Global Strategic Planning Process
The market for many goods and services today has become much more global than before and the concept of excellence has generated a preoccupation with high performance and world class organization standards. With a global trading environment, it is imperative that multinational organizations put in place a global strategic planning process which is able to address the international influences on the movement of good and services across countries.
Appraisal of the international environment by multinationals and other companies is largely a matter of of forecasting of, and estimating the rate of change within, its various segments : geographical regions, countries, etc. This often involves the assessment of all, or some of, the relevant factors.
Among some of the factors that a global strategic planning process should addressed are -
1. Comparable rates of inflation in diferent countries.
2. Comparable gross national products ( GNP)
3. Comparable wage levels, and labour availability and quality
4. Nature and extent of exchange controls in specific countries including selective monetary controls and discriminatory exchange rate policies.
5. Extent of protectionism against imports, quotas and trade control regulations.
6. Levels of corporate, personal, excise and indirect taxes in different countries.
7. Development of international trading communities such as AFTA, EC,APEC and the problems and opportunities of trading companies within them.
8. Exchange rates between different countries, and the movement of these rates.
9. Nature and extent of comparative advantages obtained by operating in diffrent countries
10. Political stability of the country or region.
In global industries, the competitive advantage in one country is strongly influenced by its position in others. Rivals battle it out worldwide and competitive advantage may be gained by operating and organizing on a global basis. In a global strategic planning process, there are five differences that can be readily identified as having an influence on strategy. They are differing views and policies of governments, differing availability of costs of labour & raw materials, varying cost structures in different countries which creates multi-choice situations of production and distribution.
Lastly the global strategic planning processes should take into account the differences in competition encountered in foreign countries and also different circustances in foreign markets.