Story Fifty-six - Margaret Makes a Business Decision
Margaret is marketing manager for a manufacturing company.
She is convinced that now is the best time for her company to expand overseas since demand is growing for her company's products in foreign markets.
Not only are exports growing, but there are excellent parts suppliers in certain foreign countries.
Therefore expanding overseas could increase market share and reduce costs at the same time.
Any move overseas will require careful planning.
Since conditions in each foreign country are different, she will certainly need to find people with local expertise to help her.
Margaret has visited most of the important overseas markets.
She doesn't want to make a wrong move and therefore decides to ask her existing overseas customers for advice.
It will take a while for her to do the necessary research to make sure that the new expansion plan is completed successfully.
Here is the same story told in a different way.
I was marketing manager for a manufacturing company, a few years ago.
I was convinced that it was time for our company to expand overseas since demand was growing for our company's products in foreign markets.
Not only were exports growing, but there were excellent parts suppliers in certain foreign countries.
Therefore expanding overseas could increase market share and reduce costs at the same time.
Any move overseas was going to require careful planning.
Since conditions in each foreign country were different, I knew that I would need to find people with local expertise to help me.
I had visited most of the important overseas markets.
I didn't want to make a wrong move and therefore decided to ask my existing overseas customers for advice.
It was going to take a while for me to do the necessary research to make sure that the new expansion plan was completed successfully.
One: Margaret is marketing manager for a manufacturing company.
What is Margaret's job?
Margaret's job is marketing manager for a manufacturing company.
Two: She is convinced that now is the best time for her company to expand overseas.
What is Margaret convinced of?
She is convinced that now is the best time for her company to expand overseas.
Three: There are excellent parts suppliers in certain foreign countries.
Where are there excellent parts suppliers?
There are excellent parts suppliers in certain foreign countries.
Four: Expanding overseas could increase market share and reduce costs at the same time.
What would expanding overseas do?
Expanding overseas could increase market share and reduce costs at the same time.
Five: I knew that I would need to find people with local expertise to help me.
Who did I know I would need to find to help me?
You knew that you would need to find people with local expertise.
Six: I had visited most of the important overseas markets.
Had I visited all of the important overseas markets?
No, you had visited most of the overseas markets.
Seven: I decided to ask my existing overseas customers for advice.
What did I ask my existing overseas customers for?
You asked them for advice.
Eight: It was going to take a while for me to do the necessary research.
Was it going to take me a short time to do the necessary research?
No, it was going to take you a while to do the research.
