ABSTRACT
This chapter describes additional multinational strategic leadership and management decisions, tasks, and activities. A basic enterprise-wide task area involves a firm's decision to go multinational. Successful multinational businesses can experience enormous increases in sales and profits. The supply chain, like value-added chain, involves activities ranging from sourcing materials for manufacturing through delivering products to distribution channels and customers. Sourcing refers to both sourcing and logistics activities. Sourcing refers to where and how a company obtains the raw materials, subcontracted components, and other goods and materials needed to produce goods and services. Supporting services through a wide range of enabling marketing, finance, production/operations, technology, finance and accounting, organization, and other functional plans, programs, projects, and activities is needed to support strategic objectives. The chapter discusses the significance of telecommunications and computer information systems to success in multinational businesses. Advanced technologies in telecommunications and computer information systems have been major driving force in managing businesses multinationally.
