...Institutional, and Cultural Context of Colombia Michael N. Yuede Missouri State University Abstract This paper studies the Colombian culture and how it affects business relations. First, the Colombian country is explored, examining the geographical location and environment, demographics, economy, religion, and the historical, legal and ethical, and social context. Geert Hofstede’s, Fons Trompenaars’, and GLOBE’s models of national culture infer ways to behave in any given culture, and in this case, Colombia. Differences can be seen between the United States’ and Colombia’s culture after exploring the models, suggesting ways to adapt to the new culture and act appropriately in a business environment. After studying the models, the cultural descriptions and aspects, including Colombia’s collectivistic and high power distance nature, give future managers and expatriates the implications necessary to become legitimized in the eyes of other businesses and the government. Additionally, the implications help predict employee behaviors and motivators, as well as human resource management policies that should be implemented into the business. However, in order to fully understand the Colombian culture, an individual must live in that country for a period of time to experience the culture first hand. Environmental, Institutional, and Cultural Context of Colombia In order to better understand how to interact in a business environment in Colombia, it is important to know about the...
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...FAO Experience Track The perspectives I have of Latin America were developed over 18 years of immersion as a local. Social awareness, familiarity of speech, understanding of issues that matter in the region vs. issues important outside of the region are second nature to me. I was born and raised in Colombia, and finished high school in Panama. The political environment of Colombia and Panama shaped my cultural awareness and political understanding of these two countries’ overall climate as well as neighboring countries in the region. My understanding of Latin America is complemented by 23 years in the United States, including 21 years of service as a Marine. The Marine Corps has a culture all its own, which I understand well through 7 years of enlisted and 14 years of commissioned service. My first-hand exposure and experience in foreign countries have left a continuing personal interest in following social and political events in Panama, Colombia, and Latin America as a whole. I follow significant events pertinent to the region. Many have impacted the economy and security of the United States as well. The transition of operations and management of the Panama Canal to Panama in December 1999, and current efforts by President Santos against the FARC are among them. The transition of the Panama Canal and its surrounding territories marked a historical event for Panama and the U.S. Panama’s political position strengthened in relation to its Latin American neighbors...
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...Global Business Plan Week 7-Final Draft Subway in Colombia 04/15/2012 Table of Contents Content Page Number Table of Contents 2 Executive Summary 3 Module 1: Identifying Global Opportunities 4 Module 2: Analyzing International Competitors 7 Module 3: Assessing the Economic/Geographic Environment 10 Module 4: Assessing the Sociocultural Environment 13 Module 5: Assessing the Political Legal Environment 15 Module 6: Selecting a Global Company Structure 18 Module 7: Financing Sources for Global Business Operations 22 Module 8: Creating a Global MIS (Management Information System) 25 Module 9: Identifying Human Resources for Global Business Activities 27 Module 10: Managing International Financial and Business Risks 29 Module 11: Product Target Market Planning for Foreign Markets 31 Module 12: Designing a Global Distribution Strategy 32 Module 13: Planning a Global Promotion Strategy 36 Module 14: Selecting an International Pricing Strategy 38 Module 15: Determining Organizational Financial Results 41 Module 16: Measuring International Business Success 42 Conclusion 43 Bibliography EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (Created by John Isles) During the course of this business plan, many of the benefits of opening up a Subway restaurant in Colombia will be illustrated. Among the first items presented will be an analysis of startup costs. After a brief summary of the initial costs required, these...
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...competitive price companies within the travel agencies. After seeing our companies wrong, we believe that we are prepared to expand into South America this upcoming year. With that being said and much research, our company can only expand into one country. Travel Express has consider expanding into Colombia and Panama. We believe that these two countries have a lot to offer our clients, and also countries where not that many traveling agencies have expanded. The three major factors that we researched in order to come with this conclusion are their economy and government, climate and seasons, tourism. BENEFITS AND RISKS OF EXPANSION IN COLOMBIA OR PANAMA Economy and Government Colombia’s Economy and Government Colombia is currently a democratic country, with a central government and separate powers. Just like in the United States, Colombia has Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary branches (“About Colombia,” 2014). Their current currency is Colombian’s pesos; one American dollar equals a bit over two Colombian pesos. With the Colombia peso being so weak compare to the American dollar; tourist are able to get more for their money. For example, they can vacation longer in Colombia, visit more tourist areas, buy higher quality...
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...Format for the Final Exam: The format will be a two-hour in-class exam. You will have an essay (60% of the exam score – worth 60 points) that will be identical to the midterm. It will be closed-note, closed book exercise during the two-hour exam. You will also have 20 multiple choice questions (40% of the exam score – worth 2 points each, for a total of 40 points). As with the midterm, the essay will provide a hypothetical scenario of a company that is considering making an investment in a Latin American country. (You will not know the industry of this hypothetical company until the exam.) You will be asked to assess any TWO of the countries that we have covered since the midterm: Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and/or Colombia. The format will be identical to what you saw in the midterm, as follows: a) provide an assessment of prospects for the continuation and sustainability of market-oriented economic reforms in [ANY TWO COUNTRIES OF THE LIST COVERED SINCE THE MIDTERM]. (NOTE: In your answer, you should use the Packenham Model as a framework for your analysis. Don't just summarize Packenham, however; USE the model to assess prospects for specific current and future market-oriented economic reforms in both countries. Also, make reference to lectures/other readings, where relevant.) [MAKE SURE TO DISCUSS BOTH COUNTRIES FULLY.] AND b) discuss any other factors that might be relevant to [THE COMPANY’S INVESTMENT PROJECT], such as possible locations...
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...Team case analysis Group 1: Rion, Anna, Eva, Helen, Tyrion, Feras Case 1.“When in Bogota…” Case summary. Jim Reynolds, an acquisition editor for Academia Press (college-level business textbook publisher) has arrived from New York, USA to Bogota, Colombia. He was intended to combine leisure and business. He met his old college friend Rodrigo Cardozo and spent some good time his family. But his primary aim was to conduct a series of meetings with directors of business schools at various Bogota Universities and establish business contacts in the Colombian market, as his company has seen future opportunities in Latin America. The deal was important not only to his company, but for him also, as it was a good possibility to get a promotion. He scheduled the meeting and went for the first one on Tuesday. He was supposed to meet 3 professors at 11:00, but two of them arrived half an hour later. Then they offered Jim to go for a lunch, during that time they were not discussing the business matters at all, all the conversations were about the dishes and the sights of Bogota, the professors seem to be simply not interested in Jim’s offerings. The lunch finished at 2:30, but Jim hasn’t accomplished his goal at all, he was didn’t understand what went wrong and very upset about it. When he came to his friend’s home later, he met friend’s father Dario, who was a businessman and had conducted business with people from different countries. He told about the meeting and asked for the advice....
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...FAO Experience Track Sample Essay The perspectives I have of Latin America were developed over 18 years of immersion as a local. Social awareness, familiarity of speech, understanding of issues that matter in the region vs. issues important outside of the region are second nature to me. I was born and raised in Colombia, and finished high school in Panama. The political environment of Colombia and Panama shaped my cultural awareness and political understanding of these two countries’ overall climate as well as neighboring countries in the region. My understanding of Latin America is complemented by 23 years in the United States, including 21 years of service as a Marine. The Marine Corps has a culture all its own, which I understand well through 7 years of enlisted and 14 years of commissioned service. My first-hand exposure and experience in foreign countries have left a continuing personal interest in following social and political events in Panama, Colombia, and Latin America as a whole. I follow significant events pertinent to the region. Many have impacted the economy and security of the United States as well. The transition of operations and management of the Panama Canal to Panama in December 1999, and current efforts by President Santos against the FARC are among them. The transition of the Panama Canal and its surrounding territories marked a historical event for Panama and the U.S. Panama’s political position strengthened in relation to its Latin...
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...Starbucks goes to Colombia Starbucks the biggest coffee shop in the United States decided to expand their business to Colombia. Starbucks goal is to open around 50 stores by 2019. This is bringing a lot of positive and negative feedback to the Company Starbucks and to the country Colombia. This is happening because Starbucks will be competing with the biggest company shop of coffee in Colombia. According to the article Starbucks to Invade Colombia, Home of Juan Valdez, the Iconic Coffee Man by John Otis, says “Starbucks’ decision comes at a low point for Colombia’s coffee industry. Growers are struggling to recover from massive flooding, diseased trees, diminished yields, cratering international prices and an overvalued Colombian peso that reduces the value of coffee exports.” So this might help the country economies. At the same time the competition might also have a high risk of failure to take their market to the biggest country of coffee because Colombians are not so happy with the decision of taking an American coffee to their country while they already have a great one. Also according to the article As Starbucks heads to Colombia, growers have grounds for regret says that 18,000 coffee farmers, declined the offer of Starbucks which according to the University in Miami might be a big mistake to the Colombia coffee farmers. The article also mentions the comments from the CEO of Juan Valdez, he says that he welcomes the company Starbucks to the country, he mentions that this...
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...TB0245 Andreas Schotter Mary Teagarden Blood Bananas: Chiquita in Colombia No one laughs at the banana in its areas of origin. It is too serious a business, on which jobs and lives depend. Peter Chapman, Author of Jungle Capitalists. For Chiquita Brands International, a pioneer in the globalization of the banana industry, bananas are not only serious business, they represent an array of economic, social, environmental, political, and legal hassles. Since its founding more than a hundred years ago as United Fruit Company, Chiquita has been involved in paying bribes to Latin American government officials in exchange for preferential treatment, encouraging or supporting U.S. coups against smaller nations, putting in place dictatorships in Central America’s “banana republics,” exploiting local workers, creating an abusive monopoly, and now doing business with terrorists.1 For American multinationals, the rewards of doing business abroad are enormous, but so are the risks. Over the past decades, no place has been more hazardous than Colombia, a country that is just emerging from a deadly civil war and the effects of wide-ranging narco-terrorism. Chiquita found out the hard way. It made tens of millions in profit growing bananas in Colombia, only to emerge with its reputation splattered in blood.2 In 2004, Chiquita voluntarily admitted criminal responsibility to the U.S. Justice Department that one of its Colombian banana subsidiaries had made protection payments from 1997...
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...The military of several Latin American countries, the Colombian forces played a subordinate role during the first few decades of the nineteenth century. A strong antimilitarist tradition emerged in the postindependence period among the nation’s civilian leaders, who wanted to prevent the military from becoming an autonomous power. Colombia’s current armed forces had their origins in the militia organized in 1811 by a rebellious league called the United Provinces of New Granada. The force — composed of poor, uneducated, campesino volunteers — was divided into infantry and cavalry units trained by a senior officer corps. The constitutional charter of 1811 assigned the power to raise and organize the army to the nascent Congress, which proved...
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...Juan Valdez: caso exitoso 1. ANTECEDENTES * 1927 Se crea la FNC como ente gremial de los cafeteros. * 1957 Nace el icono Juan Valdez como símbolo de la caficultura en Colombia. * 1980 A partir de Juan Valdez, se crea el logo ingrediente 100% Café de Colombia. * 2002 Se posiciona a Juan Valdez como una marca de productos de café con un alto valor agregado. * En los 90 la cadena de valor del negocio del café se empezó a concentrar en el último eslabón controlado por multinacionales. * El concepto global se ha materializado en cuatro formatos de tiendas –Recientemente se implementó un quinto formato (Boutique). Las principales diferencias entre estos radican en su tamaño total, la inversión, el tamaño que dedican a las diferentes áreas, su localización y los productos que ofrecen. * El canal de retail está presente en los principales supermercados en 8 países de América ofreciendo un portafolio diverso de productos de café: * Norteamérica: 740 POS. * México: 60 POS. * Salvador: 50 POS. * Costa Rica: 44 POS. * Colombia: 270 POS. * Perú: 20 POS. * Argentina: 25 POS. * En solo 7 meses Juan Valdez logrócapturar en valores el 5.3% del mercado nacional de la categoría cafés tostados y molidos. * La comunicación de la marca se ha enfocado a actividades de BTL que permiten una mayor interacción con el consumidor y son útiles para adelantar campañas de educación acerca del café premium y sus diferentes...
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...Weinberg, Bill. "Guns: The U.S. Threat To Mexican National Security. (Cover Story)." NACLA Report On The Americas 41.2 (2008): 21-26. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. THE VIOLENT STRUGGLE BETWEEN MEXICAN Drug cartels for supremacy over the multibillion-dollar narcotics trade is starting to look like a real war. With local police outgunned, President Felipe Calderón began his term in the final days of 2006 by' deploying the army to fight the cartels The violence, simmering for more than a decade, exploded in 2003 in Nuevo Laredo, a crucial crossing point to U.S. Interstate 35. when Gulf Cartel kingpin Osiel Cardenas was apprehended. Seeing a strategic vulnerability, the rival Juarez and Tijuana cartels started moving into Nuevo Laredo, traditionally a Gulf Cartel stronghold.( n1) The Zetas--the Gulf Cartel's paramilitary force, thought to be composed of former military personnel--began a reign of terror to protect their turf Several Nuevo Laredo police officers were killed by presumed Zeta assassins in the opening months of 2005, prompting then president Vicente Fox to flood the town with 700 federal agents and army troops in what he dubbed "the mother of all battles" against the drug trade.( n2) Yet the Mexican state's armed response has done little to solve the problem. In 2007, drug-related killings surpassed 2.500, up from 2,100 in 2006.( n3) A crucial part of the problem lies in the cartels' firepower, which now rivals even that of the regular Mexican army...
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...way reduce their travel time by weeks because they do not have to travel around the tip of South America. However, without decades of negotiations, this canal would not exist (The Panama Canal Negotiations, 2012). The negotiations began in 1847 when the United States entered a treaty with the country of Colombia. This treaty allowed America to use the Isthmus of Panama for shipping. The treaty also guaranteed Panama’s neutrality and gave Colombia sovereignty over the entire region (The Panama Canal Negotiations, 2012). Nothing else significant happened until the French attempted to build a canal across Panama in 1881. However, the French did not realize the problems ahead and stopped the project in just eight years. Despite the noted problems, America considered a canal there as vital to its future and therefore, took up the contract to build the canal (The Panama Canal Negotiations, 2012). Finally, in 1889 the French entered into negations to turn over the project to America. These talks were very tense as the French had already gone bankrupt in their attempts. As negotiations evolved, Americans attempted to fool the French into thinking they were considering a different plan to build an alternative canal in Nicaragua. The French, realizing what America was doing, claimed that Great Britain and Russia were also in negotiations for the rights to the Panama Canal....
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...A02-01-0021 American Mining Company (AMC) in Colombia AMC Moves to Colombia By the end of 2000, the American Mining Company (AMC) had finished moving nearly all of its coal operations from the southern United States to its premier mine in Northeast Colombia. Despite telling its workers that the company would not transfer its operations abroad, AMC closed nine mines over a five-year period, firing over 5,000 United Mine Workers. Only one surface mine and one underground mine were left operational in the US, with plans to close both by 2003. AMC was one of the leading coal mining companies in the United States for the previous half century, with coal holdings of over 1.3 billion short tons and revenues of nearly US $1 billion. Worldwide, AMC enjoyed a reputation of providing high quality coal, reliable delivery, and excellent service. Before the shift to Colombia, AMC was one of the top 300 largest private companies in the United States. The company had also begun diversifying into real estate developments on both the US east and west coasts. Colombia provided numerous advantages for AMC. First, the country’s low wages provided a much cheaper labor force in comparison to the high hourly salaries of the US mine workers. Wages for Colombian mine workers, for example, ranged from $500 to $1,000 a month, while US mine workers received over $3,000 monthly plus benefits. Moreover, the company would also not have to contend with the burdensome labor restrictions of the US mine union...
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...computers can be successfully sold in other markets as well. In Colombia, we can market our XO computers to both the rich and the poor. We will aim to target children of Colombian coffee farmers who strive to learn but cannot afford expensive technology. In fact, there are 618,199 households in the coffee-growing region of Colombia. In addition, there are 653,471 children aged between 5-19 years old (average of one school-aged child per household) in these areas. About 39% of the population in the coffee-growing region (made up of Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindío regions) did not finish primary school and/or secondary school. So, we believe that there is a large market that would be interested in our product. The price will be set at $250, which we believe is a reasonable price. Based on the average income of a Colombian worker, we believe that our product will be well received in the Colombian coffee regions. We believe that the adults will want to invest in their child’s future, as well as buying a well-made piece of technology for an inexpensive price. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Part 1: Market Audit and Competitive Market Analysis The Product 5 The Market 7 Part 2: Preliminary Marketing Plan Marketing Objectives 9 Product Adaptation or Modification 11 Promotion Mix 13 Channels of Distribution 16 Price Determination 18 Appendix 20 References 21 Introduction The purpose of this marketing plan is to reach out to children who work on the coffee farms. These...
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