Page 20 - DMGT547_INTERNATIONAL_MARKETING

Unit 1: Basics of International Marketing

Notes
and it helps to lay the foundation for a common company culture that is global in its
outlook.
Molex also makes sure that expatriates know why they are being sent to a foreign country,
both in terms of their own career development and Molex’s corporate goals. To prevent
expatriates from becoming disconnected from their home office, the HRM department
touches base with them on a regular basis through telephone, e-mail and direct visits. The
company also encourages expatriates to make home office visits so that they do not
become totally disconnected from their base and feel like a stranger when they return.
Upon return, they are debriefed and their knowledge gained abroad is put to use by, for
example, placing the expatriates on special task forces.
A final component of Molex’s strategy for building a cadre of globally minded managers
is the company’s in-house management development programs. These are open to a wide
range of managers who have worked at Molex for three years or more. Molex uses these
programs not just to educate its managers in finance, operations, strategy, and the like, but
also to bring together managers from different countries to build a network of individuals
who know each other and can work together in a cooperative fashion to solve business
problems that transcend borders.
Questions
1. What multinational strategy is Molex pursuing-localization, international, global
standardization or transnational?
2. How would you characterize the approach to staffing used at Molex? Is this
appropriate given its strategy?

3. Molex is very successful in its use of expatriate managers. Why do you think this is
the case? What can be learned from Molex’s approach?
4. How does the human resource function at Molex contribute to the attainment of its
multinational strategy?
Sources: J. Laabs, “Molex Makes Global HR Look Easy,” Workforce, March 1999, pp. 42-46; and M.
Solomon, “Foreign Relations,” Workforce, November 2000, pp. 50-56.
1.7 Summary

This unit attempts to give an overview of the functions in as simple manner as possible.
International marketing is the process of focusing the resources and objectives of a company
on marketing opportunities at international level. Companies are engaged in international
marketing for two reasons: firstly, to take advantage of opportunities of growth and
expansion, and secondly, to eventually lose their domestic markets because they will be
pushed aside by stronger and more competitive international competitors.

The basic goals of marketing are to create customer value and competitive advantage by
maintaining focus. Company management can be classified in terms of its orientation
towards the world: ethnocentric, polycentric, Regiocentric, and geocentric.

An ethnocentric orientation characterises domestic and international companies that pursue
marketing opportunities outside the home market by extending various elements of the
marketing mix. A polycentric would view predominates at a multinational company,
where country managers operating autonomously adapt the marketing mix.

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