International Business Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International Business Strategy - Essay Example Capital investments of Shangri-La is chiefly in Asia- Pacific regions. Apart from extensive hospitality and marketing strategies, some part of growth and expansion of Shangri-La is also due to increase in travelling tendencies of people. The fact that international traveling has become more hazardless has also contributed to this fact. Shangri-La is known for its business focus and capital investments. Like most other hotel chains in Asia, Shangri-La hotels do not engage in multiple business provisions. Shangri-La hotels and resorts are situated in 29 locations and have over 23,000 rooms. In order to compete in global market, Shangri-La has ventured beyond its business activities in Asian markets, and has entered other nations especially into China. Expansion was made in luxury segment as well as in business relationship between owner and operators. This was achieved by extension and well management of contracts. As per their extension programs, Shangri-La has established as many as thirty- five hotels in different and popular tourist destinations of Asia. Some of these destinations include Singapore, India, Malaysia, Japan, etc. Shangri-La has its branches in almost all prominent cities in these continents, like Chicago, Miami, London, Vancouver, Paris, Las Vegas, etc. These achievements have made Shangri-La one of the largest chains of deluxe hotels that are based in Asia. Business activities of Shangri-La, in fact, have not been constrained to Asia only. Over time Shangri-La branches has been established in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates first, and then to Muscat, Oman. Later on it was expanded to other Middle East, Europe, and North America as well. Shangri-La has also expanded in Australia. In 2006, the organization had approximately 40 future projects. (Campbel and Kazan, n.d., pp. 432- 438) However, as far as its expansion to China is concerned, Shangri-La has experienced huge benefits from China’s growing economy. Since 2006, Chinese economy h as turned towards a new growth. This has made China one of the most important concerns of Shangri-La. this concern is evident from the fact that since 2006, most of the projects regarding establishment of new hotel branches were set in China. The figure is estimated to be somewhere around 188 hotels. Another reason why Shangri-La has invested a major part in China is because, in recent times, China has introduced much relation in travel, and has withdrawn some travel restrictions also. It has resulted in significant growth in domestic and outbound travel in China. Also, international events like Olympics in 2008, held in Beijing have not only given China more exposure internationally but have also boosted the country’s economy. All these factors, combined, have prompted Shangri-La to invest more in China. (Campbel and Kazan, n.d., pp. 433) Shangri-La has been following a differentiation strategy as far as international competence is concerned. This chain of hotels had differe ntiated itself by establishing itself as a cultural brand. That is to say, overall brand strategy of Shangri-La is based on Asian hospitality and cultures. The chief aim is to please and delight the customers. Other objectives include consistent top- notch service that would keep up the brand image. Shangri-La Care is the best example of this. This unit has been set up by Shangri-La Hotels as a measure to ensure customer service. This program also included training and developmental

Fuji Xerox Strategic Alliance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fuji Xerox Strategic Alliance - Essay Example However, the 4:1 success ratio of strategic alliances has not deterred companies and business enterprises from continuously forming strategic alliances. The most viable reason for this continuation of forming strategic alliances despite the frequent failures may be the present era's increasingly competitive environment. Business firms and companies in every industry are searching new and more effective ways to increase and sustain their competitive advantage. In this search for new mediums to augment the competitive advantage, most of the companies have realized that, owing to a variety of reasons e.g. cultural and social differences, change in consumer's needs and wants and today's accelerating technological advances, significant improvements in performance and competitive advantage cannot be achieved alone ( Whipple J.M. and Frankel R., 1999). Per se, the traditional response of acquisition to enhance the performance and competitiveness of a company is no longer the only alternative. Strategic alliance is the new alternative that facilitates the merging of partnering companies or firms' individual strengths and expertise while also compensating for the participating companies internal resource scarcities without them having to make the required investments for the actual ownership. The most fundamental aspect for a strategic alliance to be a successful, is finding the right match in which experience, expertise, knowledge and strategic resources of the participating companies will complement each other. However, in the business arena today, the researchers have found out that newly formed strategic alliances are more vulnerable to failure than those which have lasted for some time (Lunnan R and Haugland A.S., n.d1.). According to Steve Steinhilber, the vice-president of Strategic Alliances at Cisco, "companies worldwide launch more than two thousand strategic alliances every year, about the quarter of them are complete failures and more than half never deliver as promised" (Steinhilber S, 2008). However, amidst these strategic alliance failures there is the "Fuji Xerox", the strategic alliance between the Japan's Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd and America's Xerox Corporation, which can be said to be the most successful long term strategic alliance, till date. Hence this paper has been developed as report that envisages the evolution of this strategic alliance between Fuji and Xerox and how it became the most successful strategic alliance as "Fuji Xerox". In the course of understanding the factors that facilitated and made this venture the most triumphant long term strategic alliance, the report perhaps, will also be able to shed some light on the essential building blocks of successful alliances and how to establish them. Creating a