Prepare a research report for exporting table slides from Canada to Singapore, the specs (roughly) are these: Research Report 10 pages (body) from the introduction to the limitations sections Not including title page, executive summary, table of contents, bibliography, appendices Formal business writing All sections must be presented in Chicago Style Arial or Times New Roman, size 12 font, 1.5 or double spaced
Here are some topics they can explore for each section:
Political - political corruption, current political views towards foreign business, investment
Economic - GDP, GNI, PPP, country debt, etc. These numbers need analysis – what do they mean for a company looking to expand abroad?
Legal - Intellectual property, contract, and product safety standard laws, etc.
Cultural - Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, business culture (ONLY if relevant to their current position – for example, whether Japan is made up of atheists is not relevant to the company, but that they have a collective culture that forces them to stay loyal to the company is relevant, especially if our recommendation is to form a joint venture, or go into acquisition or a greenfield investment)
Government Policies - Non-tariff barriers, tariff-barriers, protectionist policies, etc.
Trade Agreements - agreements with Canada and the relevant points, tariff percentage (it will be 0% for all WTO-MFN/FTA signatory countries), and HS code (the HS code for table slides is 9403.60.90.00 in Canada, in other countries, the last four digits may be different – students will have to look into their country’s equivalent of Canada’s Customs Tariff Act if they want the specific code, but this is quite advanced.)
Risks and Mitigation - risks due to natural disasters, corruption, lack of payment, etc. and mitigation strategies such as insurance from the EDC (which ones?), using a letter of credit transaction, and other methods of mitigation
Other Aspects - currency, transportation, infrastructure, etc.
The analysis (1 point each) is more important than the facts (0.5 points each) themselves. If they are missing the analysis.
