Preamble:
There is a multi-national enterprise called Meta-Concert, AG, Inc. They are a globally-based conglomerate, with eight (8) distinct business units (called in the trade SBU's- Strategic Business Units.) Two of these SBU's are the Transportation SBU, and the Biotechnology SBU. Both SBU's value chains are integrated vertically and horizontally.
Discussion Questions:
The transportation SBU is divided into 3 major global divisions:
1. Transportation services that include railroads, marine, aircraft, trucking operations and delivery services;
2. Industrial goods, that include the production of infrastructure & equipment for railroads, marine, and aerospace; and,
3. Logistics services and support services that include warehousing, turnkey processes for engineering services for infrastructure projects, training for transportation, scheduling & materials planning services, and general logistics operations for small to medium-sized industrial concerns (called SMIE's.)
In combination, the transportation SBU's gross profit is 18.69 Billion US$, with its net income at 2.77 Billion US$. The transportation SBU's headquarters are in Anthem, Arizona, USA, with primary functional headquarters located in:
1. Manufacturing: Guangdong Province, the People's Republic of China;
2. Financing: Dübendorf, Switzerland
3. Operations & R&D: Broken down by regions:
a. North America & Caribbean: Flagstaff, Arizona USA
b. South & Central America: Porto Alegre, Uruguay
c. The Middle East and Central Asia: Manama, Bahrain
d. Africa: Casablanca, Morocco
e. Northern Asia & Eastern Europe: Volgograd, Russia
f. Western Europe: Manchester, England, UK
4. Information Systems, Accounting, and Human Resources: By region:
a. North, Central & South America: San Jose, Costa Rica
b. Europe, Russia and Northern Africa: Seville, Spain
c. Asia, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa: Jaipur, Hindustan, India
The Anthem, Arizona headquarters performs all legal services for the SBU, coordinates information, HR procedures, and regulatory processes per region, with smaller branch offices collocated with the appropriate functional headquarters. Legal services include oversee several political action committees, where permissible, to apprise various levels of governmental organizations on the regulatory impact on the Transportation SBU.
Questions to answer:
1. Please identify and describe three global trends that can influence one (1) of the primary divisions of the Transportation SBU;
2. Please identify and describe three economic or political risks that could influence the primary division that you chose in #1, above;
3. Out of the trends & risks, which one trend AND risk impacts the operations function the most, and the least? Why?
4. What could the transportation SBU do to ameliorate the risk? What does the transportation SBU have to do to take advantage of the trend? Please be specific.
Question set:
1. Write a mission statement, vision statement, and a philosophy to govern the transportation SBU's far-flung business operations;
2. Is your mission statement & vision statement ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric, or geocentric in its entirety? (See pages 50-51, Chapter 2 for the definitions of each.) Why did you choose to create mission & vision statements at this level? What are the implications for the SBU's operations if its mission & vision statements exist at this level?
3. Who should create the vision & mission statements, and the overall philosophy of the SBU? That is, should HQ Anthem, AZ USA create the mission & vision statements for the entire SBU, or should each division have its own mission & vision statements? Why did you choose as you did? Please explain your rationale for the choice.