 |
Center for International Business Education and Research C I B E R N E W S |
|
|
Center for International Business Education and Research C I B E R N E W S |
15 September, 1997 Volume 8, Number 1
| Did you know? Ford Motor Co. employs over 2,100 MSU graduates, including 200 MSU MBAs. |
Ford’s Ben Lever Speaks to Forum, MBA Class
Ford Motor Company’s Executive Director of Marketing Research, Ben Lever, recently came to town to speak at the International Business Forum, sponsored by MSU CIBER. While here, he also met with MBA students at MSU’s Eli Broad Graduate School of Management. Not a seat remained in the classroom, nor later at the luncheon (with almost 70 in attendance), when Lever spoke on the topic of "Ford and the Global Market." His presentation focused on the scope of Ford’s global marketing and their strategies for Ford 2000. Lever started his address by stating that Ford has been a global company from the beginning, with Henry Ford exporting just five years after founding the company. Today, Lever said, 40% of Ford’s business is outside the U.S., as are 50% of its employees. As the President of Ford of Japan, Lever spent 3 years in Asia. He stressed its importance as a future market, noting that "By the year 2000, 50% of the world’s population will live in Asia." According to Lever, Ford now has joint ventures in China and India, as well as production facilities in countries like Vietnam, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Poland. In all, Ford is in 34 countries with manufacturing assembly and sales, and sells to a total of 200 countries. Lever went on to introduce some of the aims of Ford 2000, Ford’s strategy for the future. These include developing a single set of worldwide processes, optimizing resources, and increasing empowerment of employees. With these in mind, Ford would like to accomplish the goal of producing 50% more vehicles in 5 years, while reducing vehicle platforms by 1/3. In addressing Ford’s product line, Lever showed the audience commercials promoting the Ka, Ford’s new 1.1 liter sub-compact car (smaller than the Aspire) sold in Germany and Brazil. In contrast, he discussed Ford’s purchase of Jaguar and Aston Martin to capture the super luxury end of the market. Lever also informed the audience of Ford’s Indianapolis Retail Distribution Test plans. In that test area, the company will buy out the 21 current Ford dealers, and replace them with 7 superstores, of which Ford will only own 49%. The sales consultants will be salaried, and negotiations will be haggle-free. Finally, the facilities will be modernized, carry huge inventories, and be located conveniently throughout the city. Although Ford is looking toward Asia for expanded growth, Lever pointed out some problems in the meantime. For example, although China has 1.2 billion people, only 17% of its roads are paved. And although India has an emerging middle class of 200 million people, Lever noted they have a per capita income of only $380. Lever said that "One of the biggest challenges is in human relations management." Areas such as transferring process skills, language, and culture are troublesome. And although Ford tries to use the local workforce to overcome some of these problems, challenges still remain. "Trying to develop the supply base for research in Asia," Lever said, "is the biggest problem." Both of the presentations were followed by fruitful question and answer sessions. On behalf of the International Business Forum and the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, we would like to thank Mr. Lever for spending his valuable time speaking to area international business professionals, faculty and MBA students. |
MSU CIBER has completed another terrific year of programming! The past 12 months have witnessed a prolific agenda aimed at internationalizing business education and practice. Our efforts have produced numerous gratified constituents in academic, industrial, and government circles, as well as an expanding array of new initiatives.
Our 1997 International Business Institute for Community College Faculty was a big success. Forty-three business faculty from 42 two-year colleges attended this event, held in East Lansing 18-23 May. Ninety-five percent of these participants, selected from an applicant pool that exceeded 100, rated the week-long program as either "Excellent" or "Very Good." This faculty development program was co-sponsored by several CIBERs, and MSU’s Office of the Vice Provost for University Outreach.
MSU CIBER co-sponsored the annual FDIB program (hosted by the University of Memphis CIBER) and delivered the course on International Marketing. This event attracted a national audience of business faculty. Also co-sponsored by our center was the fifth annual meeting of the CIMaR (Consortium for International Marketing Research), held in beautiful Brugge, Belgium, and hosted by our colleagues Paul Matthyssens and Pieter Pauwels.
We are happy that several of the research projects partially funded by MSU CIBER were completed . Two doctoral dissertation research grants made possible a major study of international pricing practices by Matthew Myers (now at the University of Oklahoma) and a pioneering study by Gary Knight (now at Florida State University) on Born Globals--young, entrepreneurial firms aggressively pursuing international business.
Out in CIBER space, the International Business Resources page at our web sit (http://ciber.bus.msu.edu) was redesigned and expanded several times over the past year. We continue to receive very positive user feedback. Several new awards were also given to this site, and many educators teaching international business have incorporated the use of this resource into their coursework.
Looking ahead, many exciting projects are in development. First, MSU CIBER was asked by the American Marketing Association to organize and host the Annual Faculty Consortium on International Marketing. This event, to be held in East Lansing 11-15 July, 1998 will feature an outstanding selection of speakers who will cover pedagogical and research issues in international marketing.
We will also again deliver a day-long workshop on the globalization of the auto industry at the annual meeting of the SAE in Detroit on 8 December. In April, we will offer (jointly with CASID) a conference called Globalization and its (Dis) Contents: Multiple Perspectives. Next month we will be in Monterrey, Mexico, organizing the Junior Faculty Consortium section of the annual meeting of the Academy of International Business, to be held 8-12 October. A plenary session on internationalizing business education is also being offered there.
A new version of CORE (Company Readiness to Export) will soon be released. CORE V has been programmed into Visual Basic, and has been enhanced. Our innovative virtual course, Managing Export Operations, will be completed by January. MSU CIBER will then make this unique educational experience available to internet users on a subscription basis.
Finally, the range of study abroad experiences for business students continues to grow. New sites and tours are now being developed for business students.
These are only some of the projects on the MSU CIBER agenda. The CIBER team at MSU is proud to be a leading national resource center in international business education. We truly enjoy our work, and look forward to serving our academic and business community during 1997-98!
S. Tamer Cavusgil
CIBER is happy to have helped the following MSU professors attend faculty development programs and conferences this summer in their given research fields.
Tom Page, Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, presented on relationship marketing at the AMA conference in Dublin, Ireland, 12-15 June.
Rich Spreng, Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, present "Consumer Response to Really New Concepts" at the Unilever Consumer Science Symposium in London, England, 19-20 June.
Jack Meyer, Department of Economics, presented at the 8th International Conference on the Foundations and Applications of Utility, Risk and Decision Theory in Mons, Belgium 2-5 July.
Jianguo Chen, Coordinator of MSU’s Chinese Program, and Luding Tong attended the Third Annual Asian Business Language Workshop (co-sponsored by the Joint CIBER of Brigham Young University and the University of Utah) in Park City, Utah, 19-21 June.
CIBER recently completed negotiations with the American Marketing Association for the publishing of the Journal of International Marketing, our quarterly, refereed journal. The AMA, a 17,000-member professional organization, will begin as publisher with the January issue, Volume 6, 1998. The Journal is also now being indexed and abstracted by major on-line services, such as ABI Inform and the Social Science Citation Index. Our research annual, Advances in International Marketing, continues to be published by JAI Press.
The Office of Study Abroad has matching funds available for faculty wishing to develop study abroad programs. Deadline for the first round is 26 September. Please contact director Michael Vande Berg at (517) 353-8920 before submitting a proposal.
|
The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management International Business CenterMichigan State University Eppley Center 645 N. Shaw Ln Rm 7 East Lansing, MI 48824-1121 USA Exec Director's Office N356 North Business Complex Tel (517) 432-4320 FAX (517) 432-4222 IBC Office Eppley Center 645 N. Shaw Ln Rm 7 East Lansing, MI 48824-1121 Tel (517) 353-4336 FAX (517) 423-1009 http://ciber.bus.msu.edu |
UPCOMING EVENTS
|
Contact MSU-CIBER