Global Business

1. The benefit of customers working with Li & Fung is that Li & Fung has many clients and connections that help customers get the most cost efficient and quality product. Li & Fung researches these products and manufacturing procedures and costs on a daily basis and that’s their sole purpose. Therefor they have the best knowledge of where to find the cheapest goods and where to manufacture them the cheapest. They also know laws, fees, and tariffs that may be established in each country. Basically they are the Google of the manufacturing business. They do the research for the customers and leave less time consumed researching so these companies can get their finished products faster. It’s a quick and easy way of doing business and eliminates a lot of hours it would take and money for customers to do on their own. Also connections is key, Li & Fung establishes a name with these companies and resource producers and are able to obtain products cheaper than most. You tell them what you want and they do the hard part of finding it. A company like The Limited outsources coordination of the manufacturing to Li & Fung or companies like them so that they can get their finished products much faster. If The Limited had sought out an employee hired just for doing research to find the cheapest product and cheapest manufacturing plant, without the common knowledge or consistency of business with these places, they might not be able to spread of the cost throughout production amongst different countries and plants, rather than just one. Researching is half the time, so if they put out a product they want on their shelves in 5 weeks, just researching alone would consume some of the allotted time and if they are capable of finding the resources and production plant, they may not find the cheapest price that Li & Fung may find. This business is almost like a temp agency, customers go to them looking for a job, opposed to finding a job on their own, and a