Global Economic Environment Essay

(a) How has apple capitalized on the globalization of production? What advantages does manufacturing in China offer the company? autonomic nervous system globalisation has been a kindle topic in these past years. Many global companies get out gather use of this advantage for their own production, and orchard apple tree is definitely matchless of the signifi micklet examples. be wretched shown argon the ways that apple capitalized on the globalization of production. Firstly, apple finds and searches subcontractors from places much(prenominal) as Korea, Taiwan, China and even Ger more. It keeps expanding itself by improvements as well.For example, it replaced plastic screens by glass screens in 2004. Secondly, the fact that globalization has make the rules less strict, it becomes easier for orchard apple tree to go by up factories in different countries. Thirdly, Apple besides uses the competitory advantages of foreign locations. For example, this place is an expert of m anufacturing particular device wherefore Apple mickle give this genuine task to it and en currents the high quality of the product. Moreover, Apple creates a lot of job opportunities. It employs 43000 wad in the states and as well supports roughly other 254000 jobs. almost people may point out that jobs however summation for the runers in developing countries, but still thanks to globalization, Apple creates go for and dur equal salaries for those non-skilled workers. conkly, globalization allows Apple to spread its fame to the world. Apple not sole(prenominal) based on its own ability, but it is also assisted by the trend of globalization and becoming a legend for years. thither is a list of advantages of choosing China as a place to manufacture. The core contend ordain be its low force exists comparatively. It is known that workers functional in FOXCONN atomic number 18 bringing $14 a day, which is discredit than those in the states.Its also easy to hire e ngineers in China. It usually just takes 15 days. It may enquire months to hire engineers in foreign countries. Also, Chinese subcontractors weed give quick responses as the factories atomic number 18 all clustered together. The thumping population of China may not be a of import tenability of its advantage, since freehanded population doesnt mean go bad workers. However, much people that are in that area, more than suitable choices that Apple displace choose, so this may be one of the minor advantage as well. Besides, China is a developing country where each(prenominal)body is looking for a stable job.The workers in China usually wont mind the low fatigue cost, but they depart look for safe and stable ones for their daily necessities. Last but not least, China is cl take uped to be the location of world factories. It seems to be more experienced in handling complicated machines during the manufacturing process. The above are the advantages that producing in China e rect offer. (b) Why do you imagine Apple continues to keep activities like product design, software engineering, and tradeing in the united States? ANS Steve Jobs once mentioned that MacBook is a machine that made in America.This satisfying idea comes from American designers. More most-valuablely, these activities are called intellectual activities. Intellectual activities play the collective corporate refinement, identity and history of a company. Keeping these activities in the States can grant Apple industry information, trade secrets or special(prenominal) ability to innovate and bring new and better products and services into the marketplace. Apple fosters creativity by proving a flexible corporate atmosphere. Question 2 (a) What are the benefits to a law soaked of outsourcing legal services to a foreign country?What are the potential costs and risks? ANS Outsourcing legal services incur three main benefits. Firstly, it lowers the sozzleds administrative costs, as s alaries of Indian workers are lower undoubtedly. Secondly, it increases the diversity of labor in the company. Since India obviously has a different culture comparing to the States, the culture at bottom the firm willing be more diverse and more communication theory will occur. Thirdly, since these Indian workers do not work directly chthonian the American law surround, they will then work in a more free and relaxed surround.With the existence of the benefits above, there are certain risks that are involved in outsourcing. The workers are not directly supervised by the American law firm therefore the service will then not be guaranteed. If there are any mistakes, the firm will convey a worse reputation and image consequently. Also, there may be a chance of exploitation of Indian workers because they have lower bargaining power. In this certain case, the workers will be less consecrate during work and have less sense of belonging to that law company. (b) Which free radical gai n from the outsourcing of legal services?Which base tolerates? On balance, do you think that this kind of outsourcing is a serious social function, or a bad thing? Why? ANS Using a monetary point of view, the owners of the firm surely gain from the reduction in costs. Besides, the US firms will earn by enlarging its profits. Most significantly, the Indian workers are gaining from this outsourcing activity. They can have a stable profession in the States and they may earn a high salary comparing to the low skilled jobs provided in India. For the groups that will lose, they are the US lawyers or some of the Indian workers in special cases.The US lawyers may have difficulties in finding jobs since the Indian workers are hired. There will be then less US lawyers will be considered by those US law firms. Indian workers may also lose at the same time if they are being exploited or not having enough welfare from the law firms. Outsourcing has advantages, but meanwhile also disadvantag es. Lets start with its good deeds. Its a good thing when it can lower labor cost and enhance labor diversity. It also go downs the money needed in recruitment imputable to the large amount of suitable candidates in India. It also helps to increase the disposable income of citizens in both countries.It also links up the two countries that are involved, stick them with a sense of partnership. However, outsourcing has certain potential harms. Workers face a more intense arguing since there are more choices of workers imputable to outsourcing. Therefore, the Indian workers will feel more stressful in this way. Also, more supervise work is needed for the quality of work in order to reduce the occurrence of errors. All in all, with balanced managing skills, outsourcing will then be a good deed to grant benefits to both countries involved, which will be India and the States if its in this case in this question.(c) Why were the services in this case outsourced to India, as opposed to another country such as China? What does this tell you about the kinds of factors that are important when a firm is considering whether to outsource a value creation activity, and where to outsource it to? ANS The reasons imply same law systems, amount of law students and the ability of speaking side. Firstly, Indian and US share the same set of laws, then it will be easier for Indian lawyers to handle law cases subcontract from US law firms. For China, it has a different law system with the one in US.If China is chosen, every procedure will be difficult to handle. Secondly, India beats China due to the relatively large amount of law students. More suitable candidates can be chosen in India more than in China. Thirdly, which is an important reason that Indian young lawyers have better English skills than ones in China. English is the mother language of the Indian, its easier for them to browse documents or draft contracts for the US law firms. For those in China, they have lower ed ucation levels and can only good to perform factory work.Also, US and India share the similar culture while China has a complete different one. This will make the young lawyers easier to give notice (of) with their bosses and share the same common culture with some other US co-workers. There are a few factors that have to be considered while deciding whether to outsource or not. The first one will be the ability and costs of labor. Costs include transport costs and cost of communication amongst main firm and subcontractors. If the cost will be lowered in a large proportion, outsource will then be considered.Also, regulations of different locations are core factors as well. Outsourcing take to focus on different cultures and rules in order to neutralize errors or unnecessary violations. The main firms own pecuniary status is also another core factor. With more financial power, the certain firm can have a more flexible managing skills and can decide whether outsourcing can reall y help itself or not. For the choice of place outsourcing services, developing countries will always be appropriate places due to their low cost labor, which makes everything easier.For example, the most popular two choices would be Indian and China, with many suitable candidates and low standard of living. Question 3 (ai) What are the important challenges faced by managers specifically in an outside(a) line of products? ANS International fear make happys a large economy of scale, but it suffers from challenges at the same time. First, it requires a long time in fixing consensus between different contractors and departments. It is because parts of the manufacturing are too dispersed. Its hard for them to communicate or reach consensus.They may need to make numerous anticipate calls or hold long period of conference video to reach a final decision. Secondly, global business tends to have more conflicts due to the different culture adopted in different places. Contractors may point about some rules and have different opinions due to different religions. Thirdly, international business can no longer find standardized product. They need to produce different types of product to satisfy the demand of different cultures. For example, for McDonald, they transplant their menu in India and produces rice in Hong Kong for people who need to have quick lunch.Last but not least, international business also necessarily to spend more effort on deciding where should they set up their factories. Its hard for them to decide. They need accurate measurements and discussions to find perfect(a) locations for their factories. In order to stay competitive, international business has to make sure that it can handle these challenges by overcoming it and also solving it with appropriate and competent measures. aii) In this context, how is managing an international business different from managing a purely internal business?ANS In terms of law and regulations, international business needs more effort to deal with these issues in satisfying every demand of different countries. In contrast, local internal business needs not to consider, it can just focus on itself and think fictive ways to attract its internal buyers. International business and local business share different ways of promotion and employment. International business needs much more expenses on promotion. It needs to spread its fame to every niche of the world, which means that more promotion fees will needed to be paid.Also, international business has a larger structure. It needs more people to work for them than the domestic ones. They may need managers, associates and overseas managers. More people needed to be hired and meanwhile more employment will be paid by the international business. Besides, international business sometimes will be less unique as they will always produce standardized products while domestic ones will be more able to remain its own special features and attract customers in the same way. Also, international business is always harder to run. It needs to overcome more challenges then domestic ones do.It must use a proper way to put down the market which to avoid violations and conflicts. The above are the differences between international business and domestic business. (b) Analyze the arguments for and against globalization with regards to (i) Jobs and income ANS Globalization creates lots of job opportunities for both skilled and non-skilled workers, but it may cause a small group of people to become unemployed due to the shifting of jobs. Job power may be attained as well since globalization allows a better utilization of workers. It also enhances more stable job positions.Globalization leads to competitive working environment. Everyone fights for a better job and reputation. The intense competition will make some companies to cut off some deadweight. Some unlucky employees may lose their jobs in this way. In terms of income, people enj oy an increased disposable income, meaning they have a better living standard. However, intense competition may lower the income levels of certain employees as some companies may cut cost in both hiring and welfare. (ii) fag and environmental protection ANS Social responsibility is a main issue of globalization. It may provide a better working environment for employees.For example, Google is a perfect example. Its such a huge geological formation that creates an enormous working campus for its workers. It hires so many experts as it provides a expert and comfy place for them to work in. Labor there can enjoy welfare from work. Globalization grants companies better resources from all over the world that they can have more abilities to protect their own workers. In the contrary, globalization may lead to a worse environment of the world. Less focus will put on the environment issues since every company is just mentation ways to earn profit. Waste and pollution may increase.Those i nternational companies may just ignore the fact that they are producing much harm to the environment around, but they will just remain their pace of production. They will aim at efficiency no matter it is underproduction or overproduction. All in all, for those who support globalization, they are usually richer and tougher. They also rule themselves with stricter regulations. They also will claim that globalization can enhance specialization and also course of study of labor. They enjoy the comparative advantage that globalization grants and try their best to enter the global economy.Reference News Report 3 More FOXCONN Employees rive Suicide http//www. pcmag. com/article2/0,2817,2419223,00. asp Videos World Business Legal Outsourcing in India 12/11/2010 http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=EKuVICAdwB0 Made in China The tangible Reasons Why Apple Wont Build iPhones in the US http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=kikwfJ5BGVE Inside Foxconn Exclusive look at how an iPad is made http//www. y outube. com/watch? v=5cL60TYY8oQ Readings http//citeseerx. ist. psu. edu/viewdoc/downloaddoi=10. 1. 1. 202. 9503&rep=rep1&type=pdf