Establishing dispersed operations in Mexico for an automotive systems supplier - A diagnostic approach

Diploma Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 2,0, University of Paderborn, language: English, abstract: Dispersing operations in foreign countries is not a development in only recent yearsand we can face it almost daily in the newspapers and on TV. Not only by the takeoverwaves among big multinational companies in the late nineties (for instance the lastlyloosed merger of Daimler and Chrysler) but also by the riots in the run-up to the 33rdG8 Summit 2007 in Germany the issue of globalisation was spotlighted to the generalpublic. Based on the economic research this diploma thesis addresses the topic of dispersedoperations and should give advice and instructions how to reach a successful access tomarkets in foreign countries in practice. Since the international orientation of enterprisescannot be generalised and is different (among other things) from branch tobranch the establishment of dispersed operations is examined for the example of anautomotive supplier starting business activities in Mexico. The automotive supply industryseams to be very applicable for such an analysis as the traditionally very internationallyoriented automotive manufacturers, i.e. the customers of the suppliers, werenotably influenced by the consolidation processes in the last years and decades. Consideringthis the question needs to be posed if this alteration of business conditions hasimpacts on the suppliers as well. The United Mexican States as one of the biggest economies in Latin America are aquite popular location especially among the North American investors for a long time. Mexico connects (not only physically) the huge markets of Canada and the UnitedStates of America with the BRIC state of Brazil which is considered by many expertsto be the growth market of South America in the next years. Since all well-knownvehicle manufacturers run representations on the Mexican market it suggests examiningthe international orientation of automotive suppliers in respect of especially thismarket.