Global Entrepreneurship

The aim of the report is to provide an insight into global business entrepreneurship in respect to the largest food retailer of Canada that has a target market in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The report commences with the performance of the company in the domestic market with a focus on the company, history of performance, resources, organizational structure, domestic marketing strategy and the export goals and objectives.

Running head: MARKETING
Global Entrepreneurship
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary:
The aim of the report is to provide an insight into global business entrepreneurship in respect to
the largest food retailer of Canada that has a target market in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The
report commences with the performance of the company in the domestic market with a focus on
the company, history of performance, resources, organizational structure, domestic marketing
strategy and the export goals and objectives. The report then undertakes a detailed analysis of the
target market with the primary focus on the political, economic and the social highlights along
with business information. The report also puts forward a market entry plan for Metro in the
UAE along with the description of the market entry mode. The report also undertakes a risk
assessment of Metro in the target country based on the various criterions. The report further
portrays the corporate social responsibility and the human rights issues that the business faces
while operating in UAE. There are also discussions about whether Metro will have the right kind
of financing option for supporting the export plan followed by an assessment on risk ability.
It has been noted that Metro will continue to grow and initiate the export plans if it is able to
successfully execute its strategic priorities for coming years which implies the integration of the
Jean Coutu Group, growth of the sales while leveraging the cost, continuous improvement of the
customer experience in each banner, modernizing the distribution network and managing the
talent. The company will also initiate great amount of effort in the continuation of the work
involved in combining the pharmacy activities. The company will also emphasize on achieving
the synergies and deployment of the solutions based on the technology that is necessary for
supporting a unified chain of operation.

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Table of Contents
1. Domestic Market Performance....................................................................................................4
i. Company:......................................................................................................................................4
ii. Product or Service:......................................................................................................................4
iii. History of Performance:.............................................................................................................5
iv. Resources (human and financial):..............................................................................................6
v. Organizational Structure..............................................................................................................7
vi. Domestic Marketing Strategy:....................................................................................................7
vii. Export Objectives and Goals.....................................................................................................7
2. Target Market..............................................................................................................................8
i. Political Highlights:......................................................................................................................8
ii. Economic Highlights...................................................................................................................8
iii. Business Information:.................................................................................................................8
iv. Cultural Considerations:.............................................................................................................9
v. Travel Tips for Company Personnel............................................................................................9
vii. Canadian Trade Commissioner Services/support......................................................................9
3. Marketing Plan...........................................................................................................................10
i. Analysis of the Product or Services:...........................................................................................10
ii. Product/Service Modifications..................................................................................................10
iii. Competitive Analysis...............................................................................................................10

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4. Market Entry Mode:..................................................................................................................11
5. Risk Assessment:.......................................................................................................................11
i. Country Risks:............................................................................................................................11
ii. Market Risk:..............................................................................................................................13
iii. Product Risk:............................................................................................................................14
iv. Commercial Risk:.....................................................................................................................14
v. Barriers to Market Entry:...........................................................................................................15
vi. Barriers to Market Acceptance.................................................................................................15
6. Corporate Social Responsibility and Strategies:........................................................................16
i. Environmental Concerns and Trends.........................................................................................16
ii. Human Rights Issues.................................................................................................................16
iii. Unfair or Corrupt Business Practices.......................................................................................17
iv. Health, Safety and Labor Issues...............................................................................................17
7. Financing:..................................................................................................................................17
8. Export Ability Assessment:.......................................................................................................19
9. Conclusion:................................................................................................................................19
References:....................................................................................................................................20
Appendices :..................................................................................................................................20

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1. Domestic Market Performance
i. Company:
The Company chosen here is Metro which is a leading food and pharmacy retailer of
Canada and operates in provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is considered third largest grocers of
Canada. The company has a net income of CAD $ 21.6 million and generate revenue of about
CAD$11402.8 million (metro.ca, 2019).
Figure 1: Diagrammatic Representation of Retail Network
Source: (metro.ca, 2019)
ii. Product or Service:

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The key products of the company are food and pharmacy. As far as the food is concerned,
the company has over 600 stores in Ontario and Quebec under the name Metro Plus, Food Basics
Adonis and Super C (metro.ca, 2019). On the other hand, there are 650 pharmacies which are
primary identified as Brunet, Jean Coutu, Food Basics and Metro Pharmacy.
iii. History of Performance:
This includes (metro.ca, 2019):
1947: Some of the grocers belonging to Lasalle Groceteria Ltd aimed at the formation of a
buying group that allowed them in offering consumer products at prices comparable to the
larger chain.
1956: Marked the establishment of Metro Grocery Group
1972: Marked the birth of the Metro Food Markets Ltd that finally gave birth to the
supermarket concept.
1986: Shareholders of Metro Richelieu United Grocery Group agreed unanimously in
converting the advances to share capital. The year also marked the entry of the retailer as
pharmaceutical distributor.
1987: Metro made major breakthrough in the discounted segment of the mafrket
1992: The Company acquired the rights and leases of close to 48 Steinberg Grocery
Markets.

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1999: The Company acquired Loeb banner having two warehouses in Ottawa and close to
41 supermarkets in the northeastern and the eastern Ontario.
2005: The Company acquired close to 100 percent shares of Great Atlantic & Pacific
Company of Canada for close to $1.7 billion.
2009: Metro in order to consolidate its position in the eastern Quebec, acquired close to
15 grocery stores of GP.
2011: The Company signed a partnership agreement with a well known food retailer in
Montreal, Marche Adonis, thereby specializing in Mediterranean, fresh and prepared
foods.
2014: In the year June 10, 2014, Metro entered into partnership agreement with the
Première Moisson Bakery.
2017: Metro made an announcement in entering into partnership with the MissFresh young
Montreal Company thereby specializing in the ready to cook meals.
2018: To meet the increasing consumer needs in pharmacy, health, beauty and food Metro
acquired Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc.
iv. Resources (human and financial):
The human resource team looks for innovative ways in improving the practices and
contributing to the employee engagement (metro.ca, 2019). The company always tries in
increasing the effectiveness of the organization and is considered outstanding at its ability in

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reacting to the unforeseen. Metro comprises of a team of 140 employees in Ontario and Quebec
who remains passionate about superiority in customer service and innovation.
As far as the financial resources are concerned the company has a total assets of
CAD$5061.5 million and a total equity of about CAD$2807.4 million (metro.ca, 2019).
v. Organizational Structure:
Metro group of companies have the capability of servicing one of the most challenging
and the complex distribution needs (Daft, 2015) Metro believes in few deeper relationships and
works towards growing the business through partnerships. The company has a flat organizational
structure that allowed fast and effective decision making and effective flow of entrepreneurial
energy.
vi. Domestic Marketing Strategy:
The brand promotes newer features through the digital ads, weekly newsletter, and social
media pages while executing relations influencer strategy. The company also created video
through YouTube for explaining its features
vii. Export Objectives and Goals:
Export Objectives includes (He, Brouthers & Filatotchev, 2013):
 Doubling the value of the exports
 Increasing number of medium and small sized exporters
 Expanding and promoting awareness of the global business opportunities

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 Positioning Metro as the global ready market.
The goal remains in construction of business environment that helps in the creation of the
quality jobs, economic stability and the greater prosperity through cultivation of the base
industry that remains aligned with the growing globalized market.
2. Target Market
The target country of Metro is UAE (United Arab Emirates).
i. Political Highlights:
 UAE represents a federation of 7 Emirates that have their governmental organizations
allowing flexible management across country (Bodolica & Spraggon, 2014).
 The country faces occasional political conflicts with the neighboring countries on the
ownership of oil reserves.
 The country maintains healthier trade relations with various countries across globe
ii. Economic Highlights
 UAE has higher GDP per capita
 The country also has a lower unemployment rate
 The country also have the highest foreign direct investment in region
iii. Business Information:
UAE is the federation of seven emirates with each of the emirates contributing to the
progress of the nation thereby putting across exciting opportunities for the investors. This makes
UAE a booming economy with limitless business opportunities. Besides, the currency of the

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country which is known as Dirham is not only freely convertible but secure (Al-Ansaari, Bederr,
& Chen, 2015). The country imposes no restrictions on the capital repatriation and the profit
transfer. Further, the country has lower import duties and competitive labor cost. The country
does not impose any personal or corporate taxes and has thirty two treaties on bilateral
investment and 61 double taxation agreements along with ensuring a lower financial risk. The
country also offers a pleasant, safe and stable working ambience.
iv. Cultural Considerations:
Islam represents official religion and has a key role in shaping the culture of the society.
UAE represents a liberal country with tolerance of other beliefs and cultures (Kazmi, Naaranoja,
& Worlin, 2014)
v. Travel Tips for Company Personnel
UAE represents a Muslim country with very different customs and laws compared to
Canada (Bardot, 2013). It is therefore necessary for the company personnel to respect the total
traditions, laws, customs and religion of the country.
vii. Canadian Trade Commissioner Services/support
Their mandate remains promoted towards the economic interest of Canada in UAE and
provide support to the Canadian companies that have chosen the target market for their services,
products or technology (Al-Hubaishi, Ahmad & Hussain, 2017). In other words, they provide
practical advance and on ground intelligence on UAE market.

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3. Marketing Plan
i. Analysis of the Product or Services:
The product ranges offered by the Company include:
 Selection: This offers close to 2500 products that remains in line with the market trends
and compared quite favorable to the national brands.
 Irresistible: This brings in the best by attaching pleasure, quality and distinction at heart
of the product.
 Godiva: This are chocolates that represents an outstanding gift for pleasing someone
 Hemisphere Wines: This represents exclusive wines from the prestigious territories
 Premiere Moisson: This represents fresh bread, exquisite pastries and delicious
charcuterie.
ii. Product/Service Modifications
Metro planned to re-launch the private label by replacing the existing product range
Equality, Master Choice and Irresistible along other two newer names. The company that
acquired A&P Canada over a year ago aimed at strengthening the in house brands and thereby
getting rid of the duplications thereby reducing the number of items to 2500(16). Further, the
company also plans in dropping private label discount in Quebec.
iii. Competitive Analysis
 Global presence of the competitors

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 Consumers are not accustomed in buying different categories under single roof
 Discounted brands might be perceived as having a lower quality.
4. Market Entry Mode:
The foreign firms seem to have established themselves in most of the sectors in the UAE
market therefore , Metro which is planning to make an entry into the market should have local
agent or sponsor otherwise the firm will remain limited to the ownership position of minority
(Shenkar, Luo & Chi, 2014). Therefore, searching for right distributor or local agent can act as
the critical first steps towards the success.
UAE has been a regional hub for trade that supported intense business activity on a
global scale and is a place where most American firms face stronger competition from the other
multinationals. There have been various successful American firms that rely on the qualitative
and technological advantages for competing with the foreign competition.
5. Risk Assessment:
i. Country Risks:
a. Political: Although political upheaval sweeps through Arab World, UAE and Qatar
remains unaffected. The per capita income of Qatar and UAE thus remains one of the highest
across the world (Zahlan, 2016). The highest per capita income also accounts to the smaller
populations and the smaller amount of the gas and the oil wealth. Empowered by the political
protest, political activist and intellectuals in UAE became less censored and more vocal towards
their reform. But there have been little signs of any rallies that have triggered unrest. As the

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federation of the seven monarchies, UAE does not have a parliament but it has a 40 member
council that acts as advisory with limited powers.
The biggest city of UAE, Dubai, is considered the finance and the trade hub that saw a
real estate asset burst in the year 2009 and faced the risk of restructuring the finances and
keeping the investors in taking money outside the region (Sassen, 2018). However, the risk of the
domestic unrest has been lower compared to the other regional Arabian states due to country’s
wealth. As per the reports put forward last month, UAE said that it would invest close to $1.6 for
improving the infrastructure in the lesser developed emirates. Many supermarkets also agreed to
cut the prices of essential commodities and food for a month. However, it is believed that
potential benefits would arise from the northern emirates whose citizens’ benefits less from the
vast oil wealth of Abu Dhabi or the business hub of the Dubai’s development and trade.
b. Social: The social problem represents a problem or issue that is considered as undesirable
or unacceptable by the people of the community. These problems are not under the control of a
single person and might arise due to social change or disruption. The continent of UAE
comprises of countries that are not only developed but have extensive growth towards the
success. This is considered as massive social change that possesses the power of putting an end
to the various social issues like illiteracy, terrorism and poverty. While these particular social
change has given rise to problems like drug abuse. Younger generations are mostly becoming
victims to the problem. There have been further discriminations in the society with Dubai
becoming a multi culture society having people from different race and religion. The societal
change has also strained personal relationships as each every person is busy with no time for the
family.

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c. Economic: After subdued economic performance in the year 2017, due to the cut in the
oil output as part of the OPEC agreements, reduced investment of government, corporate
restructuring and the declining prices of the real estate, there was a rise in economic activity in
UAE in the year 2018 with the growth reaching close to 2.9 percent. The non oil growth has been
expected to have a growth of 3.9 percent in the year 2019 which in reality stood at 3.7 percent
backed by the private sector credit and the increased investment.
Besides, the Emirati government introduced the policy of the fiscal easing for enabling the
economic recovery. There has been uplift in the structural reforms along with the implementation
of a newer plan for the fiscal stimulus in the upcoming three years. Abu Dhabi however has
plans of investing AED 50 billion by the year 2020 especially in the metro and the airport
expansion along with site development.
ii. Market Risk:
a. Related to Target Demographic: It has found that close to 84 percent of the
consumers makes their purchases at the stores. It has also been found that 56 percent of the
Emirati did not make a purchase from the foreign website and close to 55 percent preferred
buying products within UAE (Shah & Dubey, 2013). Here, advertising is not effective since
most people are motivated by word of mouth and product research. Therefore, Metro store
should play a key role in enhancing the product awareness.
b. Interest Rate: In the long term, United Arab Emirates have an interest rate that has
been projected to increase by 3 percent in the year 2020.
c. Exchange Rate: One of the uncertainties of conducting trade on an international scale
has been the fluctuations in the exchange rates amongst currencies. The UAE currency Dirham

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has been pegged with US dollar for boosting the economy of the country and raised its non oil
exports by close to 4 percent in the year 2016 in spite of the increase in the exchange rate of the
Dirham compared to the key trade partners who does not deal with the dollars.
d. International Agreement: The UAE have legislative regimes that recognize the range of
the national intellectual property such as the copyrights, patents and trademarks. Besides, the
recognition of the worldwide international property rights remains ensured by the virtue of UAE
membership of the various global conventions. These include (Ravi, 2013):
 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
 Madrid Convention
 World Trade Organization (WTO)
 Agreement on the Trade related aspects of the International Property Rights
iii. Product Risk: It has been found that close to 77 percent of the consumers learns about the
products at the stores while only a 14 percent of the consumers make an online discovery. The
risk of the however lies in the fact that only 56 percent of the Emiratis never makes a purchase of
a foreign product and 55 percent prefers buying the products within UAE.
iv. Commercial Risk: This refers to the ease of performing business that capture gap of each of
the economy from best regulatory performance observed on the indicators of doing business
since the year 2005. The ease of doing business of an economy is reflected in the scale of 0 to
100 where the score 0 represented lowest while the score 100 represented best performance.
Although the score represents a lesser commercial risk but the business might face other
political, social and economic risk.

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Figure 2: Graphical Representation of Doing Business in UAE
Source: (Burns, 2016)
v. Barriers to Market Entry: There exist a number of issues, critical considerations and
questions confronting the companies as they operate, establish and grow their business in Middle
East. This includes language barriers, cultural differences, enforced rules of local ownership,
choice of the most suitable location and the legal entity in matching the business requirements.
However, such barriers to entry hardly exist as over 90 percent of urban population belonging to
Dubai and over 75 percent of urban population of Abu Dhabi represents foreign nationals.
Besides, English is also the official language followed in business.
vi. Barriers to Market Acceptance: UAE primarily represents a Muslim country and hence
forms the base of political system, culture and the way of life in UAE. Besides, the country has
various rules and regulations which the entrepreneurs needs to follow for the smoother running
of the business. Some of these laws include:
 Business Law UAE
 Commercial Transaction Law
 Electronic Transactions and the Commerce law

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 Federal Law of No. 4 of the 1979 on Combating the Commercial Fraud
 Federal Law of No. 20 of 2016 on mortgage of the movable property for securing debt.
In present times, this has been overcome by deep awareness amongst the Emirati society in
face of the rapid modernization.
6. Corporate Social Responsibility and Strategies:
i. Environmental Concerns and Trends
Change in climate has one of the pressing issues of global community. This has been
primarily due to the increase in the carbon footprint in the manufacturing, transport and the water
use (Taher, 2017). The changing patterns of the weather have been threatening for the food
production and irreversible changes in the major ecosystems. In fact these changing patterns
impact society, economy and the biodiversity. UAE has however remained positive in combating
the climate change and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Goals by the year 2030.
ii. Human Rights Issues
The situation of the Sweatshop in UAE has been worse with families of victims being
stressed. Immigrant workers especially from South East Asia faces a greater risk of exploitation
and are often housed in the filthy conditions with very little downtime (Mayer, 2018). In fact,
they are considered the hidden slaves of the rich society. According to the human rights, the
foreigners makes up close to 88.5 percent of the citizens in United Arab Emirates with the lower
paid migrants being subjected to forced labor and abuses. The country has also been keen in
protecting the rights of the workers and has implemented various laws for ensuring equal
treatment of workers and their employees.

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iii. Unfair or Corrupt Business Practices
Corrupt business practices like false advertising, bribery and misleading financial
statements face penalization under the existing UAE law. The UAE Federal Penal Code deals
with anti-bribery provision and the Federal Human Resources Law contain relevant provision.
Besides, the UAE government recognized the need for the specific and the up to date legislation
related to anti corruption (Dahiyat, 2019).
iv. Health, Safety and Labor Issues
The labor law of UAE puts across the rules for the protection and the safety of the
employees in the private sector (De Bel-Air, 2015). For instance, a mid day break bans the
laborers from working directly under the sun in the afternoons during the summers. As far as the
working hours are concerned, the normal working hours is close to 8 hours daily or close to 48
hours weekly. Sometimes, the working hours might be increased to close to 9 hours after the
approval from the Ministry of the Human Resources & Emiratisation (MoHRE)
7. Financing:
Over the course of the financial year, the share prices of the company traded within
$38.32 and $45.44. It however closed at $ 40.18 compared to the $42.91 at end of 2017. This
represented a total return from the shareholders of about 15.4 percent over a single year, 139.6
percent over a term of five years and 365.0 percent over the period of 10 years. This helped in
ranking Metro at the first position. It can thus be said that the financial situation of the company
remains quite solid with balance sheet that enabled the future prospects for export.

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It is to be noted that since the acquisition of Jean Coutu Group, the company
compensated $850 million debt that allowed the company in reinstating the repurchase program
thereby providing an option for using the excess funds.
Figure 3: Tabular Representation of the Financial Results
Source: (metro.ca, 2019)
8. Export Ability Assessment:
The export ability of the company is based on the five core strategies that have been
designed for attaining strategic objectives. This involves:

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 Development of regional model for export coordination and collaboration
 Coordinating and streamlining delivery of the export assistance and education
programs
 Fostering and advancing the service sector and the manufacturing of exports.
 Strategically promoting the export capabilities and the opportunities of the
international business to the local and the international stakeholders.
 Supporting advancement of the export enabling efforts and infrastructure for
improving the connectivity with the other international hubs.
9. Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that political, social and the economic highlights of
the target economy works in favor of Metro. There are not much risk barriers for Metro in terms
of market and product risk and barriers to entry. UAE also have taken up measures for dealing
with corporate social responsibility and human rights issues thus creating a suitable ambience for
carrying out business.
It is therefore recommended for the entrepreneurs of Metro to possess a positive export
plan that would act as the major characteristic for the adoption of entrepreneurial, social and the
corporate trends.
It is also recommended for Metro to consider the culture of UAE since it is a country
where religion dictates each and every aspect of a business. In doing so it is also necessary in
dealing the Emirati people with respect.

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An empirical study in the UAE context. Management Decision, 53(10), 2287-2302.
Al-Hubaishi, H. S., Ahmad, S. Z., & Hussain, M. (2017). Exploring mobile government from the
service quality perspective. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 30(1), 4-16.
Bardot, S. (2013). Background on work life in the United Arab Emirates and other gulf countries
(gulf cooperation council). Compensation & Benefits Review, 45(1), 21-25.
Bodolica, V., & Spraggon, M. (2014). Managing organizations in the United Arab Emirates:
Dynamic characteristics and key economic developments. Springer.
Burns, P. (2016). Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Daft, R. L. (2015). Organization theory and design. Cengage learning.
Dahiyat, E. A. R. (2019). Online Shopping and Consumer Rights in the UAE: Do We Need a
Specific Law?. Arab Law Quarterly, 33(1), 35-57.
De Bel-Air, F. (2015). Demography, Migration, and the Labour Market in the UAE.
He, X., Brouthers, K. D., & Filatotchev, I. (2013). Resource-based and institutional perspectives
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Kazmi, S. A. Z., Naaranoja, M., & Worlin, A. M. (2014, January). Little knowledge is a huge
treasure-Exploring UAE as a keen entrepreneur!. In International Conference on

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Business Strategy and Organizational Behaviour (BizStrategy). Proceedings (p. 1).
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Shah, S. N. A., & Dubey, S. (2013). Market Orientation and Organizational Performance of
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addressed-1.1198279
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Arab Emirates and Oman. Routledge.

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Appendices:
Appendix I: Tabular Framework for the Retail Network of UAE
Appendix II: Graphical Representation of Doing Business in UAE
Appendix III: Tabular Representation of the Financial Results

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