How to Knock Over a Seven Eleven

7 – Eleven, sometimes written as 7- 11 is basically a certain part of what originally existed as some chain of convenience stores. This was on an international basis. Originally, the enterprise operated simply as a franchise. Currently, it has more than fifty thousand outlets all over the world. For this reason, the enterprise is ranked as the largest operator of franchise in the entire world. It is also the largest enterprise that issues licenses for what are popularly known as convenience stores. The fact that the 7-11 has more than fifty thousand outlets is what put it on the international map during a period in which it beat Mc. Donald’s Corporation which at that time was ranked the largest franchisor globally. CITATION GAk05 l 1033 (G. Akehurst, 2005)Dallas in Texas is the city in which the headquarters of 7-11 are based. The reason for the choice of Dallas as the headquarters is attributed to the fact that this city was the origin of the company back in the year 1972. However, it is important to note that the parent company of 7-11 Inc. is in the city of Tokyo in Japan. CITATION Yem07 l 1033 (Gong, 2007) The Company has quite a number of diverse products among which are private label products such as Slurpee and Big Gulp. Coffee and sandwiches are just but among other product of the company. With time, the company is increasing its range of products. The Company makes estimated revenue of close to 8.4 Billion Dollars per Annum. By the year 2010, it has about 45000 employees. CITATION Ren12 l 1033 (Renato Sydler, 2012). The revenue of the Company is postulated to be about 900,000 US Dollars.

The Company has also had its fair share of challenges. This is because it started during a period which witnessed a lot of financial difficulties. During this time, interest rates were very high and this did not, in any way, favor investment. The result of this was that the credit taken by the company from financial institutions could not be paid back in time. It is important to note as well that all this time, the money borrowed was accumulating interest. At the end of the day, the company was faced with a very huge debt burden. CITATION Meh02 l 1033 (Khosrowpour, 2002)With the aim of restructuring, the company had to sell some part of it so as to cater for the financial liabilities it faced. This was not the end of the road of the company. It was able to bounce back to a season of prosperity after a short while. It is for this reason that great success stories are told today about this company. CITATION GAk05 l 1033 (G. Akehurst, 2005)Geographically, the Seveen-11 Inc. has globalized literally. It is currently being felt in most, if not all parts of the world. In other words, it has numerous stores worldwide that are under it. Seven -11 has a very ideal strategic globalization plan. Under this plan, it has partnered with several under institutions. In Australia for instance, it has partnered with Bank West. The consequence of this was the creation of Bank West ATM’s. These ATM’s have been availed to all the customers that can access Bank West. At the end of the day, the stores that these customers reach to, accept these cards when it comes to payment. This has greatly enhanced the exchange of goods and services from the Seven-11 stores to its customers. CITATION Nig12 l 1033 (Nigel Evans, 2012) This implies that efficiency of service which has been brought about by collaboration between the bank and the Seven-11 Stores has simply enhanced the growth of the company. CITATION Jac061 l 1033 (Plunkett, 2006)Seven -11 has also made a milestone when it comes to the marketing of its goods and services. In the month of March, 2010, the company gave a free small Slurpee to all the customers who purchased fuel from the company. This was indeed a very great way of encouraging clients to keep using their goods and services. To ensure even distribution of goods and services, the Seven -11 Company has branches or rather outlets everywhere; Tokyo, Melbourne, Denmark, Philippines, Taiwan, Alberta in Canada, various parts of Mexico as well As the United States of America. These are only but a few to mention. The company has outlets in form of convenience stores globally. CITATION Tho97 l 1033 (McCraw, 1997) This is a very important marketing strategy whose effects felt in terms of the returns that it brings back. It can therefore be said that one of the key factors behind the success of the Seven -11 Inc. is the successful global strategy plan that the company adopted. Global strategy is very important in the sense that it creates a wider and larger market base for the company making it financially viable. The convenience stores under Seven-11 have little if not nothing to complain about. Just like any other organization or company, Seven -11 is faced by a couple of challenges. These challenges however, are used by the company as a stepping stone to the next level. A good example is the financial crisis faced by the organization back during its inception. The company provided a remedy to the tragic situation by selling some of its assets. Consequently, Seven-11 is one company that most business organizations in the cooperate world actually look up to. CITATION Ren12 l 1033 (Renato Sydler, 2012)Globalization is the process through which an idea is spread out globally, that is far and wide, all over the world. One of the main aims of Seven-11 is to make the company and the services of the company global. CITATION Ala09 l 1033 (Rugman, 2009)As much as the company has already made a milestone in this particular area, it has not reached its full potential. The following analysis will look at how the company has managed so far and what it could do further to ensure an improvement. Based on this, the paper will consider two very vital models of globalization; The 4 C’s Model of Globalization and the Yip model on globalization. CITATION Nia02 l 1033 (Wang, 2002)

There have been a couple of leadership models that have been put forward to give direction to the best way forward in the process of globalization. All these models are subject to criticism as much as some of them have huge successes. The criticism of one model is what fuels the creation of another improved model. This is the sole reason as to why there exist several models, not only in terms of globalization but it goes far and wide in several other aspects of life. Of particular interest are the globalization models and more specifically, the 4 C’s model of leadership. This model was named this way because it consists of four major segments or rather prerequisites for effective globalization. Some of the successes of the Seven-11 Company have been discussed above and one aspect that captures the interest of anyone is the fact that globalization has contributed greatly to the success of Seven-11. CITATION Nig12 l 1033 (Nigel Evans, 2012) The importance of globalization therefore cannot be underestimated. The following part of the paper will critically examine these 4 C’s of globalization and it will also give an analysis of how the attributes discussed in the model could be practical to Seven-11 Inc. The 4 C’s of globalization are among competence or competition, communication, consistency. CITATION Yos06 l 1033 (Iwamoto, Japan on Upswing , 2006)Of particular interest to this paper is the difference that exists between customers and among countries. There exists a lot of diversity in many aspects of life. As a result, countries and people differ in terms of their tastes and preferences. These differences could also arise as a result of income disparity whereby a certain service can be afforded by a certain group of people or country but it cannot be afforded by others. This is one major problem of globalization that is facing the Seven -11 Inc. CITATION Cha05 l 1033 (Charles Despres, 2005)Globalization actually forces a business to adapt to different strategies. It is rather difficult to change the cultural organization of a society and the diversity it comes with. This is the sole reason as to why globalization is said to compel a business to live by and work with the prevailing conditions. The consequence of this is the fact that there exists varied groups of people and countries and as a result, even with the process of globalization, which is fundamentally important, globalization has to come to terms with these diversities. Most of these diversities cut across cultural aspects, a very sensitive subject that is inelastic to change. This problem is not new to Seven-11 Inc. The Company has faced this problem in the process of expanding its markets to the outside world. CITATION Tad07 l 1033 (Ikuta, 2007)The level of competition also matters a great deal. It has been experienced that some countries are highly competitive as compared to others. Any organization in the cooperate world has very minimal power to control the level of competition. As a result, the Seven-11 Company for instance, finds some countries competitive enough and therefore good regions for investment. Other countries on the other hand, are not as competitive. This however, does not prevent the organization from making investment in such areas. Competence of the company will also matter a great deal. It is the competence of the organization that will put it on a better place to compete with other organizations in the same field. CITATION GAk05 l 1033 (G. Akehurst, 2005)Communication is a major aspect of globalization. It is the only way through which two people with the same interest can get to come to an agreement. CITATION Kwo09 l 1033 (Yip, 2009) In the global environment this is a challenge not only through language barriers but also through effective communication. It is important to note that even in the case that the two sides are speaking the same language; differences may also come in through ethnic and cultural differences. The Seven -11 Inc. has a vast population under its leadership in the cooperate world. Effective communication has proved to be a problem so far in the process of globalization considering the Company started in Tokyo, Japan and has extended all the way through Australia, the United States of America, Middle East and virtually all over the world. This has been a major hindrance to globalization within and without Seven-11 Inc. CITATION Yos02 l 1033 (Iwamoto, Business Method Patents, 2002)Below is an illustration of the 4Cis model;

Globalization is the process through which a business or an organization in the co-operate world sets out objectives so as to ensure the expansion of their business operations and take it on the world wide level. This process is aimed at the expansion of a business enterprise mainly through the establishment of international strategies that will make it a success. As a result, the prospective region of investment should be critically analyzed so that the company or organization gets to have the complete knowledge of the market o that particular area. This is really important as it takes care of any risks and uncertainties that could be involved. The Yip globalization model is yet another model that has been put across or rather postulated to guide in the process of globalization. CITATION Ela03 l 1033 (Wright, 2003) This model is based on some fundamentals that are essential to global strategy. These are known as the Industry Globalization Drivers. CITATION Yos02 l 1033 (Iwamoto, Business Method Patents, 2002)Yip puts across four different categories of important drivers in industry globalization. Within these drivers are conditions that ought to be met for an industry or organization to expand its markets globally. CITATION Ger08 l 1033 (Ungson, 2008)First are the market drivers. These ones are charged with the sole responsibility of defining the consumer behavior of the customers. They, as a result examine the demand patterns of different products around the world together with the elasticity of this demand, that is, the degree of responsiveness of the quantity demanded of a good with respect to price change. As a result, the company or organization gets to have complete and perfect knowledge of the markets they are willing to invest in. Seven-11 has, managed to equip the company with the knowledge of their prospective markets, a very vital consideration before investment. CITATION Geo12 l 1033 (Drake, 2012)The second aspect that the Yip globalization model gives a lot of emphasis to is the cost drivers. Under this, it is very important for an organization as an investor to understand the key factors that are behind the costs of their product or service. This is because these costs are not universal and as such, they differ from one region to another. The cost of a commodity or service is very important to be established since it determines the profit margin among other factors. The costs of the service that is in terms of the cost that the producer is likely to incur should also be established. CITATION Ste10 l 1033 (Tallman, 2010) Due to different levels of infrastructure and generally different levels of development, these costs cannot have a universal value. This is the reason as to why the profits or returns can never be the same in two different regions. Just like in market drivers, Seven-11 has successfully laid strategies to establish cost drivers in their areas of interest by having branches and convenience stores all over the world. CITATION Cha05 l 1033 (Charles Despres, 2005)Third are the competitive drivers. The competitive globalization drivers are often defined by the various actions of competing firms. It is always very important for an organization to understand the strategies of its competitors. These strategies are in terms of the way the rivals enter the fray, their specific considerations, that is, how they prioritize their investment and finally their market strategies generally. All these aspects are very important and they help the company to understand the strategies of their rivals. Seven-11 Inc. has also been successful in determining competitive globalization drivers. As a result, the company was able to beat Mc. Donald’s Company a couple of years back, thereby taking the crown of being the world’s biggest franchise operator. It is for this reason that the company is still ranked among the biggest franchise companies even currently in the entire world. Through this, the Company has been able to gauge the financial capabilities of its rivals and thereby minimize competition a great deal. CITATION Bor05 l 1033 (Boris Durisin, Putting Knowledge Networks into Action, 2005)Finally, the government drivers also play a very important role in globalization. Different governments have different ways in which they regulate business activities. In fact, governments tend to be more stringent on investment from the outside world than internal investment. Some of these policies may favor investment whole some may not. Some of them may also ensure good returns while some may not. Government globalization drivers include trade policies, political stability, level of technology among others. Previously, most multinational companies relied so much on the their governments to negotiate for accommodative policies with the governments they are willing to invest in. However, this ideology has been subject to change over time. For Instance, the Seven-11 Company uses other lucrative means such as intertwining politics and economics. Thee end result of this is that with more attention being paid to dimensions within the market that are not directly related to the market, the global competitive market is unconsciously shaped without to the very advantage of the company. This is because; some countries consequently tend to relax some of the stringent measures of trade policies that had been implemented so as to ensure economic growth and development. CITATION Bor06 l 1033 (Boris Durisin, Global Investment Banking, 2006)Below is an illustration of the Yip Model

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Boris Durisin, ‎. v. (2005). Putting Knowledge Networks into Action. Springer Shop.

Boris Durisin, ‎. v. (2006). Global Investment Banking.

Charles Despres, ‎. C. (2005). Knowledge Horizons. Havard University Press.

Cheshire, M. (2007). How to Knock Over a Seven Eleven. Author Solutions.

Drake, G. (2012). Team 7 Eleven. Edward Elgar Publishers.

G. Akehurst, N. A. (2005). The Internationalization of Retailing. Routeledge Publishers.

George Stonehouse, ‎. H. (2003). Business Strategy. New York: Edgeworth Press.

Gong, Y. (2007). Global Operations Strategy.

Ikuta, T. (2007). Project X- Challengers Seven Eleven. Tokyo.

Iwamoto, Y. (2002). Business Method Patents. Aspen Publishers.

Iwamoto, Y. (2006). Japan on Upswing . Algora Publishing.

Khosrowpour, M. (2002). Issues and Trends of Information Technology Management. Chicago.

Kramer, J. (2006). success of Seven Eleven. Chicago: Edgeworth Press.

McCraw, T. K. (1997). Creating Modern Capitalism. Aspen Publishers.

Nigel Evans, ‎. S. (2012). Strategic Management for Travel and Tourism.

Peter Weill, ‎. V. (2013). Place to Space.

Plunkett, J. W. (2006). Plunkett’s Retail Industry Almanac. Plunkett Publishers.

Renato Sydler. (2012). Knowledge and its Impact on Firm Performance. ETH Zurich.

Rugman, A. M. (2009). The Oxford Handbook of International Business. Oxford University Press.

Tallman, S. (2010). Global Strategy. New York: New York University Press.

Tobin, C. (2007). Introduction to Seven Eleven. New York University Press.

Ungson, G. R. (2008). Global Strategic Management.

Wang, N.-T. (2002). Taiwan’s Enterprises in Global Perspective. M.E.Sharpe.

Wright, E. R. (2003). Globalization and Social Work Education. Egward Elgar Publishers.

Yip, K.-w. (2009). The Uniquness of China’s Development Model.