Question

2. Pittman's Fireplaces Percy Pittman recently took over the family business. Pittman's Fireplaces has been in business since 1922. It was started by Percy's grandfather and then passed on to Percy's father. The business has thrived. They install fireplaces throughout the United States In addition to the fireplaces, Pittman's Fireplaces sells all the accessories you can imag ine to make your fireplace the centerpiece of your room. Percy wants to take the business to the next level and go international. The reputation of Pittman's Fireplaces is excellent. They have installed many fireplaces in the homes of diplomats who are representing their countries in the United States. Furthermore many international businessmen who keep homes in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other large U.S. cities have purchased Pittman's fireplaces and accessories As Percy ruminates about how to proceed with his business expansion, he considers the following points. One, he would need to consider labor. What skills must a worker have and what skills can Pittman train them on? Another consideration is wages. Percy believes in paying a fair wage for a fair days work; however, labor costs are a huge expense in any business. Materials are another critical factor for Pittman's Fireplaces Percy sources the finest wood, marble, granite, and other types of stonework for their fireplaces. The final consideration is the local environmental laws. Pittman's Fireplaces sells gas-burning fireplaces, wood-burning fireplaces, and electric fireplaces. The rules, regulations, and laws are often different in cities, counties, and states. Percy assumes he will encounter the same situation in foreign countries. Percy decides he will investigate three countries-United Kingdom, Germany, and Finland. His initial criteria for his weighted factor model are labor costs, weather (cold winters), environmental laws, and trade agreements with the United States. However, as Percy continues to ponder the best factors, he isn't yet sure which are the best ones to use as location selection criteria. The wrong set of criteria could result in selecting the wrong country for his foreign expansion Discussion Questions 1. Percy is investigating several tools to help him make his decision as to which country he should expand into first. He thinks that these tools may also guide him in deciding which specific factors he should use to evaluate the three countries United Kingdom, Germany, and Finland. Percy is reviewing both the 2016 Global Competitiveness Report and the 2016 World Competitiveness Yearbook. Clearly, in both documents the three countries are rated significantly different. Obviously, this is a critical decision for the future of Pittman's Fireplace. As a businessperson what is your opinion regarding the two references Percy should use? Explain your answer. Table 11.2 International Competitiveness Ranking 2016-17 GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS REPORT (WEC)2016 WORLD COMPETITIVENESS YEARB00K (IMD) RANKING Switzerland Hong Kong Singapore Switzerland USA USA Netherlands Singapore 4 Germany Sweden Sweden Denmark United Kingdom Ireland 7. Japan Netherlands Hong Kong Norway Finland Canada Norway Luxembourg Denmark Germany 12. New Zealand 13 Qatar 14 Taiwan Taiwan 15 Canada United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates 16. New Zealand Belgium Australia United Kingdom Qatar Malaysia Austria 20 Luxembourg Finland Sources http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GCR2016-2017/05FullReport/TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2016-2017_FINAL.pdf; and https://www.imd.org/uupload/imd.website/wcc/scoreboard.pdf

Answer 1

Prittam’s Fireplaces has been in business since 1922.It was started by Percy’s grandfather and then passed on to the Percy’s father. They install fireplaces throughout the United States. And also sell the all accessories to make fireplace the centerpiece of room. Percy wants to take the business to the next level and go international. The reputation of Pittman’s Fireplaces excellent . They have installed many fireplaces across the country.

He considers the following points:

1. Labor skills:
Skilled labor refers to labor that requires workers who have specialized training or a learned skill-set to perform the work. These workers can be either blue-collar or white-collar workers, with varied levels of training or education. Very highly skilled workers may fall under the category of professionals, rather than skilled labor, such as doctors and lawyers.

2. Wages of labor: Wage labor (also wage labor in American English) is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer, where the worker sells their labor power under a formal or informal employment contract. These transactions usually occur in a labor market where wages or salaries are market-determined.

3.Material Cost: Material cost is the cost of materials used to manufacture a product or provide a service. Excluded from the material cost is all indirect materials, such as cleaning supplies used in the production process.

   Percy decided he will investigate three countries United Kingdom, Germany, And Finland. His initial criteria for his weighted factor model are labor costs, weather, environmental laws, and trade agreements with the United States. To decide the countries he take 2016-17 Global Competitiveness Report and 2016 World Competitiveness Yearbook.

           In my point of you he should opt New Zealand, Switzerland and Finland ,as these are the countries which is with the shortest population , need the work to fulfill their needs , and these countries need employment so the labor cost will be low ,material can easily transferred, and the work environment is good as they need the work labor will use there full skills to satisfy the producers.