation as well (Tcs.com 2020). More importantly, Tata Consultancy Services had also
modified the vehicle designs, the features of the vehicles and other attributes of the vehicles
offered by General Motors as per its convenience which in turn had significantly affected the
quality of the vehicles (Chandrashekhar and Mendonca 2020). Another important negative aspect
of this outsourcing which is being undertaken by General Motors is the fact that this had
substantially enhanced the financial risks along with the operations risks and other risks faced by
the concerned corporation. Furthermore, the delivery timing of the vehicles manufactured
through this particular outsourcing also had been adversely affected which in turn had taken a
negative toll on the brand reputation of General Motors. These in short are some of the most
important negative aspects of the process of outsourcing which is presently being undertaken by
General Motors.
References
Chandrashekhar, A. and Mendonca, J., 2020. TCS-General Motors Deal May Spur A New Wave.
[online] The Economic Times. Available at:
<https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/tcs-general-motors-deal-may-spur-a-new-
wave/articleshow/71191601.cms?from=mdr> [Accessed 14 March 2020].

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Globerman, S. and Vining, A.R., 2017. The outsourcing decision: A strategic framework.
In Global outsourcing strategies (pp. 27-40). Routledge.
Tcs.com. 2020. General Motors And Tata Consultancy Services Launch New Partnership In
Global Vehicle Engineering. [online] Available at: <https://www.tcs.com/general-motors-tcs-
launch-new-partnership-global-vehicle-engineering> [Accessed 14 March 2020].
Wahby, R.S., Ji, Y., Blumberg, A.J., Shelat, A., Thaler, J., Walfish, M. and Wies, T., 2017,
October. Full accounting for verifiable outsourcing. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGSAC
Conference on Computer and Communications Security (pp. 2071-2086).

10INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Answer 4
Li, Hou and Wu (2017) are of the viewpoint that the Fourth Industrial Revolution or
“Industry 4.0” had substantially changed the manner in which the different business corporations
are managing their different business processes like manufacturing, sales, marketing and others.
Adding to this, Xu, David and Kim (2018) have noted that the usage of the different disruptive
technologies like artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, automation and others had become
the trademark of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and this in turn had substantially reduced the
dependence of corporations on human labor. For instance, it is seen that the majority of the work
within the corporations which in the earlier times was completed by the human laborers are now
being completed through the extensive usage of different disruptive technologies and this in turn
had helped the corporations to substantially overcome their labor issues (Schwab 2017). More
importantly, this particular approach used by the corporations had also helped them to move
towards a more sustainable business model which in turn had also helped to attain sustainability
as well as long-term growth (Peters 2017).
Tesla is an important automobile manufacturing corporation which since the year 2008
had been taking the help of advanced robots for the manufacture of the different electric cars
offered by it (Schmid 2016). In this relation, it needs to be said that the concerned corporation
because of its labor and other issues experienced a manufacturing disaster at the beginning of
this century which in turn substantially narrowed the scope of its business (Munson 2018). Thus,
for overcoming this particular manufacturing disaster, Elon Musk started to use robots for the
manufacture of electric cars. This as a matter of fact not only helped the concerned corporation
to overcome the manufacturing disaster which it experienced but also helped it substantially

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enhance the quantity of vehicles manufactured by it as well. For instance, presently the
corporation through the usage of robots manufactures more than 30,000 units of electric cars per
week and along with increase in the quantity of cars manufactured by it, the quality of the cars
have also improved substantially (Valentin 2019). The usage of robots had removed the
manufacturing defects in the cars offered by the corporation on account of human errors while
helping to use latest technologies to improve both the quality and the quantity of cars
manufactured by it as well (Schmid 2016). Moreover, by reducing its human workforce the
corporation had also been able to enhance its profitability as well while helping it to achieve both
the long-term and the short-term goals created by it as well. In addition to these, it had also been
seen that the adequate usage of robots for the manufacture had also helped the corporation under
discussion to outrival its major competitors within the automobile manufacturing industry which
in turn had enabled the corporation to regain the competitive advantage that it lost during the
manufacturing disaster experienced by it (Munson 2018). The below given table offers a rough
overview of the history of the usage of robots by Tesla for the manufacture of cars-
Year Activity
2008 The idea for the usage of robots was first proposed
2010 The idea was rejected since the initial tests failed to offer the desired results
2015 After modifications robots were being used for the manufacture of the electric cars
2016 The corporation started to reduce the number of its human workers
2017 Full-fledged usage of robots
2018 Tests showed that robots were slowing down the production of cars
2019 Research and development projects were undertaken to improve the efficiency of the
robots

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2020 The newly developed robots are used for the manufacture of the cars
References
Li, G., Hou, Y. and Wu, A., 2017. Fourth Industrial Revolution: technological drivers, impacts
and coping methods. Chinese Geographical Science, 27(4), pp.626-637.
Munson, R., 2018. Tesla: Inventor of the Modern. WW Norton & Company.
Peters, M.A., 2017. Technological unemployment: Educating for the fourth industrial
revolution. Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, 5(1), pp.25-33.
Schmid, M., 2016. Tesla's Model 3 as Ikon of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Feedback.
Schwab, K., 2017. The fourth industrial revolution. Currency.
Valentin, M., 2019. The Tesla Way: The disruptive strategies and models of Teslism. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Xu, M., David, J.M. and Kim, S.H., 2018. The fourth industrial revolution: opportunities and
challenges. International Journal of Financial Research, 9(2), pp.90-95.