Balancing the global portfolio

Canadian subsidiaries of foreign parents need to offer technological expertise, superior competitiveness or top quality human resources to their parent companies. An increasing number of multinationals are recognizing the strategic value of having operations in multiple countries, even when the econ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIvey business journal Vol. 57; no. 4; p. 40
Main Authors Birkinshaw, Julian, Ritchie, Warren
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London University of Western Ontario 01.07.1993
Subjects
Competition
Competitive advantage
Core competencies
Corporations
Economic models
Economies of scale
Foreign subsidiaries
Management
Market entry
Market strategy
Multinational corporations
Strategic planning
Subsidiaries
Trends
Canada
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Summary:Canadian subsidiaries of foreign parents need to offer technological expertise, superior competitiveness or top quality human resources to their parent companies. An increasing number of multinationals are recognizing the strategic value of having operations in multiple countries, even when the economies of scale are slight. Managers need to reevaluate their corporate strengths on a global basis, but at the same time acknowledge the different qualities of the various regions and countries in the world. The country portfolio model indicates 4 distinct roles for national subsidiaries: 1. lead markets, 2. strategic markets, 3. tactical markets, and 4. opportunistic markets. The global business structure presents a particularly acute problem for Canadian subsidiaries because Canada is neither sufficiently large nor sufficiently unique to automatically attain strategic or lead status in the eyes of the global business manager.
ISSN:1481-8248