updated 2013 May 28

Scope of Assignment:

This is a group assignment.

You must choose two countries,

• neither of which have any connection to any of the members of the group.
• Make sure that the two countries you choose have sufficient information available.
• use "sources of information"  witiger.com/internationalbusiness/countryinfo.htm
• It would be advisable to do a preliminary amount of research before your final selections before you make your final decision

You must than choose a Canadian sourced product (good or service) that you will sell internationally to one of the countries.
When you are thinking of a good or service think about how goods and services are divided into many categories.
There is a great variety of goods and services, think creatively and pick something interesting for you and your group to work on.

• services

• industrial services
• travel services, shipping, website design
• legal advice, accounting services, security, HR
• consumer services
• banking, insurance, real estate, travel etc.
• restaurants, movie theatres etc.
• goods
• industrial goods
• component parts
• materials, supplies
• consumer goods
clothing, automobiles, consumer electronics etc

After choosing your two countries and your product you will then do a comparative country analysis.

• take into account the unit  witiger.com/internationalbusiness/countryevaluation.htm

The purpose of this analysis is simple – choosing the best country where there is the lowest risk balanced against the potential of the greatest profit.
That is the conclusion you will have to make.

Your decision should be based on the

• infleuncing environments
• Competitive Environment
• Economic / Financial
• Physical / Geographic
• Political / Legal / Regulatory
• Sociocultural / Ethnic / Linguistic
• Technological
• the market size
• number of customers (target market segment)
• GDP per capita
• economic health of the country
• risks

 
• financial risks (funding, bank loans, currency exchange rates, ROI)
• examples include stockpiled materials, capital equipment that could be sold, real estate, vehicles, IT systems etc.
• economic risks (inflation, wage rates)
• competitive risks
• political risks
• safety risks
• personnel safety
• property security
• handling risks
• decrease the risk by using resources to "deal with it"
• eg. K&R training
• eg. contingency plans for environmental extremes
• accept the risk and change other variables to factor in the "expense" of the risk
• accept risk can include using insurance, or calculating costs differently
• accept the risk cause the results will not be that bad

 
• and probability of future growth
• check OECD sources
•  witiger.com/internationalbusiness/OECD.htm
•  www.oecd.org

Report:
 

• The Report should include all the standard things you would put in a report at the level of an upper year college student.
• watch the video for specific tips on what a good report physically looks like in the layout and binding

Marks:
 

• The report will be worth 15% of your final grade.

Due Date:
 

• The report is due on the final class before study break.