International Business

As the global economy continues to expand, we must prepare to encounter the challenge of globalization. As Thomas L. Friedman said, "the world is flat." The world is becoming so tiny that compete intensively with different countries. In order to compete in an international marketplace, we must realize what difference between country and country, such as language differences, cultural differences, religion difference, and political difference. Those differences make international business more challenging. Thus, thinking globally and understanding how to bring different cultures together is the first step that I learn from international business. In addition, I realize how companies face the task of globalization and how adjust their management and strategy to globalization.

At first, I thought that globalization only influences international trade of natural resources between nations. The supply and demand of nations affect that of the other, resulting the wave of price. For example, the Middle East countries, such as Iraq and Iran, export petrolatum to the world. If those countries forbid to export petrolatum to other countries because of war or the other problem. As a result, the supply of oil decrease extremely and then the price of petrolatum in the world continue to spiral.

However, with global economy develop increasingly, the globalization of production is becoming common in the global market, which means companies seek cheapest cost factor, such as labor, material, land and benefit, to manufacture their products in the different countries that offer advantage in cost and quality of factors of productions. Therefore, companies can reduce cost and improve quality of products in manufacturing process, allowing them to compete more effectively in global market.