International Business Strategy. Logistics in Asia

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: HD, , course: Master of International Business, language: English, abstract: Yamato Co.Ltd has been an innovator and market leader in the express small package delivery industry of Japan for 30 years. Its strong domestic position opens up the possibility of international expansion to achieve sustained growth.

The business opportunity to develop an intranet of logistics in cities across Asia, Oceania and Africa is open but is time sensitive and relative to the following points:

1. Infrastructure (roads, traffic congestion, internet penetration, potential service and logistics partners, urbanization and density of population)
2. Overhead (human resource, fuel, electricity and other transport costs)
3. Political (stability, rule of law (safety of delivery), open to foreign investment)
4. Wealth (consumption rate, consumer price index)
5. Cultural (demand for convenience and reliability over cost, adoption of online
retailing, attractiveness of point of deliver pay)

In this dissertation I argue that Yamato should focus on its core competency of small packages when formulating international expansion strategies and not its legacy services such as specialist freight forwarding and packing for Japanese manufacturing firms.