Developing a Globalization Plan: A Furniture Company Case Analysis

This case study presents a globalization plan for a Boston-based custom furniture manufacturing company seeking to expand into the Australian market. The plan addresses the needs, pros, and cons of globalization, incorporating a balanced scorecard and Porter's Five Forces analysis to support the decision-making process. The study identifies Cairns, Queensland, as a strategically advantageous location due to its growing furniture industry and access to raw materials. The plan emphasizes maintaining brand equity, understanding local culture, and collaborating with local companies. It also anticipates and refutes potential opposing perspectives, highlighting the overall goal of achieving global recognition and business expansion while acknowledging the challenges involved. The study concludes that globalization is a beneficial move for the company, providing a pathway to global recognition and increased business opportunities.

Running head – GLOBALIZATION PALN AND STRATEGIES
Globalization plan and Strategies
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s Note

GLOBALIZATION PALN AND STRATEGIES
Introduction
John and Deborah Ferrer owe a custom furniture manufacturing company which is a
Boston, MA-based corporation that was started solely by the couple on January 2002. The
company dealt with northeastern regions of the United State at first. Slowly, after the constant
annual profit, they were able to expand their business by shipment tenders to 48 states and going
from 5 to 10 manufacturing plants. However, the company’s main revenue source is sales
conducted online. Deborah and John are happy with the overall growth in the domestic market
that was achieved the help of strategic plan made by their strategic marketing manager.
Although, any organization needs global recognition, so does John and Deborah’s company as
dreamt by them. The strategic manager is being asked to make plans for globalization. The
following case study discusses the needs, pro and cons of globalization; analysis of strategic
considerations, balanced scorecard, geographic location considerations, proofs supporting the
decision, overall goal, and opposing perspective to refute.
Discussion
The term globalization can be used to describe the growth of world economic
interdependence, cultural and population growth which comes together from the inter countries
trade, services, and peoples. The effects of globalization are complex and have political as well
as social aspects (Giddens, 2018)
The need of Globalization for the company
Every profitable organization needs globalization after they have had proper localization.
Globalizing the company will help in rapid adaptation, development in cost savings and it will be

GLOBALIZATION PALN AND STRATEGIES
single code based (Stiglitz, 2017). The products being world ready, deployment of these products
will not only help the company expand in Australia, but it will also be relatively straightforward
for the adaptation of American culture and lifestyle in Australia. This will affect in an overall
way the bottom line of the company in a positive way. With the help of globalization, not only
the furniture will be deployed in Australia which is new culture and religion, localization cost by
means of developer effort and the expense will reduce greatly for each new culture. Also,
globalizing the product will help the company to maintain a single code base. It will allow for the
more efficient big fix, enhancement and changes that need to be made to set a code (Giddens,
2018). .As the company’s most of the profit comes from the online catalog, creating distribution
centers in Australia will help them to operate from the US. It will allow the company for
reaching global profit and better understand the flaws in the product as in the US they already
have acquired a brand loyalty. It will also help the company to get in the global market
competition and acknowledgment in the global market of types of furniture too. Thu,
globalization will be a good move for the company.
The rationale behind the Decision
For supporting my decision behind the globalization of the company, certain market
analysis was done. Porter’s five forces and balanced scorecard were conducted to help me and
my team come to a conclusion.
A balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that can be used to
communicate about the motives of the company, align the day to day work of every employee,
prioritize projects and services, and for measuring strategic targets (Akkermans & Oorschot,
2018). The plan mainly deals with perspectives such as financial, customers, internal process,

GLOBALIZATION PALN AND STRATEGIES
and organizational capacity. The learning and growth perspective help us to understand the
necessity for the employees and the culture towards the corporate-related in Australia. With
proper training to the workers, one day the distribution centers in Australia can turn into one of
the manufacturing factories for the company and it will cut expenses for importing the furniture
from the US. Australia has a growth in the furniture industry (Luo, Zhang & Meng, 2015).
Investing in the Australian market for globalization will be fruitful for the company. The
financial perspective helped me draw this schematic diagram regarding globalization. The
customer service must be taken care of too. The company must provide a good quality product
for the customer to maintain its brand name in a foreign land. Some internal goals have to be
taken care of as well.
Understanding the culture insight was really important for me to initiate globalization. It
was needed to know what the people of Australia needs and how their outlook in differs from
ours. The way of handling a business differs from people to people, so it was obvious that their
way would be different from ours. Constant communication has to be maintained at first to
sustain smooth flow in the business. It has to be conveyed to the employees at the distribution
centre that how the company deal with customers in US, so that brand equity and image should
be maintained.
The Porter’s five force includes the bargaining powers of the suppliers of raw materials
such as plywood, bargaining power of consumers, threats for new entrants, the threat from
substitutes, and rivalry between competitors (Dobbs, 2014). After the analysis, it helped me in
understanding the market of Australia, how it operates and how the people deals with foreign
competitors. All these strategies guided me in taking the decision of globalizing the company

GLOBALIZATION PALN AND STRATEGIES
Geographic locations to be targeted for global expansion
For globalization, the geographic knowledge of the chosen country must be known
properly. The areas should have good means of transportation services with well-connected
roadways and railways. The company needs raw materials for the construction of furniture. It
should be kept in mind that the distance between supplier and manufacturing should be not far to
cut the cost of transportation. The retail shops should be in urban areas so that it is available to
the majority of the population. The city of Cairns, situated in Queensland is ideal for the
expansion of the business. Daintree rainforest offers large number of hardwood trees which will
provide raw materials for the manufacturing company. The furniture market in Australia has also
seen a growth of 3 % since 2012 (Ratnasingam, Yoon & Ioras, 2013). Thus, Australia is
geographically better for the growth of the company.
Benefits for choosing Cairns
Cairns has an up growing furniture industry. Growth is inevitable. Northeast Australia
has a great number of furniture growing market. Population statistics will help to back the
decision. Cairns also has a good number of furniture manufacturing factories. Due to the growth
of Australian furniture market, there will be plenty of jobs to provide (Ng & Kanagasundaram
2017). However, for providing jobs, they need to be paid, and for happening so, the company
needs to sell their products. Availability of the furniture in considerable price will not only help
the company to surpass the competitors, but it will also increase the sales. Thus, making a profit
will help the company providing jobs too. Australia has always welcomed globalization as the
country has been completely isolated from the global market. Thus, choosing Cairns for the
globalization of the company is the right choice.

GLOBALIZATION PALN AND STRATEGIES
Proofs for supporting the decision
After conducting the various marketing strategic plans in this study, it points out the
overall growth and objective so that it could meet its desired goals. The motto of the company is
to produce furniture in the distribution centers and sell them throughout the country. Due to the
custom based furniture that the company makes, it will lead to the high demand for the furniture.
As the company has a brand name established already in the US, it would not be so hard for them
to compete in the Australian market. Superb quality furniture at a reasonable price will help the
company achieve a desirable profit margin in the market. Collaboration with local companies can
also turn out to be fruitful for the company. Their experience will help the organization to
understand the needs of the customers in Australia which they are not fully aware of.
Refuting someone with a disagreeing perspective
People will have their way of opposing any perspective that they cannot agree with.
Considering the many challenges faced by my plans regarding the globalization, many people
will try to pursue new options or will simply claim that globalization is not needed. At first, I
need to hear if there is validity in the person’s claims of not liking my strategic plans. After that,
I need to counter argue with the person by providing solid points to support my strategic
analysis. It will help in the counter-argument if an insight of the plans is provided along with a
backup plan if the plans get failed in the first place. A close observation of the companies
strength and weaknesses for globalization will ensure the person the originality of my plans and
help me opposing the person’s perspective (Wynn, Overmann & Coolidge, 2016)

GLOBALIZATION PALN AND STRATEGIES
Conclusion
Thus, from the following study, it can be concluded that globalization will turn out to be
a good move for the company. Globalization will help the company in achieving global
recognition. It will also help the company to expand its business. The PESTLE study provided a
brief overview of Australia’s political, economic, environmental, and social factors. The Porter’s
five factors helped to understand the bargaining power of the supplier and the buyers. It also
helped in understanding the competition and rivalry in the market. The study also discusses the
geographical advantages that the company will get by the expansion of the business in Australia.
It also has proofs for supporting the decision of the strategic marketing manager.

GLOBALIZATION PALN AND STRATEGIES
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