Learning Environment

Introduction

The WINGS team has decided to take a step towards the internationalization of their company. The player will have to demonstrate if he has the right attitude and predisposition to face this process of internationalization through three challenges that aim to measure the player's readiness to start this process. These challenges consist of:

• Assessment of the different types of leadership in a company and choosing the one that best suits him and his team.
• Formulation of the appropriate questions when defining the mission, vision and values of the company to a new audience.
• Drawing the way forward in terms of how they want to penetrate the new market and choosing the best option.

The aim is for the player to be able to settle down some previous ideas and make a draft of what will later be the internationalization plan that the company will follow.

Introduction

Meet the WINGS international team! They are 4 people, coming from different parts of Europe, so they bring diverse experience, culture and know-how in the team.

2 years ago they established a startup in Bulgaria. The company has created an innovative WINGS t-shirt which is breathing, antiperspirant, antimicrobic, non-crumpling, non-fading, waterproof, self-washable, and is 100% recyclable. The product has just won an international innovation award and became very popular.

Now the team members gathered to celebrate the received innovation award and to discuss if they have the capacity (skills, knowledge) needed to internationalize their business.

Introduction

The player has to identify criteria that make an internationalisation business strategy viable. The player and his teammates have to determine the most important and assess them from two perspectives:

1. from an overall internationalisation business strategy perspective
2. from a risk and uncertainty perspective

The player will need to select the most important factors of an internationalisation business strategy.

The player has to also decide how risk and uncertainty affects the decision on which international market to target.

Introduction

The team has researched the opportunities for expanding their business in several different regions and have to decide which market will be most relevant and profitable for their innovative t-shirt.

The 3 teammates come from 3 different regions. Each of them presents the specifics one specific markets and provide arguments why they are suitable, as well as possible concerns and limitations.

1. Analysis of possibilities of foreign expansion of the company.
2. Comparison of the attractiveness of potential foreign markets.
3. Choosing the right form of foreign expansion.

Introduction

You are the owner and CEO of a start-up that produces personalised promotional giveaways for individuals and small businesses. Your product /service offering is the following: through a website, your customer can choose the item they want to personalise (e.g. t-shirts, USB sticks, pens, umbrellas, smart-phone accessories) and add a logo/image provided by the customer. They can also request your company to develop a personalised design for the object according to their preferences.

At this initial stage of your business, you don’t have a physical store and you provide everything via a website, which is already online, but does not have many visits because you didn’t do much promotion yet.

You need to develop and implement a Marketing Strategy for your business to gain visibility and boost your sales.

Introduction

The player has to build a business plan which will help to find out if a business is viable and if a business itself is profitable and sustainable. The player and his teammates have to bring a solution to do a successful business plan for the product.

A business plan will be structured in the same way as a business plan itself in order to help the players to understand which methods could be used to draft the particular part. It will include the following types of analysis:

• Structure of a business plan – choose the essential aspects
• Marketing plan – choose the marketing strategy to market entry
• Financial plan – choose the financial strategy

The player has to choose one of three methods in each part according to the suggestions.