Your business is an international consulting firm that provides consulting services organized into three consulting groups, each focused specifically on their group's area of expertise.

The first group focuses on corporate strategy. Consultants in this group provide market segmentation and strategy advice in consumer services. A large national plumbing supply company recently solicited this group's services to discover how they can best become an international company. The group assisted them by analyzing the best markets to enter and prioritizing them, so as to capture the low-hanging fruit and provide the funds for the company to continue its expansion into different countries.

The second consulting group works on product roll-out campaigns for consumer product goods and provides specific market direction in a wide variety of countries and cultures. A leading soft drink company recently requested advice from this group on introducing a new watermelon-flavored soft drink called Happy Melon®. The group provided culture-by-culture product names and developed marketing campaigns.

The third consulting group helps international companies manage pension and benefit plans across multiple countries. A recent client was a large aircraft manufacturing company with multiple international operations. This client wanted to use pension and benefits as a strategy to gain airline orders from their many host countries. This strategy is very complex, because each country has its own laws concerning pension and benefits, especially health care. Demand for these services is increasing sharply and this third consulting group is the most profitable of the three.

Your consulting firm has offices throughout the world, including Berlin, London, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, and Capetown. You are considering adding offices in secondary markets, such as Bern, Hanoi, and Dublin. Each office consists of a managing partner, who reports directly to the New York headquarters, and directors for each of the three consulting groups. Each director reports to his or her office's managing partner and to the head of the consulting group in New York. The directors each have a staff of various sizes and a group of local consultants who help interpret local conditions and regulations. Each staff operates as a project management team for each assignment.

Needless to say, having a culture that binds these very disparate personnel together is critical, as is the company's communications networks. The organizational structure is a mixed one, and decision-making has been pushed down to the local level so that the company can react quickly and sensitively to the local markets. So while the organization is relatively flat and organic, there must still be a strong central authority to coordinate these services for the many multinational clients.

Based on the above scenario:

1. Describe the strategic position for the pension and benfits group. This portion requires some analysis of the competitive landscape and other companies that provide your chosen group's services. The analysis should uncover potential opportunities and threats for the group, in order to distinguish the group from the competition and minimize the barrier to success. Important note: Your focus on the pension and benefits group is important, in that there are many sources available for your research and analysis in this area. There is less research readily available for the other two groups. However, they are described in the scenario to give you a more comprehensive look at the firm itself.

2. Describe the group's products and target markets.

3. Describe how the group will adapt to the surrounding ethnic cultures and economic environments in which it operates.

4. Analyze how the firm, as a whole, will apply the economic strategies and practices for domestic and global environments.

5. Describe a recommended culture for the entire firm and how that culture fits the firm's needs (an integration of its products, mission, and organizational structure) and the strategic position of the group.

*Please provide references to support your position.