Fundamental Problems in International Trade /

Global Trade OperationsTrade

Intro-Exercise
P ers onality  P ow er  P er for mance

Case

The bicycle repair shop Smith Sports ltd. is a family business (3rd generation) and is
located in Rhenish-Hesse, Germany.

Smith Sports ltd. has 10 employees a very flat and transparent hierarchy. Mr. Oliver Meyer
is the owner and managing director as well as the master craftsman of the repair shop.
Also, his son Alexander Meyer, his grandson Tim and his great-niece Victoria are working in
the company. Alexander is deputy director. He is responsible for all business areas
excluding the repair shop.

Besides the family members, Smith Sports has 3 employees (Paul, Bastian und Claudia) and
trainee Annette. The accounting has been outsourced. The contact is Lisa. The company
doesn`t have any other sites and no worker´s council.

All employees are involved in the decision-making process. The work atmosphere is
friendly and familiar. Fluctuation and illness rate is very low. All employees are highly
motivated. As a consequence, being in business for several decades, gaining a lot of
experience, they decided to build their own bikes.

To ensure the competitiveness of the company the younger family members and employees
have several additional ideas.

Besides the bicycle business, Tim and Victoria want to offer products for running and
swimming and they want to start global trade activities.
 2020 Thomas Schön All rights reserved. Die vorliegenden Unterlagen sind urheberrechtlich geschützt.
HSW_Intro-Exercise.docx/ TS / 23.03.2020
 Fundamental Problems in International Trade /
Global Trade OperationsTrade
Intro-Exercise
P ers onality  P ow er  P er for mance

Questions

1) Being a committed student consultant, please prepare a (check-)list of all criteria that
you think are necessary to consider when going global.

2) Define approximately 4-5 leading questions for the process and bring them in a logical
order.

3) Please name models, principles, tools, etc. that are helpful to plan and operationalize
the idea of global activities. Give a short explanation of the mentioned aid including
why it would be helpful in your opinion.
 2020 Thomas Schön All rights reserved. Die vorliegenden Unterlagen sind urheberrechtlich geschützt.
HSW_Intro-Exercise.docx/ TS / 23.03.2020