Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About us...in the Sicilian newspaper
Man6636 - Summer A, 2008 - The class
.jpg)
Groups of students in class
Man6636 - Summer A, 2008 - The class again!
.jpg)
Thank you Maurizio
.jpg)
Etna Valley and Etna HiTech
.jpg)
Professor Faraci doing a lecture
.jpg)
Back to back - The class of Man6636 on SummerB 2007
Back to back - The class of Man6636 on SummerA 2006
Back to back - The class of Man6636 on SummerB 2005
Back to back - The class of Man6724 on SummerB 2005
University of Catania (Italy)
The School of Business Economics and Management
6 comments:
David McKinney suggested me the following links:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_23/b4087000734432.htm?chan=search
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2008/gb20080527_542953.htm?chan=search
In addition, on the Students page of the website there is an update suggested by Di Xie
An update on Homedepot and another loss for Boeing
Home Depot enters China's market, buys chain
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16187188/
Northrop Grumman gets $40B deal to replace Air Force tankers
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/29/air.force.tankers/index.html
Case: Home Depot entering China
As the case mentions, China’s economy is growing and there is a strong market for home improvement. However, as the case also emphasizes there are great “economic inequalities between rural and urban regions”. I think Home Depots decision to buy out an already existing home improvement chain rather than “starting a business from scratch” will prove to be advantageous for two reasons. First, Home Depot is a late mover – it does not have the necessary position for a learning curve. Second, the pre-existing “The Home Way” already has knowledge of the varying home improvement markets in differing regions of China.
Nevertheless, Home Depot is at a disadvantage for being a late mover in the city of Beijing, with the 2008 Olympic Games. In many areas in Beijing the city is being reconstructed to make way for Olympic venues. Traditional huotong (homes) are being destroyed for high rise apartment buildings. China has become one of the largest consumers of concrete in preparation for the Olympics. But, the Home Depot has entered the market late and most likely will not see many of these profits from construction for the Olympics. However, Home Depot can still capitalize on the Olympic construction if it focuses on catering to the needs of maintaining and improving the construction. Also, the Olympics presents a unique opportunity for marketing through sponsorship. The Home Depot should take advantage of the Olympics being held in China, a market they just entered, and create brand awareness. This will help Home Depot to overcome some of its late mover disadvantages.
As the cases emphasizes Home Depot shouldn't carry its existing business model to China market because of cultural differences about home improvement market.Chinese people are not used to Do-It-Yourself model. Strategic alignment with an existing company could be a good choice. However, Chinese people have brand consciousness and looking for more modern western style products. So even as a late mover Home Depot can enter the market being advantageous because they can learn from previous entrants' mistakes and can have competitive advantage on adapting people from Buy-It-Yourself model to DIY model.
Gulver Karamemis
I agree with the previous comment.
Based on what I know as a Chinese, I don't think it is a good idea for Home Depot to enter Chinese market using the strategy of "DIY". One reason is that in China labor cost is really cheap. And people think it is time-consuming to do all these home improment themselves.
One possible strategy would be introduce one-stop home improvement service. It may include all home improvement steps from design, purchase, decoration to matainence. In that case, customers don't need to spend a lot of time to deal with designers, contrators, sellors and so on. It's likely easier to earn money from one-stop service than only product.
Here's and update on PSA Peugeot Citroen and their relationship with Mitsubishi Motor Corp. It seems that after agreeing to enter Japan's market with Mitsubishi in 2005, they now have plans to introduce mid-range SUVs to Russia
http://www.psa-peugeot-citroen.com/en/psa_espace/press_releases_details_d1.php?id=812
Post a Comment