Question

You are Head of Sales & Marketing and a member of the Strategic Management Team for a medium sized organization that manufactures and sells specialized oil and gas exploratory, drilling and production equipment to a wide range of global oil and gas companies. One of the major strategic initiatives being considered by the Strategic Team is expanding the organization’s existing U.S. based manufacturing operations of this equipment to both South America and the African continent to reduce shipping distance of material and establish a local presence.

The targeted country in Africa being considered is Nigeria, which would allow shipment of equipment to African oil producers in Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Gabon, DRC and Equatorial Guinea. The targeted country in Latin America under consideration is Venezuela, which would allow shipment of equipment to Latin American oil producers in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.

The company’s CEO asks you to prepare an environmental scan that will focus on key strategic decision making that need to be examined for both countries under consideration, Venezuela and Nigeria, and to be “brutally honest” in your evaluation and comments.

Please type your answer under the right section in the table below:

	Venezuela	Nigeria
Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental

Answer 1

	Venezuela	Nigeria
Political	Left wing social democracy.	Democracy.Relatiely stable political environment. Two major political parties which alternatey come to power.
Economic	Huge dependence on oil exports (80% of exports). Some agrarian business as well. Manufacturing contributed 17% of GDP in 2006. Venezuela manufactures and exports heavy industry products such as steel, aluminium and cement. Infrastructure is improving. tourism has grown.	dependent on crude oil exports.Agriculture is main employment for 30% of population. Very Low per capita income. Low industrialization. Weak infrastructure like power and transport . Largest population in Africa.
Social	The culture of Venezuela is made up of three main groups: The Indigenous Venezuelans, the Africans, and the Spanish.	The social fabric is fragmented between the super rich and the poor. There is hadly any middle class.
Technological	Skilled manpower is available for setting up industries. Internet penetration is good.	Lack of skilled manpower is a challenge. Industrial revolution has missed this place. Poor Manufacturing prowees.
Legal	Law and Order situation is poor. Law enforcement is weak.	poor enforcement of laws and corruption is abundant .
Environmental	weak enforcement of regulatory statutes.	Blatant flagrancy of laws. Fear of law is not there.