International Business Problem

1. Identify the problem.

The problem is whether Rajagopal should stay in India and improve the management of the family business or just sell off the business and immigrate to United States.

1. Explore the pre-existing knowledge

In this question, Rajagopal’s business has survived twice global economic so far. However, his business was not good since there are stiff competitions in domestic and the foreign hypermarkets have already brought in the brand of curry powder into India. Currently the economic condition in India grows rapidly as it takes less than 50 years to enhance the economy. India will be one of the developed countries and prosper in economic which is in the future, it can be predicted to be second largest economy after China, and will also be twice the size of economy of the United States. However, Rajagopal’s wife suggests that they need to move to United States to change their future to the betterment. Meanwhile, the gloomy news in United States have been spread that that country is having mortgage crisis and it has caused United States to encounter problem in economic such as the dollar is weak, gas prices are moving up and the country is expending significant resources to engage in two wars.

1. Generate hypothesis and possible mechanisms

Based on the earlier knowledge, if Rajagopal choose to stay in India, then he can improve the company business due to the economic that is growing rapidly in that country. There is a bigger opportunity for him to be success in the business. On the other hand, if Rajagopal decides to sell off the business and move to United States, then it will be difficult for him to survive because he will have to face the economic crisis of United States.

As Rajagopal’s business had successfully survived twice the global economic crisis, it can be said that the business is already well-established and stable. Rajagopal knows about the current economic conditions in both India and United States, so he may choose to stay in the India as it is the best way to maintain the business that have already stable. Even though the business has some problems, it can be solved with several appropriate solutions. The only thing required is that the business needs an improvement so that the business can become one of the strong competitors not only in domestic, but also globally.

The possible mechanism to improve the business is to expand his business to foreign country by exporting his products to other country. As Rajagopal’s business is producing curry powder, so he needs to export their brand of curry powder to the other country. In addition, if Rajagopal wants to expand the business globally, he must masters the four principles which are product, place, price and promotion. Besides the taste, he can start with making the improvement to the product appearance, such as the packaging. He may also need to consider the country that he wants to cooperate with and make a deal with the reasonable price of his curry powder. He can also study the function of curry powder to make the customers realize the usefulness of curry powder in their life. For some other people in other country, there are people who do not eat spicy food, but Rajagopal can convince them to buy their curry powder due to the variety uses of it through marketing and promotion. It has been discovered that curry powder can be used for skin care. So, this fact can be used as the specialty of the product in the advertisement.