MBO Cinemas: Analysis of Operational Strategies and Expansion to Singapore

The report is based on the analysis of the MBO Cinema whereby the overall operations of the firm have been analyzed and the measures and strategies which are to be adopted by the firm in the long run needs to be understood well.

Running head: MBO CINEMAS
MBO CINEMAS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MBO CINEMAS
Executive Summary
The business environment is highly competitive in nature and with respect to this it needs to be
understood that, any organization as present in the international market will be required to
engage in considerable measures so as to see to it that, they are successful in the long run. The
report is based on the analysis of the MBO Cinema whereby the overall operations of the firm
have been analyzed and the measures and strategies which are to be adopted by the firm in the
long run needs to be understood well. The structure of the assignment is quite simple in nature
whereby the different operational designs, staffing policy objectives and other measures to be
taken by the firm while its expansion to Singapore have been analyzed.

2MBO CINEMAS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
About the company..........................................................................................................................3
Entry mode chosen and the country.................................................................................................4
Strengths and weakness analysis.....................................................................................................5
Strength........................................................................................................................................6
Weaknesses..................................................................................................................................7
Operational strategy and corporate objective..................................................................................7
The organizational design................................................................................................................8
Scope of expansion in Singapore...................................................................................................10
Financial capital requirements.......................................................................................................10
Staffing policy...............................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

3MBO CINEMAS
Introduction
The business environment can be understood to be very dynamic in nature and with
respect to this, it can be stated that, any business as present in the dynamic business environment
would be required to ensure that it is successfully able to engage in a good strategy which would
then go a long way in assisting the company to prosper and attain a competitive edge in the
market (Wheelen et al., 2017). The formulation of different tactics as well as the strategies assist
the firm in attaining long term success and to ensure that it is able to make the selection of the
appropriate target market and the international market where the firm would be benefitting the
most. The cinema industry is very popular and has been prospering considerably. With respect to
this, the previous assessment was based on the external environmental as well as the internal
environmental analysis of the company MBO Cinemas which is based in Malaysia. Hence, the
primary objective of the given assessment is to present an analysis of the country with respect to
which MBO Cinemas will be successfully able to expand its operations and in regard to the
same, the organization will also be able to find adequate success in the long run. In addition to
this, it also means that, the scope of expansion in Singapore along with the appropriate design of
the firm and the kind of people to be hired will also be decided at large.
About the company
The MCAT box office which is popularly doing business as MBO Cinemas can be stated
to be a chain of cinemas who are carrying out its operations in Malaysia. The cinemas can be
stated to be the third largest cinema as present in the Malaysia after the presence of the Golden
Screen cinemas and the TGV Cinemas which have attained considerable dominance
(Florey ,2015). Malaysia has a total of around 27 cinema outlets in the different states of Perak,
Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri, Sembilan, Johar and Pahang. Recently the company has

4MBO CINEMAS
opened a branch as present in the Starling Mall in amansara, Utama and offers the different
customers with latest Cinematic experience and special offers like the Big screen, MC4D Hall in
Malaysia, Premier Big screen and laser projection technology along with the Dolby Atmos sound
system. The screens have been created specially to provide family convenience and comfort for
the children as well. For this reason, the hall provides Sofa Seats, Beanie seats and in hall
playground as well which will provide the parents with adequate convenience (Aguinis, Edwards
& Bradley, 2017). In addition to this, the Cinemas have also been adequately successful in
introducing different cafes in their cinema and in addition to this, they are also believed to be
engaged in offering 2-Dimensional facilities to the different consumers which would then go a
long way in ensuring success for them. The MBO Cinemas also offers the different snacks and
other facilities to the customers which helps them to get a wholesome experience.
Entry mode chosen and the country
When any organization decides and plans to expand in any additional country, it becomes
considerably important for them to ensure that they will be successfully making use of a
sufficient entry mode which will not only help them to gain success in the long run but will also
allow the firm to earn profits in the short term (Hanson et al., 2016). The mode of entry which
the company can adopt while expanding into the selected country can be stated to be the Joint
Venture entry mode. The entry mode can be stated to be a channel which can be usually adopted
by a company and takes into consideration a variety of alternatives which assist in ensuring that,
the operations of the organization can be carried out easily. Hence, as stated earlier, the Joint
Venture can be stated to be the mode which the MBO Cinemas can make use of to enter the
market place. The country which has been selected for the particular purpose can be stated to be
Singapore (Frynas & Mellahi, 2015). There are a large number of reasons why the Joint Venture

5MBO CINEMAS
can be stated to be an appropriate choice of expansion for the MBO Cinemas and they have been
stated down as follows:
 It will gain an access to technology and core competencies of the existing organizations
as well.
 It will prove to be a considerable method to enter into the foreign market
 It will also allow the cinemas to access the different Research and Development,
manufacturing and other such aspects of the business which will allow the firm to gain
advantage of the firm`s existence in the market.
The appropriate venture with which the MBO Cinemas can get into a joint association
with can be stated to be the Carnival Cinemas. The Carnival Cinemas are an India based popular
cinemas as present in Singapore which are immensely popular and tend to provide a large
number of opportunities to the to the new businesses to collaborate with them and provide them
with an opportunity to prosper in their business domains.
Strengths and weakness analysis
In order to understand whether the MBO Cinemas will be successful in expanding its
operations or not in Singapore it can be considered to be very critical for the firm to analyze the
strengths and weaknesses of the company which will then go a long way in ensuring that the firm
is able to gain adequate success in the long run (Bergh, Sharp Aguinis & Li, 2017). In addition to
this, it will also go a long way in understanding the different opportunities are taken up by the
firm in a new country. The given section will be discussing the different strengths and
weaknesses of the company with respect to its plans for expansion in the long run.

6MBO CINEMAS
Strength
The strengths can be described as the capacities of the business which go a long way in
assisting the business to perform well (Baumgartner & Rauter, 2017). These aspects help a firm
to take advantages of the scenario and engage in an overall improvement of the same. The
different strengths of the MBO Cinemas can be stated to be as follows:
1. The MBO Cinemas have a generous seating arrangements. The seats as present slant well
and in addition to this, however tall an individual is, the view of the screen will not be
blocked and the different rows have adequate spacing’s which would allow them to sit
comfortably and gain a considerable experience of the movie.
2. The second strength of the company can be stated to be as the good brand name that the
company has been successfully able to build for itself. In lieu of this it can be stated that,
MBO Cinemas has gone a long way in ensuring that it is able to minimize the customer
dissatisfaction which will assist in ensuring that the firm is able to engage in a positive
relationship with the different employees as present.
3. The third strength of the MBO Cinemas can be stated to be the projection system and the
digital sound system which is present in the MBO Cinemas (Bettis et al., 2015). The
Cinemas makes use of the high technology which can be stated to be the sound as well as
the display technology which not only assists the firm in providing an optimum sound
and visual performance but also assists the different members to have a good time.
4. In addition to this the cinema also has an access to a centralized computer ticketing
system along with an integrated telecommunications hotline and phone booking
procedure which allow the different management firms in the MBO cinema to bring
about greater convenience to the different customers as present in the business

7MBO CINEMAS
environment. Not only do these systems go a long way in assisting the business to
maintain the data as present adequately, it also helps them to increase the customer
satisfaction with respect to the different members as present.
5. In addition to this, it can be stated that the overall resources of the MBO Cinemas can be
stated to be adequate in nature (Bonardi et al., 2018). In addition to this, it can be stated
that the financial resources of the company go a long way in assisting the business to
carry out the different plans as present.
Weaknesses
The weaknesses can be rightfully stated to be the shortcomings which are possessed by a
particular business and tend to stand as considerably limitations in front of the business. The
MBO Cinemas although present in a large number of cities around Malaysia, it lacks an
international presence. The cinemas is highly popular in Malaysia however, it has not been able
to gain considerable success in the international markets whereby it can prosper in the future.
Moreover, the cinemas have not been successful in developing an e-payment ticketing system
which will then go a long way in assisting the firm to e-book the ticket (Doz, 2017). Very often
in certain locations there is a system with respect to which the tickets need to be booked 45
minutes in advance which causes inconvenience to the different customers and many complaints
in regard of this have been received.
Operational strategy and corporate objective
The operations strategy can be rightfully defined as the plan which an organization has to
reach its overall objectives. Hence, the overall operational strategy of the Cinemas can be stated
to be extremely simple in nature. The Cinemas will ensure that it will portray the best content as
available and ensure that cleanliness and good design is maintained in all its cinemas. Moreover,

8MBO CINEMAS
it has aimed to facilitate the e-ticketing system which will allow the customers the convenience
of watching the movies without wasting their time. Once they are successfully able to engage in
this, the firm will successfully be able to achieve long term success and ensure that it is being
able to attain overall success in the long run (Engert, Rauter & Baumgartner, 2016). Moreover,
as the operations will be now centered on an artificial intelligence system, it will be able to
ensure that all the customers are treated well and that they are equally satisfied by the overall
operations of the firm at large. Moreover, it is also crucial to understand that if a firm wants to
gain long term success it would be required to set out its corporate objectives adequately.
The corporate objectives of the firm are as follows:
1. To provide adequate services to the different customers most efficiently.
2. To foster a challenging and positive work environment for the different employees.
3. To provide good content to the different customers
4. To make the MBO Cinemas an international brand name.
The organizational design
The organizational design tends to form a critical part of the organization with respect to
which it needs to be mentioned that, any company which plans to internationalize its operations
would be required to engage in a different organizational design which will not only assist the
business in deciding upon the overall success of the operations but will also go a long way in
assisting them to optimize and maximize the operations (Hitt & Duane Ireland, 2017). The
organizational design which will be best for MBO Cinemas in Singapore can be stated as
follows: Global Area Division

9MBO CINEMAS
In the Global Area Division, the structure which will be adequately used for the MBO
Cinemas can be stated to be the structure of geographical importance rather than the structure
based on the product basis. The firms which can make use of the particular structure can be
stated to be the mature firms who are capable of maintaining their business operations adequately
without any assistance (Ethiraj, Gambardella & Helfat, 2017). The primary advantage of this
type of structure can be stated to be that the domestic operations as well as the international
operations can be carried on the same level. In addition to this, another advantage of the given
system is that, the global division managers can be assigned to look after the different operations
in the specific areas. However, the only disadvantage of the particular organization design is that
the given procedure will make it difficult to align the operations and the new Research and
Development method will be ignored (Lasserre, 2017).
When adopting the Global area strategy, the firm will aim at successfully seeing to it that
the firm has divided and made the locations as present in the different areas considerably
independent and that, MBO Cinemas will also be able to ensure that once the organization will
be successfully be able to engage in a considerable operations, the Global Area Division
organizational design needs to be implemented well. Moreover, the firm will also be required to
engage in considerable steps to see to it that they are successfully able to maintain the particular
system.

10MBO CINEMAS
Figure 1: The Global Area Division Design
(Source: Meyer, Neck & Meeks, 2017).
Scope of expansion in Singapore
The given plan will be largely successful in Singapore due to a large number of reasons
which can be stated to be because the country has a large tourist count and with respect to this, it
can be mentioned that, it would be beneficial for MBO Cinemas to extend its operations in
Singapore which will not only allow the firm to engage in growth opportunities but also allow
the firm in ensuring that it is successfully able to perform well(Michael, Storey & Thomas,
2017). The Joint Venture mode of entry into the international market can be stated to be the
equity based technique of expansion whereby a company in an international country sets up a
new enterprise in association with an existing or a new business in the particular country.
Financial capital requirements
The financial capital requirements which the firm would be required to make in the
particular case can be stated to be the investment costs (Morden, 2016). As the firm has planned
to get into a joint venture with the Carnival cinemas, the firm will be successfully able to invest
in a proportionate manner with the venture so as to ensure that it is able to carry out its

11MBO CINEMAS
operations successfully. Moreover, it also needs to be understood that, the different capital
requirements which the MBO Cinemas would require can be stated to be related to the cost of
legal rights, the land costs, the service cost, the HR Cost, the royalty to be paid, the cost of
acquiring the adequate content, the cost of ensuring that all other requirements are met with
(Peng, 2017). With respect to this, it needs to be mentioned that, once the MBO Cinemas will be
successfully able to estimate the different investments which it can make, only then will it be
successful in ensuring that it achieves success.
Staffing policy
When a company decides to expand internationally they have to ensure that they have an
adequate staffing policy which would go a long way in assisting the business to engage in a
successful relationship with the employees and have a considerable staffing policy in place
(Morschett, Schramm-Klein & Zentes, 2015). As the MBO Cinema business is also a service
business it will need to ensure that, the staffing are able to serve the business in the right way and
be able to meet the needs of the different consumers (Robson, 2015). Hence, for MBO
Cinemas, a mixture of the ethnocentric and the polycentric methods. In the ethnocentric methods,
the organization can ensure that it hires the foreign subsidiaries with the expatriates from one`s
home country. In this manner, the expatriates will be able to better represent the different
interests of the home company and see to it that the foreign operations are aligned with the
operations of the headquarters.
On the other hand, the polycentric aspect will allow the MBO Cinemas to hire the
employees belonging to the host country as it will allow them to interact well with the general
audience (Smecorp.gov.my ,2018). The host country nationals which can be employed in the
middle level and the lower level of the organization will be highly educated and trained and will

12MBO CINEMAS
be easily be able to provide adequate guidance on the local market conditions and the culture of
Singapore. Moreover, if MBO Cinemas makes use of the local employees, the country and
consumers receive a positive message.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis, it can be understood that, the expansion from the
home country to the international country is not an easy task and with respect to this, it needs to
be understood that adequate planning is required for the international expansion. The company
chosen for the particular assessment is the MBO Cinemas and the country which has been
chosen for the purpose of expansion is the Singapore. The given report covers various aspects of
the expansion for the organization like the Staffing Policy, Strengths and Weaknesses which can
be utilized adequately, in the new country. The entry mode for the MBO Cinemas was chosen as
a Joint Venture which was then followed by the analysis of Singapore as an appropriate market.
The operational strategy, corporate advantage and the financial capital requirements of the
venture in Singapore has also been discussed upon.

13MBO CINEMAS
References
Aguinis, H., Edwards, J. R., & Bradley, K. J. (2017). Improving our understanding of
moderation and mediation in strategic management research. Organizational Research
Methods, 20(4), 665-685.
Baumgartner, R. J., & Rauter, R. (2017). Strategic perspectives of corporate sustainability
management to develop a sustainable organization. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140,
81-92.
Bergh, D. D., Sharp, B. M., Aguinis, H., & Li, M. (2017). Is there a credibility crisis in strategic
management research? Evidence on the reproducibility of study findings. Strategic
Organization, 15(3), 423-436.
Bettis, R. A., Gambardella, A., Helfat, C., & Mitchell, W. (2015). Qualitative empirical research
in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 36(5), 637-639.
Bonardi, J. P., Hitt, M. A., Vera, D., & Withers, M. C. (2018). Special Issue on Strategic
Leadership and Strategic Management.
Doz, Y. L. (2017). Strategic management in multinational companies. In International
Business (pp. 229-248). Routledge.
Engert, S., Rauter, R., & Baumgartner, R. J. (2016). Exploring the integration of corporate
sustainability into strategic management: a literature review. Journal of cleaner
production, 112, 2833-2850.
Ethiraj, S. K., Gambardella, A., & Helfat, C. E. (2016). Replication in strategic
management. Strategic Management Journal, 37(11), 2191-2192.

14MBO CINEMAS
Ethiraj, S. K., Gambardella, A., & Helfat, C. E. (2017). Reviews of strategic management
research. Strategic Management Journal, 38(1), 3-3.
Florey D. M., (2015). MBO Cinemas' CEO prioritizes customers' convenience.
[Online].Available at: http://www.cinema.com.my/articles/interviews_details.aspx?
search=2015.i_mbocinemasceo_24072&title=MBO-Cinemas-CEO-prioritises-
customers-convenience-#4f09wD8wBbYU6VOs.97 [Accessed on: 18 Jan. 2018].
Frynas, J. G., & Mellahi, K. (2015). Global strategic management. Oxford University Press,
USA.
Hanson, D., Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2016). Strategic management:
Competitiveness and globalization. Cengage AU.
Hitt, M., & Duane Ireland, R. (2017). The intersection of entrepreneurship and strategic
management research. The Blackwell handbook of entrepreneurship, 45-63.
Lasserre, P. (2017). Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Meyer, G. D., Neck, H. M., & Meeks, M. D. (2017). The entrepreneurship‐strategic management
interface. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, 17-44.
Michael, S., Storey, D., & Thomas, H. (2017). Discovery and coordination in strategic
management and entrepreneurship. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset,
45-65.
Morden, T. (2016). Principles of strategic management. Routledge.
Morschett, D., Schramm-Klein, H., & Zentes, J. (2015). Strategic international management (pp.
978-3658078836). Springer.

15MBO CINEMAS
Peng, M. W. (2017). Cultures, institutions, and strategic choices: Toward an institutional
perspective on business strategy. The Blackwell handbook of cross‐cultural management,
52-66.
Robson, W. (2015). Strategic management and information systems. Pearson Higher Ed.
Smecorp.gov.my (2018). About SME Corp. Malaysia. [online].Available at:
http://www.smecorp.gov.my/index.php/en/about-sme-corp-malaysia [Accessed on: 18
Jan. 2018].
Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2017). Strategic management
and business policy. pearson.