ACTIVITY 14
1. Before proceeding to importing and exporting goods
to Australia from overseas organizations need to know
about the legislation and restrictions, must understand
their obligations in order to outline the rights of every
customers/consumers and of businesses when conflicts
arise.
Import business must know what imports are
acceptable and which might be seized by the Australian
Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
They need to know about:
 conditions that apply to buying and importing goods
from overseas
 banned and restricted imports
 trade measurement regulations
 duty taxes
 customs restrictions
 permits
 quarantine and treatments
 the powers and jurisdiction of the Australian Border
Force
Aside from that, exporters need to know the risks
associated with exporting – foreign exchange, political,
shipping, quarantine. They will need industry specific
information for different international market. This will
include information about the legislating relevant to
sending, marketing and selling goods overseas.
Austrade, state and territory governments and
Australian Border Security can provide information on
import/export requirements or provide contact details
for expert advice.
2. Organizations that operate in international market
can face the dilemma of complying with the work
standards of their home country versus the lack of such
rights for employees in the host countries. They need to
make a determination on how they will operate and
determine what human rights policies they can apply.
It is also necessary to identify and assess the type of
government that a country has in political and legal
aspects.
3. Ethical dilemma faced by companies who operate
business ventures overseas include lack of complying on
the rights for their employees and their customers.
Company sometimes provide lower-priced products to
customers, particularly serving their individual/human
rights.
Impact on the environment is another ethical issues
faced by them because legislations and restrictions
differ in each country.
Bribery and corruption can also be one of the ethical
dilemmas they can face. Countries that are unable to
make such payments have an ethical dilemma and
might feel it is necessary to resort to other means,
possibly unethical, to garner appropriate advantage.
Each country is different in culture, laws, politics,
worker’s rights, child labor and diversity. A company
considering a foreign operation must carefully examine
all of these issues before making a commitment.
ACTIVITY 15
1. Identifying, analysing, and documenting poor/under-
servicing of existing international market needs by an
organization and its competitors help companies
determine the areas that are not being addressed well
by competitors and that offer opportunities for the
organization.
Those areas include quality, cost, cultural, and supply
issues, poor understanding of the international market,
low acceptance of the product/services, and many
more.
It is necessary to:
 identify and document areas where the business is
performing well, in order to duplicate successes
 identify areas in which the business is
underperforming in order to develop improvement
strategies
 identify and document areas in which competitors
are not performing well and develop strategies for
taking advantage of these opportunities
 develop strategies and a point of difference that will
lead to competitive success
Assessment results should be documented so they can
be referred back to as needed.
ACTIVITY 16
It is necessary to identify market changes that link
positively to the organization’s strengths and
capabilities so marketers can update their processes
and strategies. Organizations that cannot adopt rapidly
enough move towards decline. It enables organizations
to develop strategies that will help them take advantage
of any changes that link positively to their strengths and
capabilities, and to operate effectively and sustainably
in international markets.
ACTIVITY 17
1. Forecasting techniques, according to chron.com
include:
 Channel and Customer Surveys. The data gathered
on surveys will be used to make a forecast. These
surveys are generally better at determining the
market potential than the sales potential. They are
therefore, market potential forecasting methods.
 Sales Force Composite. This method of forecasting
is therefore not suitable to new products. It is
typically best used for existing products and near-
term estimates.
 Execute Opinions. They will, therefore, have an
incentive to generate well-thought-out opinions on
the sales potential of a product. Nonetheless,
executive opinion should always be backed by
quantitative techniques and research.
 Another forecasting technique that can be used is
the correlation analysis, which is a special form of
trend analysis. It bases sales forecasts on the trend
patterns of related variables.
 Response Models can also be used in forecasting.
Sometimes a company will base its forecasts based
on past responses of customers to marketing
techniques. They can then estimate when
customers are price sensitive, how they respond to
offers, and so on.
2. What criteria will an organisation use to determine
whether a forecasting technique is appropriate to their
needs?
Each of forecasting techniques has its special use, and
care must be taken to select the correct technique for a
particular application. The selection of a method
depends on many factors – the context of the forecasts
(its uses and functions), the relevance of the data, the
degree of accuracy desirable, the time period to be
forecast, the cost/benefit of the forecast to the
company, the time available for making the analysis,
and its correctness or being appropriate to use to the
company’s needs. These factors must be weighed
constantly and properly in order to identify the most
appropriate forecasting technique.
ACTIVITY 18
1. From what sources will you gather information about
emerging international markets and market needs?
Market intelligence, business performance assessments,
competitor analyses, and market research results will provide
information for forecasting emerging international market
needs. This information can be used to justify an
organization’s intentions with regarding to moving into
emerging international markets.
When justifying intentions the organization will need to
clearly identify its options, conduct appropriate risk
assessments, cost benefits analyses etc and determine what
changes, innovations and support will be needed to function
effectively and efficiently in those markets.
Many domestic and international sources of information
concerning international markets are available. Research
sources range from simple trade statistics, to in-depth market
surveys, to firsthand interviews with public- and private-
sector experts. Trade statistics indicate total exports or
imports by country and by product. They allow you to
compare the size of the market for a product in various
countries. Market surveys provide a narrative description and
assessment of particular markets, along with relevant
statistics. One of the best sources of information is personal
interviews with private and government officials and experts.
A surprisingly large number of people in both the public and
private sectors are available to assist you in any aspect of
international market research.
2. What business needs should be assessed?
Business needs relating to skills and knowledge, resources
(including human resources), understanding of legislation,
culture, and other factors that will impact on the businesses
operation must be identified and addressed in terms of the
processes that will be undertaken in order to fulfil those
business needs.
Questions will need to be asked about the function and
structure of the organization, any changes that might need to
be made, investment and financial support, the ability of the
organization to build relationships in emerging markets and
any requirements relating to performance improvement.
SUMMATIVE 1
Question 1. From what sources would you access
examples of cultural, historical, political, economic and
general knowledge of international events that might
have an impact on international business?
Examples of cultural, historical, political, economic and
general knowledge of international events that might
have an impact on international business can be assess
and gathered as a result of networking activities and by
attending expos, trade fairs, seminars and conferences.
These events involve formal and informal interaction
and conversation with a number of different people,
from range of background. People attending these
functions can provide valuable and interesting insights
and information about international markets.
Information in these activities include cultural factors,
legislation, country’s GDP, demand, feasibility, shifting
market conditions, and so on.
Question 2. There are a number of forecasting
techniques that can be used. List at least five.
 Expert Opinions is one of forecasting techniques
according to chron.com. This is just like executive
opinion, only the expert is a third party from
outside the company. Just like executive opinion, it
should also be backed by research and quantitative
methods.
 Trend analysis. It is a time series technique that also
observes patterns in sale. It can be used to measure
the rate of growth of sales in the past and
extrapolate it to the future. Time series analysis is
most useful in a stable market. A market that either
fluctuates or frequently gets disrupted will not lend
itself very well to this method.
 The Delphi Model/Method. It is a forecasting
process framework based on the results of multiple
rounds of questionnaires sent to a panel of experts.
Since multiple rounds of questions are asked and
the panel is told what the group thinks as a whole,
the Delphi method seeks to reach the correct
response through consensus.
 Scenario Assessments/Planning. It is a tool of
strategic planning which takes the uncertainty of
 future developments into account. Organizations
that use scenarios acknowledge that the world in
which their decisions will play is uncertain and
largely out of their control.
 Causal models attempt to extend framework by
adding the notion of causal relationships, in which
changes in one variable cause changes in others.
The goal of causal forecasting model is to develop
the best statistical relationship between a
dependent variable and one or more independent
variables.
Question 3. What types of information from internal
and external sources will be relevant to forecasting
international market and business needs?
Information such as business performance, competitor,
market research results, innovations, cost benefit,
legislation, culture, and other matters from internal and
external sources will be relevant to forecasting
international market and business needs. Function and
structure of the organization, any changes that might
need to be made, investment and financial support, the
ability of the organization to build relationship in
emerging markets and any requirements relating to
performance improvements are also the type of
information the company can get that will help in
forecasting international market and business needs.
Question 4. When interacting in international markets
there will be legislative and regulatory compliance
requirements. These will relate to the home country
and to the host country. Make a list of areas that this
will relate to.
 TAXATION HERE AND ABROAD. Australian tax
residents and foreign entities controlled by
Australian tax residents are taxed on their
worldwide income, regardless of whether it is
earned in Australia or overseas. Just because a
business is in a foreign country and only trades
overseas does not mean that is escapes the
Australian tax net.
 IMPORT/EXPORT. Australian legislation, regulation
and standards place specific requirements on
import/export activities. Impost business must be
aware of laws of government regulations. They
must know what imports are acceptable and which
might be seized by the Australian Department of
Immigration and Border Protection. However,
exporters needs to know the risks associated with
exporting. They will need industry specific
information for different international markets.
 INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATION. Organizations
setting up their business in international markets
must comply with International Commercial Law –
the legislation, regulations, rules, conventions,
treaties, and commercial customers or usages that
govern international commercial or business
transactions.
 ETHICS. Customers in the international market will
look for both product and company suitability.
While it is incumbent on business to operate within
the ethical constraints of the country in which they
are working it is also important that they do not
take advantage in countries where ethical standards
are low and exploitation and/or corruption are
allowed.
 WORK CONDITIONS. Business operating in
international markets can face the dilemma of
complying with the work standards of their home
country versus the lack of such rights for employees
in the host countries. They need to make a
determination on how they will operate and
determine what human rights policies they can
apply.
There are so many areas and matters that the home
country and host country must understand and comply.
Mentioned earlier are just some of them.
Understanding individual and everyone’s differences
can make the differences between success and failure in
a global market. Each nation has its own distinct
customs, history, traditions and code of ethics.
Question 5. Give examples of software applications that
are commonly used in market analysis and forecasting
and list their key features. Through your own research
list three or four software applications then select two
and write a brief report where you compare, assess and
analyse them.
ADAPTIVE INSIGHTS
 Native workflow to sequence, assign, and track
tasks for business owners
 Process Tracker provides real-time visibility into
planning processes and individual tasks.
 Step-by-step guides for users dependent on their
roles
 Note sharing
 Compare plan vs. actuals
 Visual Model Overview for single view business
model and data flows
FORECAST4000
 Utilization of live asset information with user-
selected expenditure models.
 Acquisitions, disposals, revaluations and relifes by
accounting period.
 Calculates multiple budget options for optimizing
expenditure decisions.
 Stores budgets as models for creating new budgets.
LINKEDIN WEBSITE DEMOGRAPHICS
 Get real-time data on your campaign performance
& demographic insights from the world’s largest
professional network.
 Measure & track conversions to understand how
your ads are driving business results like generating
leads, purchases, and event registrations.
 Analyze performance by comparing engagement
metrics like clicks, impressions & social actions.
 Discover professional traits & content preferences
of your website visitors.
LOOKER
 Centralize your data sources.
 Get a single source of truth for all your marketing
data.
 Get the entire view of a user’s experience on your
website from every click to conversion.
 Define metrics once & build & share custom
dashboards.
 Analyze campaigns to track KPIs like CPC, CTR &
CPA.
 Analyze ROI & understand spend & revenue
generated by every campaign & medium.
 Set up custom rules to receive email alerts when
any tactic or ad goes wrong.
 Monitor & optimize conversion rates by channel,
content & audiences.
 Acquisition channels to track where new leads &
customers are coming from.
 Quickly segment data & analyze how different
segments behave over time.
LinkedIn Website Demographics lets you discover the
professional traits of your website visitors and
understand your audience better. It gives you valuable
audience insights—like job titles, company names, and
industries—using the most accurate professional data
by LinkedIn. You’ll be able to create tailored content to
your strongest prospects, and compare different pages
to learn which kinds of content resonate with different
audiences. With its reporting and analytics tools, you’ll
learn about your website visitors and target those who
are most likely to become qualified leads and
customers.
While on the other hand, Looker is a business
intelligence software that specializes in data-discovery.
Looker is a data-discovery platform that helps
companies make better business decisions through real-
time access to data. It can meet the requirements of
startups, mid-sized businesses and enterprises,
providing capabilities to analyze data of all sizes with its
100% in-database and 100% browser-based platform.