Executive Summary
The successful expansion of Staples into India or China is contingent on many important factors, including political and regulatory systems, intellectual property rights, financial markets, monetary systems, economic infrastructure and business culture. To determine potential business risks, a comparative analysis was completed for each of these categories. An examination of the political and regulatory systems show a relatively high level of control and corruption maintained by the governments in both countries. The communist / socialist nature of both governments impacts all areas of business. For example there is a clear lack of intellectual property protection. Financial markets are tightly controlled by the state as is the monetary policy. The economic infrastructure is limited in development and scope due to the significant levels of bureaucracy. Finally, the millennia of ingrained collectivist culture is in direct opposition to the very individualistic westernized culture of America and Staples. Based on a thorough analysis of the business risks, now is not the time for Staples to invest in either China or India. However as they continue to revamp their governments, relinquish central controls and welcome globalization they may in the future present a profitable opportunity.
Business and Workforce Culture
Limitations encompassing this paper may include:
(1) Time. The research of this paper took place over the entire semester from 10.27.02 – 02.09.03 and the writing took place during the one-week period from 02.03 – 02.09, 2003.
(2) Resources. Research was limited to information accessible online and in English. Many of the resources regarding China and India were in their respective languages and inaccessible.
Staples, Inc. is an $11 billion retailer of office supplies, business services, furniture and technology servicing consumers and businesses from home-based businesses to Fortune 500 companies in North America and throughout Europe. With successful expansion into Europe in recent years, our team sought to research the prospects of Staples’ entry into China or India.
In order to make this determination, a thorough understanding of each country was needed. This included a detailed examination of rough analysis of the political and regulatory systems, the anti-competitive practices, the product and service standards, intellectual property rights, the financial markets, the monetary policy, both economic and social infrastructures, and the business / workforce culture. The next step was to create a complete picture of each country and the market entry vehicles available to Staples if the route of expansion were feasible. Finally, a shortened list of critical factors that would have a significant impact on Staples in either country, were identified, further analyzed and compared.
From this extensive research and study, it has been determined that neither country presents a clear and viable business advantage at this time. While, both China and India have experienced some improvement and made strides towards favorable foreign investment policies, many cultural, political, economic and infrastructure challenges remain, posing significant risks to Staples.
It is important for Staples to analyze the stability of the political environment, laws, property rights, price controls, and business restrictions before entering either the Chinese or Indian market. These political and regulatory systems can either impede or assist Staples’ operations in an expansion. When comparing these issues for China and India, each country has positive and negative aspects.
The Chinese government has, in the past, strongly
controlled such things as prices, markets, products, foreign assets, and personal assets. However, China recently chose to open their markets to world investors and to create laws and regulations more in line with the World Trade Organization (WTO) guidelines. The government no longer imposes strict wage-and-price controls as the majority of prices in China are dictated by market rates. China is also expected to increase the creation and enforcement of laws protecting the property rights of foreign corporations. China’s leadership is likely to continue the process of regulating financial and political affairs to meet WTO norms, and with increased regulations, China's political activities are more predictable than they once were. In addition, today's leaders are “technically competent and much less ideologically rigid than their predecessors. They are also aware of the problems they need to face, and are prepared to deal with at least some of the more important ones” (Sutter, 2001, ¶ 3).
There are, however, identifiable risks to investing in China. Staples may be blocked from entering the market if it is available only to state-owned companies. Staples may face difficult rules regarding technology, personnel, and financing. Also, Staples may be forced to shoulder an unreasonably big tax burden. Furthermore, finance regulations may hinder Staple’s access to funds. Another threat for Staples is the stability of the current regime. The People’s Bank of China is predicting a steady growth of 7 percent per year over the next few years. If, however, that growth falters, demonstrations, as in the past, could break out. Another risk for Staples results from fact that many of the rules and regulations demanded by the World Trade Organization and national treaties are putting pressure on the Chinese culture and way of life. “Other key problems are leadership succession, nepotism, favoritism and increased corruption” (Sutter, 2001, ¶ 7).
India, like China, has also abandoned its trade barriers and socialist economic system in favor of a free market system designed to spur trade for goods and investments. Companies, like Staples, were encouraged to establish operations in India because the Indian government allowed foreign companies to own up to 100 percent of a business, cut maximum import duties from 300 percent to 50 percent, cut corporate income taxes to the levels of other Asian nations, and reduced red tape in the licensing system. The free market strategy resulted in foreign direct investments totaling $1-2 billion annually over a three-year period.
Unfortunately, India’s socialist tendencies resurfaced when the Hindu nationalist party made claims that foreign firms should not be permitted to exploit India. Another issue that will impede Staples success is that poverty is especially acute in India. India's progress in reducing poverty and improving social problems is dependent on its government’s ability to accelerate economic growth (www.worldbank.org). India's economic growth, estimated at 5.5 percent in 2001/2002, while impressive, still fell short of the government's objective of eight percent. Also, the Indian government continues to be burdened with persistent and large fiscal deficits. Finally, the Indian government has developed a reputation of inefficiency, corruption, and poor budgetary management Sullivan (2001).
Intellectual property can be described as a concept developed in a person’s mind that is distinctive and innovative. Intellectual property, therefore, has substantive value in the marketplace. People are willing to pay for such things as an idea, unique name, business method, computer process, or presentation. Revenue and profits are reduced if Staples cannot protect their rights to the ideas that are produced from their initial costs.
Intellectual property can be protected under national laws, world treaties, and memoranda of understanding. They are often regional laws that originate in one country and affect the citizens of that country. These issues also affect international trading when ideas and innovations cross national borders. China has made significant efforts to protect intellectu
al rights within the past few years. In 1985, China joined the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. In 1992, the United States and China signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Protection of Intellectual Property that required China to ensure certain intellectual property protection. In addition, China agreed to accede to the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention. By signing these agreements, China has pledged to develop intellectual property protections and to establish equal rights for foreign investors.
Although laws and agreements are in place in China, Staples should be aware that their intellectual property may still be at risk. The implementation of these laws has been lacking, due largely to ambiguities in the law and difficulties in enforcement (Spierer, 2002, p. 1). One provision of the Chinese law allows a few copies of products to be made for non-commercial use. Another ambiguity refers to products that are banned from publication. “The copyright law stipulates that works ‘banned from publication’ shall receive no copyright protection, but does not clearly define ‘banned’ works” (Spierer, p. 3), allowing the Chinese government to ban publications after the fact.
Aside from the ambiguities in Chinese intellectual property law, Staples must consider the Chinese ability to enforce the law. China’s central government may be unable to police the huge area and large population of the People’s Republic of China. The decentralization of the central government makes it even more difficult to monitor and enforce international policies. Other areas of great concern include corrupt officials and a Chinese culture that encourages copying as an essential means of learning. In addition, consumers have easy access to pirated information.
Similarly, India has established protocol to offer intellectual property protections, but these rights are not fully guaranteed. “Less developed countries (LDCs) offer intellectual property rights in particular patent rights, not to induce inventions in their country, but rather as incentives to develop trading advantages” (Tikku, 1998, p. 2). India desires global business but lacks comprehensive intellectual property rights and protections to support Staples investment.
India is required by the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) provisions to fulfill its obligations by 2005 (Tikku, 1998, p. 5). The United States has put a lot of pressure on India to adhere to the provisions prior to the 2005 TRIPS deadline because the country is ripe for information technology commerce. India greatly desires conducting business with the U.S. Therefore, its government has “amended the various laws much earlier than the negotiated deadline” (Tikku, p. 5), but the nation still has far to go in terms of complete intellectual property coverage for investing corporations. Staples, with its rapidly expanding Internet and web-based business, cannot take this enormous chance.
To this end, India’s slow pace towards overall regulation enforcement stems from decades of complacency and corruption. Ethical violations make it virtually impossible for citizens to experience an equal share of prosperity. In addition, countries like India who unwittingly continue to support corruption and bribery will fail to reap the benefits of globalization. “Why bother investing in country X, where you have to pay off everyone and his uncle, when you can go to country Y, get the same labor rates and not have to pay off anybody” (Friedman, 2000, p. 180)?
Thus, many corporations remain leery of entering the Indian market due to the lack of enforcement of intellectual property laws and regulations, in addition to the slow, bureaucratic process with which they are developed and implemented. Staples is ready to enter new international market ventures but would need India’s assurance that it would be able to conduct business in a legal and less bureaucratic manner. Unfortunately, India does not maintain a favorable record on this front.
The financial markets play a distinct role in business operations as they are the primary means of obtaining funding for continued operations and expansion. Understanding the financial market enables a company to determine the relative stability of a prospective country and how the operation and expansion efforts can be funded.
India has a reputation of being undisciplined in managing its debt. It is expected to push the
combined central and state governments' budget deficit to nearly 10 percent of GDP this year (Sabharwal, 2002). India’s economy has just recently begun to see slow improvement. The rupee recently stopped depreciating and the official foreign-currency reserves rose in excess of $500 million a week during November of 2002 to reach a record $66.6 billion. As low costs increasingly attract foreign direct investment into India, the state governments are embarking on a round of competitive deregulation in order to attract investment dollars, making it as easy for foreigners to do business in India as anywhere else in Asia (Anonymous, 2002). However, inflation and debt are still rising, making it easy to ignore the slow improvements that have occurred. Funding barriers exist because of the instability India has to offer.
China’s communistic roots have a firm hold on its financial market, through state-owned companies, strict controls on who can invest in what vehicles and in what amounts and a majority ownership in non-tradable stocks and bonds. This has left the state-owned companies free to continue operating as they always have rather than own up to and improve their lack of governance and transparency. Instead they gain fund
ing from the government and the financial markets as needed. Sadly, the losers are the more productive privately owned enterprises, restricted from listing on the stock markets, issuing bonds or borrowing from the banks. China’s entrance into the WTO is supposed to “call for opening up a range of sectors previously off-limits to foreign investment” including “domestic retail trade, and distribution” (Hu, 2001, p. 105-106). Staples might do best to wait for China’s membership in the WTO to take a firm hold and the financial markets and open economy to catch up to the European and US environments.
The term "monetary policy" refers to the measures taken by a central bank to influence the availability and cost of money and credit. In China, The People’s Bank of China (PBC) oversees financial institutions and implements policies that seek to promote economic growth and ensure the stability of the Chinese financial industry. In India, the Reserve Bank of India is the sole authority for issuing notes, supervising banking operations, and laying down restrictions on bank lending. Staples will find that monetary policies that promote economic stability and support free trade can help in their corporate expansion. Unfortunately, neither exists in China nor India.
India’s local currency is currently under threat due to the country’s bloated fiscal deficit. India has set a fiscal deficit target of 5.3 percent of gross domestic product for the financial year ending March 2003, down from 5.7 percent last year (Rediff.com, 2002). In September, Standards & Poors
“lowered its rating on India's local currency denominated debt to 'junk', citing the South Asian giant's swelling debt burden and the country's vulnerable public sector finances. The local currency downgrade reflects the government's growing Indian rupee debt burden and its inability to staunch the financial weakening of the public sector” (Rediff.com, 2002).
Rising inflation has also been a concern in India. Third-quarter consumer prices were up 3.2 percent from last year. All these factors will negatively impact Staples profitability in a potential expansion to India.
While efforts have been made to establish a free market system in India and China has sought to comply with less restrictive monetary policies, as guided by the WTO, neither country has a long-term record of success.
China’s infrastructure is very complex (Hand, 2002), and consists of “those services provided by public and private utilities which foster production, trade, and consumption” (Sullivan, 2002, p. 475). Services in China include power, telecommunications, water, sewage and sanitation, piped gas, roadways, railways, ports, airports, and banking.
Over the past two decades, China has revitalized its infrastructure. It has privatized many of its enterprises, dismantled its monopolies to provide fair competition for all entrepreneurs, and created treaties and agreements that support foreign business relations (China.org.cn, 2002). The country is moving towards integrating more into the global system. However, this “globalization” process, as Friedman (2000) suggests, becomes very arduous for a country that is behind in technology, economic infrastructure, and business and ethical practices. Of vital importance to Staples will be the adequacy of China’s infrastructure in transportation, foreign trading, finance, telecommunications, and the Internet. None of these have been developed to the level that would justify the entry of Staples into China.
China’s complex transportation infrastructure consists of old and new roadways, antiquated railways, undeveloped rural dirt roads, ancient waterways (along the major rivers), and booming air traffic (Xinhuanet, 2003). While, China is experiencing growth in transportation and its economy, both require ongoing improvements. Plans to continue numerous highway and railway construction projects are in place. Air travel is another major mode of Chinese transportation that has experienced much change. Although most transportation is on land or in the air, China also has extensive waterways, providing service to many of the world's ports (Gates, July/August, 2001).
China’s telecommunications and Internet infrastructures have grown and helped to boost the efficiency of communication for both domestic and foreign businesses. Ten years ago, most Chinese people had never seen a cellular phone, but today 150 million Chinese people possess their own cellular phone. Notwithstanding, since Staples conducts a considerable amount of Internet and web based business, it should be aware that the development and implementation of telecommunications and the Internet is uneven among provinces, with growth much slower in the central and west regions.
China’s financial infrastructure appears to be improving. Its openness to foreign trade has immensely improved its economic infrastructure. Over the past three decades, treaties and agreements, such as the Sino-US Relations and the WTO accession, have increased Chinese imports and exports. Despite the state’s economic gains and success in modernization, the economic infrastructure is still undergoing many changes and there is no promise that these changes will produce further success for China.
Correspondingly, the transportation infrastructure in India consists of roads, ports, airlines, and supports the world’s most extensive railway network. Due to the high population, “passenger traffic is heavily subsidized by higher charges for moving freight, increasingly forcing freight on to the roads” (Country Profile 2002, p. 19). Railway safety has become a significant problem due to many recent accidents in part stemming from a lack of investment. To improve this situation, India is examining alternative ways to increase railway funding. India also has 11 major ports, which are managed by the Port Trust of India (Country Profile 2002, p. 20). These ports process eighty-two percent of cargo and are functioning well beyond their capacity.
India’s energy provision is a major limitation to the country’s economic infrastructure. There are significant shortages, even though the total power generated in India has continued to increase (Country Profile 2002, p. 22). India’s power and energy capacities urgently require significant private investment.
The telecommunications sector in India has encountered recent and rapid growth. Perhaps this is due in part to the desire to follow the “iron law of economics” as discussed in the Jacobs (2001) text which suggests that a country needs to experience technology on a national and international level to survive the globalization process. “A number of private companies that have been given licenses for land based services have been laying telephone cable lines” due to the low number of telephone lines in India (EIU Country Report, 2002, p. 31). Accordingly, “Internet connectivity remains low, although numbers are expected to increase rapidly” (Country Profile 2002, p. 21). The low Internet connection should be of critical concern to Staples.
India supports a labor force of 400 million workers (Chemical Business, 2002, p. 3). The country’s government and businesses are rampant with corruption. Thus, “an unsympathetic bureaucracy, delays, lack of accountability, and transparency have deterred foreign investors from investing in India” (Ibid). An entire reengineering of India’s infrastructure is the only way that Staples investment could be considered at this time.
Business and Workforce Culture
In its complexity, culture can be defined as “the shared set of symbols, values, beliefs, and rituals which are used to make sense of the world” (Sullivan, 1
999, p. 335). The business and workforce cultures of another country will surely differ from that of the host country. Each country values and believes in various rules, standards, and situations. Both India and China have a diverse set of cultures which have their own unique set of values and traditions.
While India has made significant attempts to accommodate western culture in regards to corporations entering the country to conduct business, it is still a country that is deeply rooted in its traditions and values. Due to India’s steadfast devotion to its culture and traditions, it has unfortunately fallen behind the globalization bandwagon. Its culture supports strong hierarchical organizations and autocratic superiors. “Unless you preserve at least some of your own olive trees in your own backyard, you will never feel at home in your own house” (Friedman, p. 292). While it is understandable for a country to desire to hold on to its roots, it must also be willing to be flexible in order to become competitive and be successful in today’s growing economy.
In addition, India’s current labor legislations are in conflict with American labor laws. Child labor practices have been an ongoing issue that the country is attempting to correct. Its regulations and workforce standards are also outdated compared to what Staples would be used to in the United States or Europe.
China’s culture is primarily based on the 2500 year-old teachings of Confucius and revolves around the group, relationships, a strict power structure and risk aversion. Collectivist in nature, it is the polar opposite of America’s and Staples individualistic culture. Although China has spent the last two decades striving to achieve globalization, its historic national and business cultures are still very evident. “China and the U.S. represent ideological opposites in the work environment, in spite of the present move toward capitalism in China” (Ralston, Holt, and Terpstra, 1997, ¶24).
China’s market is largely dominated by state-owned businesses with hierarchical structures and staffed by employees expecting guaranteed employment and benefits. The Chinese culture or “socialistic philosophy teaches that the good of all is everyone's concern” (Ralston, Holt, and Terpstra, 1997, ¶7) which is why the government has historically protected companies and promised life-long employment to the detriment of competitive forces better known as capitalism or the western culture. The slow transition of China’s culture is having and will probably continue to have an impact on the country’s ability to compete with and accept capitalistic, western cultured companies represented by the United States, Europe and others. The cultural and workforce dynamics of India and China do not present strong and compelling foreign investment opportunities for Staples.
One key lesson learned from the economic and social analyses of China and India is that each country’s economic development is related to the basic development and processes seen in ecology. This relationship between the two phenomena demonstrates that understanding the conditions of a state's environment is the key to comprehending and controlling the state's economy. According to Jacobs (2000), bio-mimicry exists as a "form of economic development" that infers that one can learn about economics from knowing the existence of nature within their habitat (p. 8). In understanding how this relationship exists, any country can better analyze the different sectors of its economy and infrastructure in order to see how development of a certain sector has occurred and how to reconstruct it or how to better utilize it.
After conducting both an economic and social analysis of China and India, it became obvious that both country’s economies do parallel the basic functions of ecology, especially in regards to the many processes of development that co-depend and how it lends to differentiation that makes both countries unique from each other and other economies around the world.
One clear example of how China has experienced economic development similar to the occurrences seen in basic ecology is the country’s development of its transportation. Today, China’s transportation sector is not only the country’s most rapidly improving economic sector, but it is also one the country’s most complex. This is due to the fact that it consists of lots of old and new roadways, underdeveloped but over utilized rural dirt roads, ancient waterways, and increasingly traveled airways. The state’s roads, waterways, and airways allow more than 1.2 billion people to travel from village to town to city and across different provinces (Xinhua News Agency, 03/02/02). As China’s population grows there is a concurrent growth in the economy. This creates a need for the development of the different modes of transportation. Collectively, these modes transfer goods, and transport citizens to work and to shop, all having a direct impact on the economy. Transportation is necessary for productivity, and as a result, its reconstruction is critical to China’s development.
India’s economic and social infrastructure, similar to China’s, parallels the basic functions of ecology. An instance of how development or a lack thereof has taken place in India’s social infrastructure is in its environmental sector. India is experiencing widespread environmental degradation and the country’s resource scarcities are growing, thus furthering the impoverishment of India's rural population. There is a growing demand for power, fueled largely by high-ash coal, and this contributes to air pollution and chronic respiratory diseases amongst the citizens. There is inadequate access to clean water and this lack of sanitation adds to the incidences of other communicable illnesses. Also India's use of energy is expected to increase by at least 520 percent over the next 50 years. Without cleaner technology or more effective environmental policies, emissions of air pollutants may increase by the same amount (USAID, 2003).
In the scenario of this class, Staples had the option to expand internationally into China or India. It is our opinion however that neither country offers Staples a viable opportunity for growth and profit. Both countries have entered the 21st century realizing the need for changes in their politics, economics and infrastructure. In many areas of focus they have already begun implementation and are well on their way to providing a desirable investment option for foreign businesses. Overall, we believe the risks in both countries are still too high and our recommendation is that Staples continue expansion in the United States, Canada and Europe while holding off on either China or India.
China and India are the two most populous countries in the world, together representing over 2.3 billion people or almost 40 percent of the global population. On the surface that would seem to be a good opportunity for Staples’ office supply business. Unfortunately a significant portion of the Indian population is illiterate, and the Chinese business environment is still primarily state-owned enterprises (SOE). But those aren’t the only reasons why we don’t think either country offers a good investment for Staples.
Borrowing from Friedman’s (2000) use of the computer to describe the status of a country, we find that both China and India have “hybrid hardware,” a desired free-market with communist / socialist underpinnings. He goes on to describe the DOScapital 1.0-4.0 operating system on this hardware as “various combinations of socialism,
free markets, state-directed economics and crony capitalism, in which government bureaucrats, businesses and banks were all tied in with one another” (p. 151). In China’s major cities, where Staples would be more likely to open stores, the political system is on the higher end of the scale, while India is probably on the lower end. Both countries, despite their emerging free-markets still suffer from corruption and government controls in some form or another. For Staples to succeed in India, bribes, which are counter to American laws, would be required. In China, the regulations are still extremely stringent and would likely require a partnership with a state-owned entity, resulting in a loss of control for Staples. Finally, while China’s government appears to be much more stable than India’s it is still a communist regime. The instability of India’s country means that Staples could invest a great deal of money only to find out after a short period of time that it is no longer welcome.
Examining the economic situation, India seems to present the greater risk, with its fiscal deficit and rising inflation. Even with recent, positive changes in the rupee, India is still relatively unstable economically. It is unclear (due to conflicting reports) exactly what direction the currency is going; nevertheless, it is fluctuating and the key to a currency’s success as an international payments instrument is its ability to hold value over time versus other currencies (Sullivan, 2002). Compound that with the continued costs it will face in infrastructure, education, and basic economic stability as it strives to move toward DOScapital 5.0 and the prospects are not promising. The culture of corruption also hampers India’s monetary situation. China on the other hand appears to have a very stable economy, but looks can be deceiving. China may not be able to sustain the current growth and a decline would negatively impact stability. The resulting recession, citizen unrest, and demonstrations could damage asset quality and weaken cash flow. China's monetary policies are in a fragile equilibrium that government control of the PBC may not be able to sustain in the long term. The strong government control, successful in the 1990s, has not resulted in a flexible economic structure with the ability to absorb economic volatility in the future. Add to this the fact that the four government sanctioned banks, while reporting significant results are in reality burdened with non-performing loans. Their propensity to lend largely to SOEs rather than private enterprise continues to support a closed market. Although both countries are turning the tide, now is not the time to make a foreign investment.
Until the Chinese government is willing to add its shares in SOEs to the tradable market, privately owned companies are given equal opportunity to list on the exchanges, capital controls are removed and banks are free to compete, China’s financial markets do not offer a very viable means for obtaining funding. Likewise, India’s instability and increasing debt are not supportive of success for Staples without serious challenges.
Staples’ profitable target market for office supplies would be the larger cities in either China or India. This is important to recognize in examining the transportation infrastructure in both countries. The ability to transport goods to stores or for delivery to businesses is a critical aspect of their business. But because of the city market, Staples can, for now, focus on the required infrastructure typically found in a city environment. This negates the need to examine the interiors of either country, where it would be difficult to transport products and financially unsupportive to open a store. Telecommunications also plays a strong role particularly given Staples expansion to and reliability upon the Internet for sales. Unfortunately both China and India are still in the revision stages, realizing they need to shore up their infrastructure, but not yet at a point to adequately justify either country as a strong expansion candidate.
One of the most important facets to examine in any country under consideration for investment is the culture. Both China and India have long ingrained cultures that are dynamically opposite of Staples’ westernized approach to business. Where Chinese and Indian companies are extremely hierarchical in nature with considerable respect for superiors, Staples searches for entrepreneurial employees willing to take risks. While this is surmountable if Staples is willing to create a more hierarchical management structure within its stores, it could present a challenge in regards to customer service. In a normal Staples store, employees are empowered to resolve customer issues on the spot, but in China or India, decision-making can be collective and managers are expected to solve all problems, which could leave the employees powerless to help the customers. This would be compounded by the SOE created expectation of lifetime support from the government, resulting in a rather unmotivated staff, a situation that would be unacceptable in a Staples environment.
Staples is streamlining the company and flattening its organizational structures in order to operate more swiftly and efficiently. The culture of Staples, like most American business, is to expand and grow without a heavy bureaucratic layer of management. Thus, taking on India, with its red tape, ethics violations, and corruption, would be unwise. Likewise, China’s slow transition of culture and efforts to accept capitalistic, western-cultured companies, like Staples, makes it an unlikely match for the company. Both of the countries researched seem to be laden with their various levels of obstruction, making neither of them a viable entry option for Staples at this time.
To share knowledge with each other and our fellow classmates in order to further our own education and theirs, keeping in mind the acceptable behaviors, and overall learning objectives as outlined below.
Through individual research and group participation each of us not only learned about our own country of choice, but about other countries as well. As a group we generally worked very well together although there were a few bumps in the road. One of our members sadly faced an extreme personal challenge during the semester, but the majority of the group picked up the slack.
Almost three quarters of our scores were in the 90th percentile, indicating a positive work environment, successful learning and personal accomplishment. Given the challenges of coordinating six people with diverse backgrounds, living in different cities and communicating electronically, these scores represent a solid level of achievement.
Our greatest challenge was in the timely submission and completion of our assignments. This was evident in the 77 percent and 83 percent scored respectively on our assessment. Much of this was due to differing and difficult schedules. As a group we also struggled with ensuring the APA format was used correctly resulting in an 80 percent score.
On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree, below are the results.
1.
The team achieved the desired results and met their stated goals.
4.50
90%
2.
The team members submitted their assignments on time.
3.83
77%
3.
The team submitted assignments that were complete and well documented.
4.17
83%
4.
Team members were cooperative and worked well together.
4.33
87%
5.
Team members were professional with each other.
4.67
93%
6.
Team members communicated easily through email, phone and fax.
4.67
93%
7.
Team members utilized the conflict management methods as described in the Work Plan.
4.33
87%
8.
The individual submissions were academic and thoughtful and showed a high level of research and appropriate use of resources.
4.50
90%
9.
The individual submissions were in proper APA format.
4.00
80%
10.
Team members provided constructive feedback to each other and listened to other's opinions.
4.67
93%
11.
Team members alerted others of scheduling problems in a timely manner.
4.33
87%
12.
I was able to adequately assess and analyze global international markets.
4.50
90%
13.
I was able to learn how companies determine the most viable market for their products.
4.67
93%
14.
I was able to embrace disparate social and professional standards for doing business globally.
4.50
90%
15.
I was able to work cooperatively in a multi-location and multi-culture team environment.
4.50
90%
16.
I was able to communicate effectively through electronic means.
4.83
97%
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