Introduction

BMW G localization Assignment

BMW is a well known organization in the world for the auto maker and though serving to the
premium customer segment. The Corporate strategy adopted by BMW is such that it has
implemented both global as well as local elements in the workings of the company which
have helped the company to understand the local operational issues and cultural issues.
Though company is well known for the brand name and best engineering technology in the
auto industry but more than all this Globalization strategy adopted by company also helped
them in resolving various regional issues and perform better in those regions.

Ques1. What are the elements of BMWs corporate strategy that have
contributed to its success as a global corporation?
Answer: Corporate Strategy can be defined as the Predefined way in which all the
operations of a corporate firm work in order to achieve the set goals and objectives. The
Corporate strategy of the firm need to be highly flexible and should incorporate all the

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changes which are critical as per the demand of the situation in which it operates (Treacy
and Wiersema, 2003, pg 13).
According to Henry Mintzberg (2004, pg 43) corporate strategy can be defined as the mean
which shows the way to go from here to there. In other words corporate strategy of the
company is always unique and very much dependent on the mission and vision of the
company. Or in other words it can be said that corporate strategy is defined as per the future
expectation of the company about the aims and objectives.
According to Kenneth Andrews (1999, pg 44) corporate strategy can be defined as the
pattern of decisions making in any organisation which determines objectives of the company
and shows the principle policies of the company. There is a definite plan of action by the firm
in order to pursue all the objectives of the company. And the plan of action has to be
decided by the series of decision making in order to achieve the set objectives of the
company.
The Elements of the corporate strategy of the company which have contributed to the
success of global corporation are as follows:
Sr. No.

Element name

Importance

Contribution
to success

Mission statement of the company

1

Mission Statement

provides a target of the company where High

it has to reach

Vision statement

It provides the directive path for the

target finding

High

Leadership style of the management

3

Leadership style

decides what way company will achieve High

its target

5.

Situation
assessment
Competitive
advantage

Situation assessment provides the

actual assessment where company and
its competitors stands in the market

Middle to
high

The Competitive advantage of the BMW

is its technical expertise and premium

High

customer segment

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As per the definition given by the Henry Mintzberg the corporate strategy of the company
should define the way which company want to travel. Hence the mission which company
want to achieve should be fulfilled with the help of the corporate strategy of the
company. Mission Statement: The Mission statement of the BMW is To become most
successful premium manufacturer in the car industry. Hence it shows that clearly company
want to cater to only the premium car segment of the automobile segment and want to be
the most successful company in the automobile industry (Robert, 2003, pg 14). Also the
company want to become the most successful company in auto segment with the help of
some particular innovations which are the differentiation points which company has and
provides advantage to the company over its competitors.
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Vision statement: The Vision statement of the company specifies how they want to fulfil
their aim of the most successful company in the automobile industry. It says that
Uniqueness through diversity, Leadership, taking Risk, courteous. Hence company want to
achieve the uniqueness with the help of the diversity which it is trying to achieve through the
technological innovations in their products (Tregoe and Zimmerman, 2000, pg87). BMW is
very ahead of its competitors in terms of the technological innovations which company has
brought in their cars especially in terms of the engine making as the company is trying to
develop the Hydrogen driven engine instead of the conventional petrol and diesel engines in
the car.
Leadership Style: Also leadership management is their other unique feature, company is
trying to build the proper leadership element in their employees and the diversity which
company has adopted is in terms of the Glocalisation in which company will tend to build the
right mix of the global as well as local leadership in their worldwide operations (Steiner,
2009). Hence company is trying to operate its outstation centres through the employees of
the local countries so that they can understand the lower level managers and needs of
customers better than the other managers of the company which are not from the same
local country.
Situation analysis: Also the corporate strategy is about assessing the demand of the
situation and acting accordingly. So BMW is having the corporate strategy in which
company before building any designs of their vehicles try to assess the needs and
requirements of the customers to which company want to cater to through various market
research techniques. These market research techniques enables the company to develop

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the right mix of the skills and abilities in the company so that they can fulfil the requirement
of the customer and at the same time they can be ahead of all their competitors in terms of
understanding their customers needs.
Competitive advantage: Competitive advantage of BMW is its technical expertise with
which company has survived and has been positioned in the premium customer segment.
This competitive advantage of BMW is a major part of the corporate strategy of the
company.
Summary: The Elements of corporate strategy of the company should be very specific as
they guide the path for the success of the company.

Ques2. How did BMW enact its corporate strategy in Thailand keeping in
mind the local culture?
Answer: The BMW has the main motto of inculcating the leadership among the local
employees of the each countries since company understand the importance of local
employees in terms of understanding the needs of customers and employees of the
company. In Thailand, company has adopted a major shift in terms of developing the
element of Glocalisation which is not present presently.
The Corporate strategy of the company was such that the company adopted the various
cultures in themselves and sue to which in every culture it become very easy for the
company to operate. The Team meetings carried out by the company in order to share the
experience of various employees for the various regions also helped the employees to get
aware and behave in different cultures. BMW also make use of the SWOT analysis at
various places where its market position was not very strong and identified reasons for the
weak conditions and improved on the culture adoption for that.
Top management has taken a very crucial decision in which the Thai employees would be at
the key position in the Thailand. The Move taken by the company is due to the reason that
the top management has to deal with the various local elements in any country which are
customers, employees and government. And the local people who are given the second
level management position in the company would be comfortable to deal with the
customers, employees and government in their home countries, these leaders can
understand their needs better and solve the issue in better way than a person which does
not belong to that place.

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BMW always acted by respecting the local values and culture of Thailand and company was
not known as the harm to environment in the country. One of the major example of this
event was the environmental standards used by the company in Thailand in order to make
the vehicles which were same as the environmental standards used in Germany hence
company respected the environment and culture in Thailand.
One of the other major reasons why BMW was so successful in the Thailand market as well
was the strength of the product and brand name of the company. Some of the positive
points which helped the company to differentiate them from the other vehicle manufacturers
were as: high quality products, high class buyers, good work culture, and technological
innovation, environment friendly and strong brand name. BMW from its inception was known
for producing to high quality products so as to cater the premium customer segment only
hence due to that the product quality maintained by the company is always on higher side.
The Customer segments which BMW was having was also very highly educated and were
having the enough knowledge about the products and usage as well. Hence it becomes
easy for the company to capture the local market very fast since customers were known
about the product and it was easy to reach to the target customers of the company (Tregoe
and Zimmerman, 2000). The Work culture adopted by the company was very good as
company appointed many of second level managers from the Thailand itself and also the
working culture was good in terms of employee welfare hence the customers were having
very high ethical perceived image for the company which helped the company to associate
with its target customers. The Environmental standards followed by the company also
proved very beneficial for them as one side company got the image of environmental
protective company and at the same time their cars cleared all the regulations imposed by
the local environmental regulation authorities.
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Another major important USP of the company was its technological innovation which makes
BMW apart from all other brands of the car since company was having very good command
on the technological innovation in terms of the engines used in the cars and other parts of
the car as well. Hence the vehicles manufactured by the company were assumed to be
always equipped with the best of technology present in the auto industry. The Brand image
of the company was another selling point for the company since from the time being
company was enjoying high reputation in auto industry which attracted the customers
towards the BMW products.

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Summary: Culture adoption in different countries was the key to success for the
Glocalisation strategy of the company.

Ques3. Explore reasons why BMW encourages its top management

echelon to be in a continuous learning mode vis--vis national culture?
Answer: The Top management Echelon here means the major agenda of the company on
which company was banking in order to get successful. The Top management echelon for
the company was the second level managers of the company which were directly reporting
to the CEO of the company. BMW was having the clear objective that the second level
managers of the company would be selected from the local nations only and the
understanding behind this logic was that the local nation manager can understand and fulfil
the needs of the customers, employees and government of the local county only instead of
the managers of the other countries.
The Major reason for the top management of the company to be in continuous learning
mode is that basically company want the people which posses the intra-cultural
management capabilities and that capabilities will help the company to excel in the multi
cultural environment. Company in order to develop the cross culture learning and problem
solving process among their managers started a unique initiative in which selected
international management trainee across the world would be visiting the Thailand and these
management trainees will work and operate on the working operations in the Thailand
(Steiner, 2009). Every day the management trainees will have to analyse various issues
related with the BMW operations in Thailand and based on the analysis of the management
trainees they will have to provide the recommendations which would be implemented further
for the improvement of the operations.
The Top management of the company laid so much emphasis on the Glocalisation was due
to the fact that management decisions are very important in any organisation and these
decisions are also related with the background of the person which defined the capability
and capacity of the person to understand needs of the customers (Porter, 2006). Hence if
Glocalisation would be inculcated by the management then the general decision making
process of the company would improve further and thus faster and better decision making
process will take place in the company.
An ideal strategy for any company should be a mix of the local as well as the national
culture of any organisation. The mix of the two traits is essential since both are dependent
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upon each other and without one the importance of other quality will not be there. Hence the
local as well national traits has to be there. Since local culture help the top management to
manage the customers, employees and government of the particular country. Learning the
local culture will be beneficial for the management since it will connect the management
from the local customers as well.
But at the same time top management should know the importance of the national culture
as well. As BMW is multinational organisation and the operations of the company in various
countries should have the same kind of similarity in them. So the standardisation can be
brought in the company with the help of inculcating one national culture which its top
management needs to be follow in the organisation.
The Employees of the company needs to learn and adopt various things which they are not
aware of. The Cross culture problems faced by the employees would be one of the toughest
issues which they need to be resolved very quickly (Porter, 2006). Hence the employees of
the company have to be well equipped with the various cross cultural problems.
Company was more focused on the localisation part of the business along with the
nationalisation business. Company was having the view that managers must understand
the local as well as national cultures since company like BMW should follow the practices
organisation wide in that process the nationwide cultures would be used and a standard
process can be implemented in complete organisation (Hart, 2007). But as company caters
to different nations the local customer needs and wants can only be identified and fulfilled
only if the local person or manager is assessing the needs and want of the customers.
Hence the local managers of the company are better in terms of understanding the demand
of the local customers.
The Skill set of the managers should be such that they can manage the national as well as
the local employees of the company so in order to develop that level of managerial skills and
efficiency among the managers of the company then company will have to expose them to
the national as well as the local culture as well then only the right mix of the two can be
used to control the employees of the company.
Summary: The Top management echelon of the company was the people who have the
capability for the multicultural issue management.

Ques4. Suggest ways BMW may further refine its intercultural approach
to strategy formulation and implementation?
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Answer: The Present approach followed by the company in order to deal with the
intercultural issues is working very well as the company is successful in understanding the
demand and needs of the key stakeholders such as the customers, employees and
government. But still the management can be made so that it can best assess the demand
of the customer and employees and successfully satisfy the needs of the customers.
So company still needs to take the corrective measures in order to improve the intercultural
approach of the company which will help the managers to understand the local as well as
the national aspect of the management of the companys operations. Some of the major
changes which can be implemented in order to deal with the intercultural issues are as
follows:

BMW cultural philosophy: Company needs to recruit the candidates which possess
the characteristics as per the philosophy of the BMW only.

HR Policies: In order to improve the strategy formulation and implementation process

of the company it needs to adopt the HR policies which can select the employees
with good characteristics and personal qualities so that the candidate can easily
understand the work culture and philosophy of the company. Such HR policies will
help the company to have the candidates which will be able to handle the
intercultural issues easily.

Cross country assignments: BMW can adopt the methodology of cross country
assignments for their employees. It can shift its employees on frequent basis so that
they can understand the culture of other countries and after spending adequate time
employees can handle the local customers and employees of a country.

Succession Planning: Succession Planning is one of the best option which can be
used in order to resolve the inter-cultural issues since the employees which are
working with the company from the long time should be given the higher positions as
they can understand the philosophy and culture of the company better than other
employees which are selected from outside the company and has not worked so long
with the company.

Training and development: The Training and Development can help the employees of
the organisation in grooming them and can bring their leadership traits. The

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Leadership traits of the employees can help them in managing the employees and
customers in inter-culture organisations (Steiner, 2009). Hence there should be some
training and development modules designed as per the companys requirement
which should provide proper knowledge and make employees accustomed to the
intercultural situation handling and problem solving as well.

Understanding the needs of the customers and employees: The Culture and
philosophy of the customers changes with the country hence different countries has
different culture and philosophy and on order to serve the customer as per their
requirement company needs to understand the needs of the employees and
customers in better way (Porter, 2006). Understanding the needs of the local
employees and customers will help them in carving out their strategy as per the
requirement of the situation in local markets and the company will be able to develop
the intercultural issues easily.

Local talent: The Best possible solution to for intercultural strategy formulation and
implementation policy is selecting the candidates from the local county only. Since
the local country employees are best to understand the culture of their own country
and they will be able to connect with the local customers better than the other
employees of the company which do not belong to the same country.

Understanding local traits: Each country inculcate some local traits in their citizen.
Hence company needs to understand these local traits of the people in order to
chose the right candidates (Hart, 2007). For example Thai people are considered to
be best for leadership qualities and fairness is their another traits hence
understanding the local traits of the employees can help the company to chose the
mangers from within the local country which can lead the company accordingly.

Headhunters: Headhunters can be another better option for recruitment of the local
employees of any country. The Headhunters can help the company in identifying the
local talent so as to resolve the intercultural issues of the company. Headhunters can
be very helpful since they can help the company in recruiting the candidates with
desired cultural and capabilities which company cant recruit themselves.

Two level control mechanisms: Company should have two control mechanisms in
which it can implement multiple level control for the managers, first level of control

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mechanism will start from the direct supervision which would be done from the local
employees of the company and would only be uni-cultural only. First level of control
mechanism would be more for the low level managers of the company which can be
easily driven through the local middle level management employees of the company.
The Second level of the control would be driven with the help of rules and
procedures of the company.
The Second level management control process would be more for the middle level
management of the company. They will have to follow the set rules and procedures of the
company which have been framed and followed organisation wide. These rules and
procedures would help in bringing the uniformity in the organisation.
Summary: Company can refine its intra cultural approach by refining the human resource
policies of the company.
Conclusion: BMW has adopted the Glocalisation strategy which has proved successful for
the world-wide operations of the company. In order to improve the companys performance
various corporate strategy elements of the company such as mission, vision and leadership
style has contributed a lot. Also the intra-cultural adaptability of the company has proved its
major advantage for success in foreign countries. Company has always required its
employees to be become intra-cultural managers. And company is trying to align its human
resource strategy so as to make the candidates accustomed to intra-cultural functioning.

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