The Discussion Question: You’ve just landed your first job after college. You will be working at the Mart-Riviera furniture company. The company has been in business since 1976 and has built a reputation for its high quality, contemporary furniture design. The products are sold mostly through upscale retailers across the country. Mart-Riviera is always looking for new opportunities to expand its market. The latest talk around the boardroom is that perhaps Mart-Riviera should look at international expansion. Throughout this course, you will have the opportunity to put the concepts you’re learning into practice by assisting Mart-Riviera in the go to market strategy of a foreign market.
About your position- you are starting as an administrative assistant in order to get the feel for the business. Samuel Mart, the son of the one of the founders of the company, met you at a networking event and was very intrigued by your overall business acumen. Samuel believes in bringing in young talent and grooming them for a career, not just a single position. He appreciates the curiosity and different perspectives that a young associate can bring to the company. He is not opposed to giving a lot more responsibility to a young associate than may be expected.
The first task you’ve been assigned is to get the “lay of the land” on the global marketplace. Mart-Riviera has enjoyed a strong brand loyalty for most of its history. The company started in Chicago in the garage of Henry Mart and Manuel Riviera. They were also just out of college when they started the company and they did so because they were convinced that office furniture didn’t have to be boring. They started by selling their designs to their employer, a boutique advertising agency, and the company took off from there. For its 40 years of existence, Mart-Riviera, has focused primarily on the domestic furniture market that focuses fashion and function. This has provided them with a loyal, niche market. Teresa Riviera became the head of marketing last year and she has convinced Samuel that the time has come to test the waters by considering expanding outside of the U.S.
You need to put together a memo outlining some of the concerns that a company might have about international expansion. Specifically, you should focus on the forces driving globalization and the concern about the support for or backlash of taking a company globally. As a junior staff member, what can you do to assist Mart-Riviera in this process?
Requirements: Minimum of 250 words and must use 2 pieces of evidence from articles provided below.
