New Product Development for Marketing Essay

Competition used to be between firms of same size and same capabilities, today the situation has changed and we can see competition between what is considered small and big firms and form different countries. The world is more globalized and flatter and big numbers of firms have equal resources and mean of production. According to Thomas Friedman there are reason behind a flatter world and reduced gap between firms in different countries (Insourcing, outsourcing, off shoring and supply-chain†¦). The concept of triple convergence is an addition reason for world flattener, the first convergence is when all ten flatteners work together to create a flatter, global playing field; the second convergence adopts new habits like moving from vertical to horizontal mean of creating value, in other words we must understand the process of new technology internally in a firm before the outcome reach the consumers, and finally the third convergence is the introduction of new people and tools in the production process and leads to more competition and connection between peoples. Out of clutter find simplicity, from discord find harmony and in the middle of difficulty lays opportunity† (Einstein). All entrepreneurs and CEOs are reacting to the changes in the world in recent years and the flattening of the world; it is clear that small and big firms are running after economic growth but can they do it without change in their core ideology? What must firms do to stay in business in a flat world? There is evidence today that all kind of firms and big companies are almost using the same technologies, markets and research innovations; this would lead to a competition between small and local firm and other international firms and even competition between countries. â€Å"What is unique about the flat world is the degree to which individuals, or small groups, can now act and compete globally† (Friedman 2005 p 447). Innovation comes from creating an environment that encourages people to stretch their imagination and turn the ideas into finished goods and services. These characteristics (technology, innovation and market studies) will allow the small firms to act big by implementing what you are imagining. The best example of a local or regional firm and competing with multinational firms is Aramex; the first package delivery service in the Arab world. When Fadi Ghandour the founder and current CEO of Aramex started the company, there was only one service parcel delivery operating in the Middle East and it was DHL. How Aramex became a competitor to DHL? They ecide to approach American companies like FedEx and offer them to be their delivery service in the Middle East in order to beat DHL because Aramex knows the Arab markets more than Airborne express and they started the delivery with the partnership of small delivery firms from Egypt to turkey and Saudi Arabia and lately to Iran and Pakistan, so as a result Aramex created its own network. In addition Aramex adopted Airborne system (computerized tracking and tracing system, unified language, and quality standards); as a result Aramex dominated the parcel delivery service in the Arab world. When DHL acquired Airborne and Aramex was left alone with no system to use, so they developed new one with the help of Jordanian software and industrial engineers and depend on the web and real-time tracking and tracing. Now the small company step up to replace Airborne due to an effective global network, by focusing on a specific market and serving it with high quality service with lower time and costs. Now Aramex is considered a flat company, according to Ghandour every worker in the company has a computer with e-mail and internet access so he can know what is going on without many reports from senior managers. He also said: â€Å"I was big locally and small internationally and I reversed that†. Aramex has benefited from the flattening of the world by leveling the economic field and breaking trade to barriers, any company in the world can compete globally. Oligopoly market used to show us a market with a dominant firm and others described as follower and mostly considered small firms; the dominant firm can set a low price and make it difficult to small firms to compete and sometimes force them to leave the market. When world become more flat according to Friedman, small firms can compete with bigger ones and the competition is not only small against small and big firms against each others. The main reasons behind the reduction of the gap between small and big firms are: technology, innovation, Insourcing, and market niche. These will help small firms to reduce costs and increase quality and prevent big firms from enjoying economies of scale and putting barriers to entry; the example of Aramex is an inspirational closing thought; one of a small Arab company that made it big in the world platform: