Heineken Paper
Business activity in the era of globalization is subjected to different factors which the company would not face with performing on national or regional markets only. These factors can be divided into several dimensions that are: historic, geographic, social, economic, politic, communicational etc. However, politic, economic and cultural are the most important dimensions and they bear great opportunities for growth as well as challenges and threats that leadership of each global company has to combat. Global beer industry and Dutch brewer Heineken, in particular, is not an exception and, as one of the largest beer producers, the company is affected by worldwide tendencies most of all.
To speak about economic dimension of global business, the key change is the growing demand and purchasing power in developing countries, especially growing the market in Asian Pacific region. On the other side, a decrease in the demand in European market possesses challenges for leadership of every global beverages producer. National economic indicators such as GDP, net income per capita, market capacity etc. and their proportion in terms of previous years should be considered as well in order to build an effective strategy of growth because one of the key reasons of growing demand is the general rise of economies of former poor backward countries.Political dimension shall be considered as two groups of factors: international relations and trends of their development and domestic policy of countries. One should take into account that globalization of business keeps pace with the globalization and regionalization of political courses in different countries. Thus, top-management should consider the activity of various regional and worldwide organizations, especially in the field of economy, in order to accommodate to any changes in most fast and effective way. Governmental attitude, policy, and regulation towards foreign investments also bear both opportunities and threats, especially when talking about the acquisition of local companies. Purchasing those enterprises, corporate leadership of Heineken also should take into consideration exchange arrangements in the country, tax regulation and legislation and perspective of their change in order to prevent the possibility of significant losses during business activity. One more issue to be taken into account is the popularization of the healthy way of life and propaganda against consumption alcohol beverages including beer.
Cultural dimension can be divided into three sub-categories: corporate culture and management traditions in Heineken itself, different mentality and traditions of the population in different regions and countries and the difference in tastes between various target groups by sex, age and other parameters within the borders of one particular country or region. Mentality and traditions of countries matter when speaking about government and business partners as well as consumers` tastes and preferences. Awareness of traditions and customs of the country plays the same role as the awareness of national law during negotiations with partners on acquisition or with official persons on various licenses and so on. These three dimensions are interrelated. For example, cultural traditions underlie the country`s state system, by which important governmental decisions are taken and …
