Abstract
A few years back, a US firm that had a partnership in China manufacturing motorcycles went looking for new customers in Central America. Previously, the US firm had been relatively successful in South America and Africa, finding distributors for its line of basic transportation motorcycles. With an engine design based on a Honda model, the Chinese motorcycles were proven to be of acceptable quality and reliability. Most important, they were a lot cheaper—about half the cost of the competing Japanese models.
The art of leadership is saying “no,” not “yes.” It is very easy to say “yes.”
—Tony Blair
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- 1.
This chapter is adapted from “It’s the Distribution, Stupid,” by Andrew R. Thomas and Timothy J. Wilkinson, Business Horizons vol. 48, 2005, p. 125–134, by permission of publisher. Copyright © by Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved.
- 2.
John B. Cullen, Multinational Management: A Strategic Approach (Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing, 1999), p. 156.
- 3.
James S. Lee, “Cultural Analysis in Overseas Operations, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1966, p. 106–114.
- 4.
Steven E. Harbour, “Five Rules of Distribution Management,” Business Horizons vol. 40, no. 3, 1997, p. 53–59.
- 5.
A. Coskun Samli, Entering and Succeeding in Emerging Countries (Mason, OH: South-Western Educational and Professional Publishing, 2004), p. 48.
- 6.
David Arnold, “Seven Rules of International Distribution,” Harvard Business Review, November–December 2000, p. 135.
- 7.
Ibid., p. 132.
- 8.
Inc.com , “Exclusivity vs. Temporary Monopoly,” http://pf.inc.com/articles/1995/01/11160.html , accessed March 10, 2015.
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© 2015 Andrew R. Thomas and Timothy J. Wilkinson
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Thomas, A.R., Wilkinson, T.J. (2015). Going Global and Keeping the Faith. In: The Customer Trap. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-0385-9_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-0385-9_9
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