case study

In this chapter we were introduced to globalization and geopolitical events, Globalization being the integration of good, services and culture among the nations of the world and geopolitical events being large- and small-scale happenings that can affect things such as travel, business, humanitarian aid and more.

Globalization comes with many positive and negative effects throughout many nations. Some pros of globalization are that it increases the ability for individuals to obtain goods and services, globalization enables this because it allows us to get goods and services from locations outside of our nation. For example I know that myself and many people I know have benefited from globalization when we order something online and it ships internationally. Another pro of globalization is that it enables the spread of information and technology as nations learn from, and build off of each other through globalization. Although this seems good there are also some cons that come with globalization first of which being limited access to jobs due to outsourcing work. This can be seen through major companies like Apple and Nike who have manufacturing set up in developing countries while being based in developed countries because of the fact that individuals in developing countries will work for less money. Another con is that globalization has allowed for the multinational corporations that support it to obtain a lot of power and in some cases have influence over the nations connected to it.

Switching to geopolitical issues, there are a lot that are currently impacting global business but the biggest ones i've seen are COVID 19 and the blacklivesmatter activism and riots/protests. COVID 19 has embodied everything that occurs in geopolitical events, first travel for most has been completely halted as borders have been closed unless you are entering your own country or have work in another country. Businesses have taken a major hit whether it be from people not wanting to leave their homes or small and medium sized businesses not being able to have their stores open during the early stages of the pandemic. Also shipping items internationally has become a major hassle for everyone involved resulting in packages that are either late or never show up. From personal experience I worked at a restaurant called Moxies and we were unable to recover from being closed for multiple months and had to close the store entirely and Ive been unable to visit family members that live in the states for multiple months now. The amount of geopolitical issues happening right now has hurt global business a lot as moving items and people between borders has either been nearly impossible or extremely difficult resulting in frustration and a loss of money and productivity for companies.

The best strategy I can think of to mitigate the impact of these issues would be to research the issues at hand and plan a course of action. Understanding the issue you are facing is important for businesses so that they can make a plan that allows for them to survive and thrive in a less than ideal situation. For example when looking at COVID 19, companies took into account that they may not be able to have workers return to work for a substantial amount of time and therefore made up a plan so that work could be conducted at home and have utilized discussion boards and virtual meetings to remain successful in challenging times. Preparation is very

important since if you do nothing to adapt to the changes in the world, your company will be likely to drown from the impact of these issues.

Consumer behaviors have been changing all around the world due to the current global events taking place. This can be seen in many ways first of which being the risk in goods purchased locally. Since it is harder to get across the border, the amount of goods crossing borders is quite low and the amount of goods purchased within local communities is on the rise. Another changing consumer behaviour is an increase in online purchases, and this varies from clothes, food, electronics, books etc all being purchased through online sites like amazon rather than in stores

A- What is the best Strategy, you can think of, to mitigate the impact?

B - We discussed briefly about technology and consumer behaviour. The final

part of this mini assignment is to identify some current consumer behaviours

at global levels.