3-5 pages.. Select a company and country that interests you. You have been asked to evaluate the country you selected as a potential market for your product(s)/service(s) and present your findings to other managers of the organization in a memo. In your memo, be sure to address the following:
Provide a brief overview of the company and why the country you selected may be a potental market.
What type of political and legal systems does the country have?
Do free elections take place?
Is the government heavily involved in the economy?
Is the legal system effective and impartial?
Do political and legal conditions suggest that is should be further considered as a potential market?

MEMO.

From: Marketing Exec

To: Executive Heads Production, Supply Chain, HR, Exporting.

Since the company’s successful development of the silver iodide receptor polycarbonate solar panel we have been examining potential markets for this products, and our country of choice is Spain.

As part of our deliberations, we have taken an overview of the following factors:

Market Potential.

The market for our type of panel is vast, and virtually untapped. Spain – especially mid- to southern Spain has the highest number of sunshine hours per year of any European country.

Until recently, there has been no concerted attempt to develop renewable energy sources in the country, despite the fact that the national economy is almost totally reliant on imports of fossil fuels for power generation, and consumer electricity prices are among the highest in Europe.

Building codes in the country are controlled at national level, and until last year contained no requirement to include renewable energy sources solar power) in new build or renovation building products. That requirement is now in place, and constructors will be looking for the most cost effective way in which they can meet it, and with our highly effective and damage resistant units available at good prices, we are well placed to take advantage of the situation.

Spain has seen over the last five years an almost unprecedented building boom, especially along its Mediterranean coastline, where three and a half million units have been constructed in that period. It is possible that the building code requirement for solar power will be made retrospective, thus enlarging an already open market.

Supply Chain Infrastructure.

As we have seen, much of the potential market lies along the Meditaerranean coastline, extending on average about twenty miles inland. Fortunately for logistics, the Autovia Mediterraneana runs the entire length of the coast from the French border to the Border with Gibraltar at the very southern tip of the country. The Autovia is a first class Inter Regional Highway capable of handling any type of load or delivery vehicle. Our product is fairly bulky, and therefore is most cost effectively delivered by sea. The whole of the Easdtern seaboard of Spain can be serviced easily from the major ports of Malaga, Almeria, Alicante, Barcelona and Valencia, with short supply line distances ex port.

Human Resources.

Spain has a reasonably educated and well skilled workforce, and at present has the highest rate of unemployment in Western Europe. There is therefore strong competition for available jobs, which should help keep our supplay chain and installation costs to a minimum.

Political and Legal Considerations.

Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a modern two chamber parliamentary democracy. Since the Franco era, government has been stable.

The country has a multi party system, but the two main parties the Partido Socialista de Obreras Espanoles (PSOE, the Socialist party) and the Partido Popular (PP, the conservative party) are the only two of great significance.

The other smaller parties, which tend to be as much regional as political in their points of view make up a balance in Parliament, the Cortez.

While national government is strong, the country is divided in autonomous regions or communities, each which has extensive fiscal and planning powers within their own area. These regions are actually larger thab some European countries – Andalucia, for example runs from almost the Atlantic coast to about one quarter of the way up the East side of the country, incorporating the provinces of Cadiz, Malaga, Almeria, Granada and Jaen. You can think of these as being broadly similar to the individual states of the US.

In each of these, the Regional Government has embarked on a process of providing grant aid for installation of renewable energy resources in existing buildings. The amount of grant aid varies – in Andalucia, it can be up to 55% of the capital cost of the installation, and grants are easy to obtain.

National government involvement does not take a large hand in directing the economy, except at the strategic level, much as Washington does here.

Central government may take the macro-economic decisions, but the Regionas have a great deal of autonomy.

Economic practice in Spain is broadly similar to that of any member of the European Economic Community in that it is non-directive and driven by market forces.

The legal system in th country is fairly robust, with a central judiciary effectively separated from the Executive.

The system is hierarchical, in that lower courts may not interfere with the decisions of higher courts. There are three levels of judiciary – central, Regional or Community and Municipal.

There is a well established system of appeals through the lower courts to, ultimately, the Supreme Court or the National Court.

The judicial system is generally thought of as being free from corruption, but the same cannot be said of the public administration. It is reasonably untainted at Regional and Community level, but at Municipal level, corruption is rife. The Municipalities are the level of government charged with the issue of local licenses – licenses to open a business, for example, and local building permits. Ther has been much evidence of corruption in these areas – in one small municpality in Almeria province alone, some 5000 buliding licences are alleged to have been obtained illegally. Court investigations are procedding, there, and in many other areas besides.

This situation does not present a major obstacle to our move into the market, but we do have to recognize that it is a fact and deal with it.

This Document was created on22 May 2008