The Study of International Business Is Fine If You Are Going
"The study of international business is fine if you are going to work in a large multinational enterprise, but it has no relevance for individuals who are going to work in small firms." Evaluate this statement.
The study of global business is relevant to any person who is in the business world, no matter the size of their organization. The first reason is that so many things are imported from other countries. Closing a deal in China will be a very different process than would be in France than it is here at home in Bangladesh. Customs of other countries need to be followed if a businessperson is to be successful worldwide. Also important to consider are the difference in shipping costs from different ports, as it will change the “landed cost” of the item, and the retail price and profit margin, especially when one is handling 40-foot long containers of merchandise. Customs and customs brokers’ roles will need to be known--as well as items that can cause an entire container turned away by Bangladeshi Customs at the port--a potential loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on its contents and shipping, with perhaps a retail value of millions of dollars. Once that container clears customs, if its destination is not nearby, it will be loaded onto a train or a truck. So one needs to be familiar with the workings of the logistics necessary to get the container to its final destination . For example, in USA some retailers were left hanging, waiting for their shipments in the early 2000s when there was a massive port lockout on the West Coast--literally dozens of container ships sat offshore near Portland and Los Angeles because the labor union couldn‘t come to an agreement the operators of the ports on terms of their employment packages. That left the ports with no dockworkers. So even if a ship made it into the port, as many did during the few hours the freeze was suspended during negotiations, there’s no telling when the container would be offloaded.
The study of global business is relevant to any person who is in the business world, no matter the size of their organization. The first reason is that so many things are imported from other countries. Closing a deal in China will be a very different process than would be in France than it is here at home in Bangladesh. Customs of other countries need to be followed if a businessperson is to be successful worldwide. Also important to consider are the difference in shipping costs from different ports, as it will change the “landed cost” of the item, and the retail price and profit margin, especially when one is handling 40-foot long containers of merchandise. Customs and customs brokers’ roles will need to be known--as well as items that can cause an entire container turned away by Bangladeshi Customs at the port--a potential loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on its contents and shipping, with perhaps a retail value of millions of dollars. Once that container clears customs, if its destination is not nearby, it will be loaded onto a train or a truck. So one needs to be familiar with the workings of the logistics necessary to get the container to its final destination . For example, in USA some retailers were left hanging, waiting for their shipments in the early 2000s when there was a massive port lockout on the West Coast--literally dozens of container ships sat offshore near Portland and Los Angeles because the labor union couldn‘t come to an agreement the operators of the ports on terms of their employment packages. That left the ports with no dockworkers. So even if a ship made it into the port, as many did during the few hours the freeze was suspended during negotiations, there’s no telling when the container would be offloaded.