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| In the seventies and eighties American-owned Canadian manufacturers used to complain because their US parent seldom allowed them to sell their output outside of Canada. There was good reason for this policy: The parent wanted to keep the world product mandate in the United States to prevent the Canadian subsidiary from competing offshore thus maintaining control over their markets. |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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| That China manufacturing is a competitive threat to western producers is well known but why this is so has been poorly analysed. There is cheap labor yes – about $1 per hour versus something like $18 per hour in the United States. But the operational inefficiencies of a Chinese manufacturer negate some of this labor cost advantage. For one thing Chinese enterprises typically use twice the labor count of equivalent American producers. Other inefficiencies lie in the out-dated production machinery, little automation, wasteful use of resources, disregard for environmental controls and the wellbeing of the workforce. By the way Chinese management know quite a bit about automation, but labor is indeed cheap so by design automation is not implemented. |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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| On NAFTA Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are on the wrong path! While difficult to imagine in the current political environment, what in fact is needed is a much, much stronger union than NAFTA. Yes, renegotiate but it makes more strategic sense to build positively on what NAFTA has and radically strengthen rather than weaken it. Indeed NAFTA’s best chances strategically and long term is probably by way of complete economic union. |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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| New Subject Additions Welcome - Click on "Add Comment" below . . |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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| TRU Summary Comments -
¥ The book titled “Blue Ocean Strategy” is not helpful to management – don’t buy it and if you already have it dump it
¥ Management can and should be visionary in formulating strategy. But, contrary to the approach of Ocean Strategy, should do so by thinking about market environment shifts, how these could impact customer sets, and whether those customer sets are the ones you wish to serve
¥ Also contrary to Ocean Strategy, production cost reduction is best seen as an operational or resource issue – a barrier to be overcome not an end in itself as a tool of strategy. Resources are easier to acquire than customers. Production methods should match volume to minimize costs
¥ In your strategizing do not take advice on strategy [or any other mission critical function] from management who are not qualified to give advice and do not treat strategy formulation as an exercise in management team compromise – contrary to the Ocean Strategy method
¥ This book should be at the bottom of the list for reading by strategy professionals for Ocean Strategy, Red or Blue, belongs in the Dead Sea!
¥ Harvard University professors should read it for they should wonder what they were thinking allowing Harvard University Press to publish it.
TRU prepared this review as a service to our clients after a client came to TRU with what they said was a Blue Ocean Strategy with no competitors. On researching the strategy TRU found the client had more than a dozen competitors and was far behind the curve on customer, product and market development. |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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| Arizona manufacturers have a unique opportunity to improve their position in the increasingly competitive global market. To retain or improve their competitiveness, these companies should take more advantage of their proximity to Mexico and the existence of the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA]. Arizona already consistently ranks as the third largest USA exporter to Mexico - computers, electronics, electrical equipment, appliances, machinery and plastics. Mexico is Arizona's leading trade partner and the second largest trading partner of the USA. With a population of 105 million Mexico is an attractive and growing market for Arizona manufacturers. |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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| My focus for this discussion is distribution strategy for expanding sales and in particular the criteria at play in deciding whether to go for Direct Sales or Distributed Sales. I will talk about how to decide whether to use inhouse direct sales, distributor partnerships, or a combination of direct sales and outside distributors, wholesalers or agents. What are the main factors or criteria you should consider and the conditions that should exist to sway you in one direction or the other? We will see that it is not necessarily an easy decision. |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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| Watch Out - Google AdWords maintains policies that tend to discriminate against companies that by the nature of their business attract fewer clicks. This applies to most small and medium sized manufacturers most of whom have less than 100 customers – |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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| The October World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report found that Canada's 2004 competitiveness ranking fell to #15 from # 12 in the previous year. [Postscript 2006 below]*. There has been a lot of talk since about Canada's position in the world but in reality it is the comparison with the US that should most trouble Canadians. |
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| Posted by BusinessHuddle com at | | | |
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