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Project 4: Creating an International Business Plan
HOSPITAL BEDS IN BRAZIL IS WHAT THIS SHOULD BE ABOUT

Before you begin Project 4, take two minutes to watch this course touchpoint video.

Transcript

Speaker: Subash Bijlani, Collegiate Professor, Business & Management Programs, The Graduate School, UMGC

I hope you are enjoying your experience in the capstone course thus far. It is our goal to expose you to the demands business leaders face on a daily basis. Strong collaboration and communication, integrity, and strategies based on analysis guide successful companies.

As you draw near to the conclusion of your MBA journey and approach graduation, consider the value of what you have attained. You have taken into consideration the effects globalization and the digital marketplace, while successfully navigated business challenges; considering ethical, legal, and practical implications, producing portfolio-ready deliverables, and expanding your knowledge of business. I hope you will take away greater confidence in your professional and career pursuits as you conclude the capstone.

This program was designed by business leaders for emerging business leaders. Our learners are shaping the marketplace and pushing the boundaries of business innovation and expansion.

 

Be excited about the completion of your MBA; it is well earned, and will prove its value throughout your career. We celebrate with you in this time of success and look forward to seeing you at graduation.

 

Scenario

You continue to provide promising global strategy advice for MediCorp, Inc. The company has been so pleased with your contributions to their strategic planning and development that they would like you to assist with a new endeavor. Leveraging its strength in manufacturing genetic testing devices, MediCorp now wants to diversify its offerings and expand within the field of medical devices. This is a large field that extends to a myriad of products. MediCorp has asked you to identify a medical device that the company can use as a vehicle for expanding into another country. Choose from the list of medical devices and countries provided and note your choice in the ‘Project 4: Choice of Medical Device and Country’ discussion area.

Choose a country as a location for MediCorp’s expansion and create an international business plan that guides the company’s operations in that country and grows MediCorp’s business within the selected device’s NAICS industry subsector. You will need to develop a strategy that examines MediCorp’s potential customers, business operations, financial projections, and implementation metrics. As this client’s business grows, Maryland Creative Solutions CEO, Jillian Best, emphasizes that it is critical for you to provide clear and concise analysis in your reports to MediCorp. She remarks, “Success with these reports could mean big things for MCS as well as for each of you. Let’s finish strong.”

Introduction

Building on the lessons from your Capsim simulation and your analyses, you will now craft an international business plan that calls on you to devise a marketing strategy, develop financial projections, and create a strategy implementation plan for the company to market a new product in another country by relocating one or more activities from MediCorp’s value chain in the United States to your selected country.

You will have two weeks to develop your international business plan.

To get started, Click Step 1: Assess the Characteristics of MediCorp’s Potential Customers in the Selected Country.

 

Competencies

Your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below.

• 1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.
• 1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
• 2.5: Develop well-reasoned ideas, conclusions or decisions, checking them against relevant criteria and benchmarks.
• 3.1: Identify numerical or mathematical information that is relevant in a problem or situation.
• 5.1: Develop constructive resolutions for ethical dilemmas based on application of ethical theories, principles and models.
• 5.3: Create, implement, and evaluate a personal leadership development plan.
• 6.4: Develop and recommend strategies for an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage.
• 7.4: Analyze the impact of international and foreign laws on US organizations acting domestically and abroad.
• 9.1: Design organizational structure, systems and processes that support the strategic goals of the organization.
• 10.3: Determine optimal financial decisions in pursuit of an organization’s goals.
• 10.5: Develop operating forecasts and budgets and apply managerial accounting techniques to support strategic decisions.

• Step 1: Assess the Characteristics of MediCorp’s Potential Customers in the Selected Country
• Email
• Subject: Marketing Plan
  From:      Jillian Best, CEO, MCS
  To:           You
• Hi,
• Let us continue crafting an international business plan for another country.
• First, select a country from the list in the discussion area as a new market for MediCorp to expand into, and decide on a medical device from the list that MediCorp can use to drive expansion. To help with your analysis of the industry, you will need to identify the NAICS codefor the industry subsector to which your selected  device belongs. Then, begin to develop a six- to seven-page marketing strategy for MediCorp.
• As you begin your marketing strategy for MediCorp, first analyze the characteristics of the company’s potential customers in the new market and address the international cultural differences.
• I’ll send additional instructions shortly about the elements that need to be analyzed. You will assess the characteristics of the customers, industry, market, company, and other factors how to analyze MediCorp’s own characteristics and how those characteristics will influence this and develop a relevant marketing strategy.
• Thanks for your hard work!
• Jillian
• When you have assessed the characteristics of MediCorp’s potential customers for your selected medical device in a country, continue to the next step, where you will work on expanding MediCorp’s product base in the selected country by accounting for MediCorp’s mode of entry.
• You will incorporate your recommendations from Step 1 and Step 2 into a six- to seven-page marketing strategy that will be submitted for feedback at the end of Week 9.

 

Step 2: Develop a Marketing Strategy

Email

Subject: Marketing Strategy

From:     Jillian Best, CEO, MCS

To:          You

Now that we know more about MediCorp’s potential customers, we need to examine some key attributes of the company to adequately prepare it for international expansion.

Include the following components in your marketing strategy:

• selection of new medical device for MediCorp to introduce in the selected country,
• MediCorp’s main competitors in your selected medical diagnostics devices industry in the selected country,
• market and segment growth of your selected medical device over the next three years in your selected country.,
• Where does MediCorp add value as a way of gaining a competitive edge?,
• Recommendation of relocation of one or more activities from MediCorp’s value chain in the United States to your selected country using Porter’s Value Chain analysis.,
• the legal business entity to market the products in the country (review Modes of Entry for help),
• impact of the country’s legal ethical and cultural standards on MediCorp’s operations in the country (review Governance and Accountability for more information),

Jillian

By the end of Week 9, submit your six- to seven-page marketing strategy to the Assignments folder. (This milestone submission is optional, but useful if you would like feedback.) Your marketing strategy should include all components outlined in Step 1 and Step 2.

Then, continue to the next step, where you will consider the client’s financial projections and the accounting standards in the selected country.