Running Head GLOBAL CORPORATE STRATEGY

Global Corporate Strategy

Global Corporate Strategy

Q1.

Part a

In the rubber industry, the concentration is lower, the top ten suppliers account for 42 percent of global sales. Market shares from 1992 are shown in Figure 2. There is overlap between the two sectors, five of the world's ten leading suppliers of rubber products are also in the top ten of the tires. They are Bridgestone, Goodyear, Continental, Sumitomo and Yokohama. However, the list also includes four companies - Hutchinson, Freudenberg, Gates and crowns - which hold a dominant position worldwide in rubber products. The tenth in the list is BTR, which is located in the United Kingdom ranked second producer of rubber, with only a modest share in the tire industry. (Hamel 2008 pp.83)

Barriers to entry in the segment of the tires are high concentration, the slow growth of global sales and huge capital requirements related to manufacturing facilities, production technology and facilities for research development. In addition, tire manufacturers have taken strong measures to make their operations a total of ownership or control of rubber plantations in Asia for the exercise of authority over their distribution systems. But Cooper Tire's example shows that there is room for niche players strong. Tire sector, the concentration is lower, sales are growing slightly faster, and capital requirements are a little less heavy. However, do not expect an erosion of the current market share of major players. (Gomes 2004 pp.7)

Beyond the solid waste disposal, an issue of great concern to manufacturers of rubber products is the subject of nitrosamines. The controls are now covered by the emission of nitrosamines, a family of suspected carcinogens in both rubber composition and the formation of finished rubber products, ie, tires, hoses, etc. These compounds are formed in nitrification, a process that occurs when certain vulcanization accelerators react with nitrogen oxides in the air. Nitrosamines can accumulate even in the trunks of cars or may be present in latex items as bottle nipples. If concentrations represent a safety problem for workers and consumers are still being debated. In Germany, the accelerators have been banned and exposure limits for workers have been established. To avoid similar regulations in the United States, manufacturing of rubber are seeking substitutes or reformulation of the accelerators.

Tires are such an integral part of everyday life that most people never think seriously about them until they do not. However, the tire industry worldwide is a multi-billion dollar market characterized by few sellers, intense competition, and international considerations, including market barriers and currency valuations. In the past 20 years the industry has consolidated to the extent that it could be considered as an oligopoly, however, individual firms in the market does not behave in the manner typical of oligopoly. This research finds that the industry as a whole, and strategies of the three companies in particular - Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Cooper Tire & Rubber and Michelin - and assesses the strategies that these companies have chosen to ...