International Expansion Strategies of Imperial Oil: A Case Study

Research Paper 2: Group assignment
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Contents
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Overview of the company............................................................................................................................5
Review of company’s international competitive strategy............................................................................6
Existing organizational design structure and control issues.........................................................................7
Entry strategies used to enter other regions/countries..................................................................................8
Operational control, production and distribution/supply chain management...............................................9
Management of Human Resources across borders....................................................................................11
Identify key issues or opportunities for management................................................................................13
Recommendations to management for improvement.................................................................................15
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
References.................................................................................................................................................17
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Executive summary
The report aims to investigate and gain deep knowledge and insight into the strategies and
problems faced by the modern companies in order to expand their business operations in the
international market. The report has used the case study of Imperial Oil, A Canadian Petroleum
Company in order to gain pertinent knowledge and understanding about international or foreign
expansion. Foreign expansion refers to the process of expanding the business into a new market
from the domestic market for numerous reasons. For an instance, the companies expand their
operations into the new market in order to avail maximum profit, attain high competitive
advantage, to expand the size of the company etc. It is learned from the report that internalization
helps the Imperial Oil Limited to gain competitive advantage and to make their products
accessible to the customers at any location. Imperial Oil has adopted different strategies for this
such as direct exporting and joint ventures which will be critically explained in the report.
Managing the human resources across the borders is not easy for the company that involves the
number of control issues and problems which are effectively considered in the report. These
problems and issues affect the overall growth and development of the organization and harm its
position in the global market.
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Introduction
The objective of the assignment is to critically analyze and evaluate a company which has
expanded its operations into the international borders in order to earn a maximum profit and
avails high competitive advantage. In the modern competitive and dynamic business
environment, the business organizations are continuously expanding their business operations
into the foreign market in order to improve the performance and productivity in long run. For the
purpose, Imperial Oil Limited, one of the top petroleum companies in Canada has been taken
into consideration and the detail description of the company's international expansion and
operations will be provided in the report. The report will critically investigate and examine the
international competitive strategies, control issues, entry strategies used by the company for
entering into the new market, operational control, management of the human resources, and key
issues and opportunities for the management. In the end, recommendations will be provided to
the management in order to implement the changes and actions for improvement.
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