Case Study ACN Inc.

1 - To what extent does ACN have a strategy, and does it matter?

According to Mintzberg’s 5 Ps:
Plan Strategies: “ACN targets the core markets. In France, 95% of landline traffic is still carried
by FT, so the prospects for ACN look good”. So, they have plan for future, but we do not know
if this plan is a long term or just for the near future.
Ploy Strategies: It seems their short-term plan is to lower their prices in comparison with others
to attract more individuals. However, in other areas such services, we do not see any clear plan as
they offer the same ones as the other companies.
Pattern Strategies: They have behaved (MLM) in the same way for many years that leads to a
pattern. “MLM is a method of product and service distribution that relies on one individual finding
a number of customers to sell to, these customers then find another number of customers to sell to,
and these customers then find another number of customers to sell to, and so on.”
Position Strategies: They are the one at the top, but for keeping their position they need to do
better than just lowering their prices. Because other companies my offer the same price with better
services.
Perspective Strategies: It seems they have emergent strategy which it works well so far, but they
need to think about having a deliberate strategy too.

2 - Comment on the proposition to sell products services to customers at prices immediately below
the main providers’ charges. What are the barriers that have to be overcome in order for this to be
effective?
As we said previously in the question one, the company’s short-term plan is to lower their prices
to beat other ones, as the matter of fact their plan also works but in the long-term when some there
many other factors that can hurt the company if they do not consider to have one.
They have used MLM method to have a slightly lower price than other companies especially the
local ones, but they can provide some features and services with the same price or even higher but
attract more customers.

3 - Comment on the use of English expatriates to sell a range of US products and services to the
French population. What factors ought to have been addressed before this decision was taken?
They made horrible mistake here. It can hurt the company in many aspects, especially their
reputation among French people.
The culture of the countries should be studied, and the relevant people of the same nationality
should be hired accordingly. In this case, customers feel they are in touch with their compatriots
and not people from foreign countries who are trying to persuade them to buy the company's
products.

4 - What other opportunities could ACN have explored as alternatives to expansion overseas?
They can buy smaller companies in other countries and hire indigenous people and gradually
expand their activities so that they can have several branches throughout the country in 5 to 10
years. This plan can be worked very well and considered as both a short and long-term goal.