International Strategic Management (ISM) is an ongoing management planning process aimed at developing strategies

Strategy

Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...

 to allow an organization to expand abroad and compete internationally. Strategic planning

Strategic planning

Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues...

 is used in the process of developing a particular international strategy.

An organization must be able to determine what product

Product (business)

In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...

s or services they intend to sell, where and how the organization will make these products or services, where they will sell them, and how the organization will acquire the necessary resources for these tasks. Even more importantly an organization must have a strategy on how it expects to outperform its competitors.

Development complexity

When an organization moves from being a domestic entity to an international organization it must consider the possible broad complexities that accompany such a decision. In a domestic country, an organization must only consider one national government

Central government

A central government also known as a national government, union government and in federal states, the federal government, is the government at the level of the nation-state. The structure of central governments varies from institution to institution...

, a single currency

Currency

In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...

 and accounting system, one political

Political system

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...

 and legal system, and usually a similar culture. Entering into one or more foreign countries can involve multiple governments, currencies, accounting systems, legal systems, and a large variety of languages and cultures. This can create numerous barriers to entry

Barriers to entry

In theories of competition in economics, barriers to entry are obstacles that make it difficult to enter a given market. The term can refer to hindrances a firm faces in trying to enter a market or industry - such as government regulation, or a large, established firm taking advantage of economies...

 for an organization looking to expand internationally.

Basic questions

In foreign countries, there are the possibility of:

• local languages required in many situations.
• very diverse cultures, both between countries and sometimes even within countries.
• often volatile politics.
• varied economic system
  Economic system
  An economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
  
  s.
• scarcity of skilled labor, with possible costs in training labor or redesigning procedures.
• poorly-developed financial markets and government-controlled capital
  Capital (economics)
  In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
  
   flows, in some of the countries.
• problems and exorbitant costs in obtaining market research
  Market research
  Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
  
   data.
• limited advertising
  Advertising
  Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
  
  , subjected to lots of restrictions.
• possible low literacy rates, not to mention the possibility of making mistakes in the language when advertising.
• currency exchange fluctuations.
• inadequate or limited communication/
• mandatory worker participation in management in some countries.
• legal restrictions on laying off
  Layoff
  Layoff , also called redundancy in the UK, is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or a group of employees for business reasons, such as when certain positions are no longer necessary or when a business slow-down occurs...
  
   of workers.

See also

• Strategic management
  Strategic management
  Strategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments...
  
  
• Strategic planning
  Strategic planning
  Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues...
  
  
• Strategy visualization