Suggested Answers to Discussion Questions
1. What is the difference between a great and an ordinary company?
Perhaps the most fundamental difference is that great companies think differently.
The ordinary company has a limited view of its purpose and mission: the most
ordinary and lowest form of ordinary is the company that sees itself as nothing more
2. Cite examples of companies that you consider to be great and ordinary
companies. Explain why the companies that you selected are great or ordinary.
The answer to this question is totally dependent upon what the individual students
3. What is the major complaint of managers in subsidiary companies about the
control practices of headquarters?
The primary complaint from managers in subsidiary companies about the control
practices of headquarters is that headquarters does not allow them the independence
or autonomy to make the quick necessary decisions they believe are imperative to
4. What is a global marketing audit?
A global marketing audit can be defined as a comprehensive, systematic and periodic
examination of a company’s or business unit’s marketing environment, objectives,
5. What kind of planning problems develop in the headquarters of a global
company?
If plans are developed at headquarters, there may be difficulty in implementing them
at the local level as subsidiary managers may suffer from the “Not Invented Here”
6. What are the problems in planning at the country or subsidiary level in a global
company?
With a geographic structure where planning is at the country or subsidiary level,
relevant market information may not be shared with subsidiaries, there may be costly
duplication of effort and a coherent global advertising effort does not result.
7. How would you advise a company manufacturing a line of construction
equipment to organize on a global scale?
There are many ways to organize a global company. In the case of construction