First, the strategic objectives of multinational corporations are global, and their management is highly centralized and unified.

As a company with many branches at home and abroad and engaged in global production and operation activities, multinational corporations are different from domestic enterprises. These differences are as follows:

1. The strategic goal of multinational corporations is to face the international market and maximize global profits, while domestic enterprises face the domestic market.

2. Multinational companies control foreign enterprises by holding shares, while domestic enterprises mostly control their economic activities that are not foreign-related through contracts.

3. The external activities of domestic enterprises do not involve the establishment of economic entities abroad. The relationship between domestic and international economic activities is loose and has great contingency. Its foreign-related economic activities often terminate immediately after the completion of the transaction and no longer participate in the subsequent reproduction process; Multinational companies, on the other hand, conduct all-round trading activities in various fields such as capital, commodities, talents, technology, management and information on a global scale, and this "package" activity must conform to the company's overall strategic objectives and be under the control of the parent company, and its subsidiaries also participate in the local reproduction process like foreign enterprises. Therefore, multinational companies must implement highly centralized and unified management of their branches.

Two, multinational companies engaged in comprehensive diversification.

(A) the form of comprehensive diversification of multinational corporations

1. Horizontal diversification. This kind of company is mainly engaged in the production and operation of a single product, and the parent company and subsidiaries rarely have a specialized division of labor, but the amount of intangible assets such as production technology, sales skills, trademarks and patents transferred within the company is relatively large.

2. Vertical diversification. Such companies can be divided into two types according to their business contents. One is that the parent company and its subsidiaries produce and operate products in different industries, but they are interrelated. They are cross-industry companies, mainly engaged in the production and processing of raw materials and primary products, such as mining and planting → refining → processing and manufacturing → sales and other industries. The other is that the parent company and its subsidiaries produce and operate products with different processing levels or process stages in the same industry, mainly involving industries with higher professional levels such as automobiles and electronics. For example, American Mobil Oil Company is a former vertical multinational company. It is engaged in the exploration and exploitation of oil and natural gas on a global scale, transports oil and natural gas through pipelines, storage tanks and vehicles, operates large refineries, refines final products from crude oil, and wholesales and retails hundreds of petroleum derivatives. France Perot-Citroen Automobile Company is a vertical multinational company, and there is a specialized division of labor within the company. Its 84 subsidiaries and sales organizations abroad are engaged in various processes such as mold, casting, engine, gear, reducer, machining, assembly and sales, realizing the vertical integration of production and operation.

3. Mixed diversification. This kind of company deals in a variety of products. The parent company and its subsidiaries produce different products and operate different businesses. There is no connection between them, and there is no necessary connection. Such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan. Originally a shipbuilding company, it was later diversified, and its business scope included: automobiles, construction machinery, power generation system products, shipbuilding and steel components, chemicals, general machinery, aircraft manufacturing, etc.

(B) the reasons why multinational companies attach importance to diversification

1. Strengthening the economic aggregate potential of monopoly enterprises, preventing the formation of "excess" capital and ensuring the safe development of multinational companies are conducive to the realization of global strategic goals.

2. It is conducive to the rational flow and distribution of funds and improves the utilization rate of various production factors and by-products.

3. It is convenient to disperse risks and stabilize the economic benefits of enterprises.

4. It can make full use of surplus production capacity, prolong product life cycle and increase profits.

5. It can save the same expenses and enhance the mobility of enterprises.

Third, promote the development of multinational companies by developing new technologies.

Since the war, new technologies, new production processes and new products all over the world are basically in the hands of multinational companies, which is one of the fundamental reasons why multinational companies can continue to develop and grow for decades. Usually, multinational companies will invest a lot of manpower and material resources to develop new technologies and products. For example, in the middle and late 1980s, the R&D center of AT&T Company spent an average of $654.38+09 billion annually on research, and employed 65.438+05 million researchers, of whom 2,654.38+000 received doctoral degrees and 4 won four Nobel Prizes in physics. Another example is the famous 3M company, 1994, which listed nearly 400 semi-assembled hardware products in the summer, and new products emerged one after another. The reason is explained by the marketing manager of DIY products department of 3M Canada Branch: 7% of the company's annual turnover is used to develop new products, and its business purpose is that 30% of its sales revenue must come from new products that were not listed four years ago. This shows that its research is advanced. Multinational companies not only pay attention to developing new technologies, but also are very good at obtaining high profits through technology transfer and controlling branches and subsidiaries.

4. Competition is the main means for multinational companies to compete and monopolize foreign markets.

In international trade, the traditional means of competition is price competition. That is to say, by reducing production costs, enterprises can crack down and crowd out competition in foreign markets and expand the sales of goods at prices lower than those of similar goods or other enterprises in the international market. Nowadays, due to the improvement of living standards in countries all over the world, especially in developed countries, the proportion of durable consumer goods expenditure in total expenditure has increased, and the price has continued to rise due to persistent inflation around the world, and the product life cycle has been generally shortened. It has been difficult for multinational companies to win the most customers by price competition, and it has been replaced by non-price competition. Facts have proved that non-price competition is the main means for contemporary multinational companies to monopolize and compete for the market. Non-price competition refers to improving the quality, reputation and popularity of products by improving product quality and performance, increasing varieties, improving product packaging and specifications, improving pre-sale and after-sales service, providing preferential payment terms, updating trademark numbers, strengthening advertising and ensuring timely delivery, so as to enhance the competitiveness of goods and expand sales. At present, multinational companies mainly improve the non-price competitiveness of commodities from the following aspects:

(1) Improve product quality and cross technical barriers to trade;

(2) Strengthen technical services, improve commodity performance and prolong service life;

(3) Providing credit;

(4) Accelerate product upgrading, constantly introduce new products and update varieties;

⑤ Constantly design novel and diverse packaging and decoration, and pay attention to the "personalization" of packaging and decoration;

⑥ Strengthen advertising and vigorously study and improve advertising sales skills.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) Diversification of multinational companies' business models

Compared with general domestic enterprises or general foreign-related companies, multinational companies have obviously more global production and operation modes, including import and export, licensing, technology transfer, cooperative operation, contract management and the establishment of overseas subsidiaries. Among them, especially in the form of establishing subsidiaries overseas to develop and expand its global business.