Question:

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 600-800 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

You spent the last week reflecting on both your appreciation of Deborah''s praise and the success of the organization, and then had a long weekend with your family. As you walk in to work on Monday, all you can think about is how excited you are about the future of the company.

You sit down at your desk and get started on your newest marketing proposal for Deborah when there is a knock at your door. When you call for the person to come in, Anna, the financial analyst, enters."Good morning," she says. You are surprised to see that she looks nervous because Anna usually has a smile on her face.

"Hi, Anna. Is everything okay?" you ask.

"Well," Anna begins, "I just finished our quarterly report. Our profit margins have dropped by 2% this quarter."

After Anna leaves to send her report to Deborah, you start to wonder how you and your team can help fix this. Is a global strategy the answer, or should the company continue to focus on the domestic market?

You call a team meeting to learn about the progress of their research.

Tiffany, one of your team members, begins the discussion. "I think we need to look at some of the internal factors," she says. "We know what our capabilities are on the domestic front, but what about in the global market? We have a fairly strong market presence here in higher-end markets, but how does that translate globally?"

"Well, I think we need to identify a benchmark to give us some more information to make a better decision," you explain. Answer the following:

What is your benchmark?

Did it benefit from global expansion? If so, how? If not, why?

Did this benefit or hinder the benchmark''s domestic market share? Explain.

Were there risks associated with the globalization?

How were these risks minimized?

Instructor''s Comments:

For this task, you need to identify acompany as a benchmark. It is recommended that you select a benchmark company that has similar attributes as FCF. The goal of using a benchmark company is for FCF to examine and learn from the benchmark''s success and failures from expanding globally and to utilize that information to help the company to devise best practices for expanding into the selected country''s furniture market.