Feedback from customers, employees, and trade people are very important to corporate strategy--it may present and offer new idea, suggestion, and direction to the company in the coming years. In an article that examines corporate strategy and Chinese multinationals corporation (MNC), Teagarden and Dong (2009) analyze that “Haier, Huawei, Lenovo, and TCL are not yet household names in the United States or Europe. But Chinese multinationals are making major inroads into markets that were once the domain of companies like Westinghouse Electric Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., IBM Corp. and RCA. A number of Chinese multinationals… have emerged during the past three decades. As these firms have taken on world markets, they have evolved and grown in some effective and fascinating ways. This evolution has been accompanied by major shifts in corporatestrategy, technology management, and human resource management practices” (p.1). If they want to play the international business games, they must learn, practice, appreciate and comprehend the corporate strategy and approach. In order to achieve and present the company in the international market, Lenovo paid a huge price and bought IBM’s declining PC division and assume debt in 2004 for total $1.75 billion (Lenovo).

 
References

Lenovo. (2009). Company history. Retrieved on April 4, 2009, from http://www.lenovo.com

Teagarden, M., & Dong, H. (2009, January to March). Learning from Dragons who are Learning from Us: Developmental Lessons from China's Global Companies. Organizational dynamics, 38 (1), 73-81. Retrieved on April 4, 2009, from EBSCO: Business source elite database.

 

I agree that maximum value is the main goal in the corporate strategy for Newbury Comics. It is the same approach for those international corporations, such as Lenovo for PC computer, or Haier Group that making refrigerator and air condition in China. When you walk into the Home Depot or Sam’s club, you may see Haier’s products are lower prices with lower structures or designs—according to the vendors’ orders, offers, and instructions. However, in the beginning, this is the only approach or competitive advantage  that allow it to offer or present into the U.S. and international markets, but its future and potential markets are great. It just take times to learn, invest, and change. Now, when you look into the websites in English of these two companies, you can see, in fact, they are the best websites among other corporations in China, and their business approaches are almost the same as their western partners (with social responsibility, development strategy, and corporate culture, etc). Corporate strategy not only is very vital in a small company or a chain store, such as Newbury Comics, but also, is very significant to international businesses and corporations.

Franki

References

Haier. (2009). Company background. Retrieved on April 4, 2009, from http://www.haier.com

Lenovo. (2009). Company history. Retrieved on April 4, 2009, from http://www.lenovo.com