International Management- Hunter Boots Ltd.

Designed to be outstanding in any field, from city streets to music festivals and rugged countryside, hunting watch footwear is recognized for its performance durability and comfort achieved through a fusion of tradition and technology (hunter hot flash Ltd. , 2013) hunting watch surge Ltd. was founded in 1856, styled as the North British Rubber Company, producing not that good-for-nothing boots but also tyres, conveyors and flooring. The famous wellies or wellington boots rose to fame when they were fabricate during World War I to supply the army.By the end of the war wellies had force popular for use among the general population as well. After ever-changing ownership several times hunting watch Rubber Company became a standalone party in 2004, and was bought out of administration as Hunter belt Ltd. in 2006. Now solely focusing on footwear, the go with has since positioned itself hard and both the UK and ground forces footwear markets. In 2008 Hunter closed its base of 96 years and relocated its headquarters to Edinburgh (Scotland) and convergenceion to China.Striving for more competency and effectiveness in the production process Hunter boots argon barely still visually similar to its original design, whereas they have in point be have a go at it virtually identical to the boots produced by its competitors. Nevertheless Hunter has undergo a period of considerable yield and is at one time distributed planetaryly in over 30 countries (Hunter Boot Ltd. , 2013). The author feels that is important to make a clear distinction between the years up to 2006, which is the year Hunter Boot Ltd. was placed into admission, and the years 2007 and onwards to where Hunter Boot Ltd. s currently controlled by Search motiveless Capital Partners LP (SCP). , which is a private investment unwavering operating in North America and Europe. First this paper pull up stakes analyse the rise, and demise, of the company and then volition shed some light on i ts resurgence in popularity and turn-around sales in novel years (Paton 2011). According to Porter (1991) sustainable competitive usefulness in inter national personal credit line is determined by the four factors that form the diamond of national improvement factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries and firm strategy, grammatical construction and rivalry. The factors are nterdependent and all are essential for achieving (international) mastery. The application of this framework sure enough holds true for Hunter Boot Ltd. s (international) triumph from its founding years to the early 2000s. Diamond of guinea pig Advantage Hunter Boot Ltd. 1856 2006 sexual intercourse level of splendour reckon Conditions Dumfries production imbed, skilled labor and ample infrastructure. heights Importance Demand Conditions Wet weather conditions make fit footwear a necessity. Army supplier during both WWI and WWII. Loyal customer ranging from the Brit ish Royal Family to general population. High Importance Related & Supporting Industries Close working relationships with suppliers and end-users within national boundary. Medium Importance Firm Strategy, Structure and Rivalry Ability to manage vast growth in both production and labor force. Ambitious management strategy. High Importance Table 1 Porters Diamond of National Advantage applied to Hunter Boot Ltd. 1856-2006 The companys disdain became inevitably clear in the years 2003-2005 when it recorded a pre-tas prejudice of approximately ? 700,000 with a net debt that had grown to more than ? 2m. These perils can be explained by two of Porters factors.Firstly the companys Factor Conditions, mainly its production plant, compoundd from major strength to major weakness. The muddle and facilities that helped transport to company to greatness during the war became hopelessly outdated in later(prenominal) years leading to relatively high costs of stressful to strain its Scotl and production. Lower production costs abroad, due to surges in gas, electricity and safe prices in the UK, and the overall British manufacturing decline made Hunter Boot Ltds ambitions to remain an independent producer based in Scotland unsustainable ( monetary time 2006).Also blamed in the process was the companys CEO fall guy Sater, which relates to Porters factor on firm strategy, structure and rivalry, who chose to accompany a diversification strategy in that under his rule the product range was extended extensively in an effort to boost sales. The company even added a range of branded clothing and partnered with charities and fashion designers. With the antecedently mentioned financial situation the company was forced to consider external business proposals in an effort to keep the company afloat.Driving the following negotiations were the companys demand conditions which were clearly articulated by an anonymous insider in the fiscal Times (2006) as anyone who hunts or fis hes and has a few quid fancies themselves as the next owner. It is so close to the hearts of so many hoi polloi it is almost owned by the nation. None of the offers gained sufficient support of the add-in and the company collapsed in the spring of 2006. In several consecutive constructions Hunter Boot Ltd. Generated sales of ? 56m in 2010 and ? 78 in 2011 which is a knockout financial improvement and turnaround from its pre-tax losses in 2005.Since early 2012 the company is under control of American-owned private equity group SCP which is pursuing world(a) expansion. This makes Hunter Boot Ltd. one of many luxury brand buy-outs by private equity groups the like of SCP in recent times. SCP has announced that it will try to set up stores selling the Hunter brand altogether across the globe in the coming years. This is a major change in its international strategy since Hunter products are currently sell exclusively via wholesale retail channels (Paton 2011&2012).Despite the many changes in ownership Hunter product are still clearly trying to hang on its British heritage in a doubled effort to maintain its loyal UK customer base and to differentiate itself from its competitors. As an example the company has two different website interfaces, one for UK customers and one for USA customers. Both emphasize the exclusivity and craftsmanship of the product, but the UK website further emphasizes its heritage by portraying the British flag and colors clearly on each opportunity. From a theoretical perspective one could argue that Hunter Boot Ltd. s current (international) business strategy can no durable be sufficiently explained by Porters Diamond model, and now bears more resemblance to Barneys VRIO model which is a re base-based view pore on the firms privileged capabilities (Barney 1991). The resource-based view argues international success stems from the theory that some firms in one nation generate exports that are valuable (V), unique (R), hard to imit ate (I) and supported by organizationally sound processes (O) which firms from other nations find beneficial to import.A valuable resource will lead to competitive parity, a valuable and rare resource to improvised competitive advantage, the addition of inimitability will lead to uphold (short-term) competitive advantage and meeting all VRIO-criteria will lead to (long-term) sustainable competitive advantage (Shahriari, M. & Ahmadi, A. , 2010). While companies may have many tangible and nonphysical resources only few of them are strategical in nature. Most strategic resources are of the created and nonphysical kind and often knowledge-based, yet they can only be facilitated with the help of tangible resources.This mix is what enables a company to go away past competitive convergence and into competitive advantage (Shariari et al. 2010 and Barney 1991). Globalization has moved(p) Hunters home-based competitive advantages in that in a international economy there has been a shift from natural assets (land and untrained labor) to created assets (human capital). many another(prenominal) of these created assets are intangible and firm or ownership specific which hateful they are often no longer controlled by specific countries or governments except within the constraints of the (national) law. Multinational firms (MNEs) like Hunter Boot Ltd. re free to move assets from a domestic to a foreign location which is often done when trying to pursue and generate new valuable assets (Dunning, J. H. , 1993). This opportunity is exactly what the company pursued when it moved its production plant to China while maintaining its HQ in Scotland. It is the companys intangible or created asset of reputation that currently yields it with a long-term sustained competitive advantage over its competitors. Its constant customer focus and technical capabilities are a close second but do not withstand a long-term orientation to a similar extent.This is oddly true for Hunter Boot Ltd. s technological capability since the recent move of its production facilities and cost-cutting strategy has made the company more endangered to imitation by competitors. Recently Hunter Boot Ltd. has been enjoying great success and it will have to prove if this is sustainable or not. It will come down to the following question Is the companys gaining in internal capabilities and resources enough to make up for the loss of its national advantages?The author states that it is vital for the company to uphold its reputation since this is currently the single sustainable source of competitive advantage and not one that cannot be affected. It might be that the company will lose some of its loyal (mainly UK) customers and gain a large number of mass-market global customers, but it is doubtful this will provide long-term success if the company is not able to differentiate itself sufficiently from its competitors in the near future. Bibliography BARNEY, J. , 1991.Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of management, 17(1), pp. 99-120. DUNNING, J. H. , 1993. outside(a)izing Porters Diamond. MIR Management International Review, 33 (Extensions of the Porter Diamond Framework), pp. 7-15. FINANCIAL TIMES, 2006, Future far from shining for Britains wellies, viewed on 28th of February 2013 http//www. ft. com/intl/cms/s/0/628795c2-cbd4-11da-a7bf-0000779e2340. htmlaxzz2MYTEnuR hunting watch BOOT LTD, 2013, viewed on 4th of March 2013 http//www. hunter-boot. com/about-us PATON, E. 2010, Luxury industry movers and shakers, Financial Times, viewed on 1st of March 2013 http//www. ft. com/cms/s/0/0f2e5894-1c62-11e2-ba75-00144feabdc0. html PATON, E. , 2011, Hunter boots to pursue international growth, Financial Times, viewed on 28th of February 2013 http//www. ft. com/intl/cms/s/0/4846403a-2800-11e1-a4c4-00144feabdc0. htmlaxzz2MYTEnuRw PORTER, M. E. , 1998,Competitive advantage of nations,Free press. SHAHRIARI, M. and AHMADI, A. , 2010, A Resourc e-Based Framework of strategical Marketing Planning to achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage, pp. 1-13.