Case Study Ch. 15: Nestle Tries for an All-for-One Global Strategy

2. What type of global business and systems strategy did Nestle adopt? Was this strategy appropriate for Nestlé’s business model?
Nestle adopted a global business and systems strategy which was the GLOBE. This type of strategy known’s as global business excellence was set to harmonize processes, standardize data, and standardize systems. These applied to all of Nestles worldwide systems and users. The same process for making sales commitments, factory production, billing customers, and compiling management reports along with financials.
As far as this system being appropriate for Nestle business model I think that it was. Having a strong standardized process on a global scale is imperative to smooth running operations. A company the size of Nestle needed a better way to track and rely on global transactions and information handling. The GLOBE project helped facilitate this and ensure a global standardized process.

3. What management, organization, and technology challenges did Nestle have to deal with to standardize its business processes and systems?
In order to standardize Nestlé’s business processes and systems the implementation of the GLOBE system occurred. The GLOBE was set out to accomplish just this task of a centrally standardized operational format. The challenges faced by Nestle in the transition to the GLOBE system were on many levels. They faced challenges with budgeting, needed cooperation, no shortcuts could be taken, took a long time. The greatest challenges were no technical in fact hey were personal. The global nature also caused challenges due to different laws, currencies, languages, and cultures.

4. What strategies did nestle management use to deal with these challenges? How successful were these strategies? Explain your answer.
Nestle management attempted to deal with challenges facing the implementation of GLOBE by having each business unit name a GLOBE manager and give them the feeling or responsibility, accountability, and decision-making power. This gave the individual unit s a sense of being present in the process. Each country had a data manager as well. It seems that these managerial challenges were overcome because the company continued to implement GLOBE over the next few years. I think they did a nice job under the circumstances.

I think that this case study with nestle is a great example of a company thinking ahead. They recognized potential shortcomings in the company’s IS and took the steps necessary to fix them. Even though this was quite an undertaking, the management did a good job and they stayed focused and the hard work paid off.
Sources: Management Information Systems Managing the Digital Firm, tenth edition. pgs. 624-627. Laudon, Kenneth C.