International Business

Introduction

International Trade Holding Co. is an international company that is multi diverse and contains different employees who are professional from different areas of the world. The company tries to improve its competitive advantage and make more profits. The company manages and organizes many projects including more than 1,000 people and keeps growing, ITHC’s interest for opportunities also keeps going. The company's logo reflects its strong commitment to all involved services such as endeavor, hospitality, aviation, construction and retail. The company prefers innovations and is committed to expand its activities internationally. International Trade Holding Company KSC (ITHC) is the Corporate Headquarters of a privately owned diverse group of Companies that are existing in Variety of disciplines and industries mainly based in Kuwait. ITHC was established first in 2001 by its President and Chairman Dr. Hamad Al-Tuwaijri and it is continuing expanding and growing in Kuwait and overseas. Ithc, (2016) The current assignment is discussing and critically discussing different global business operations of the company, critically discussing different environmental factors affecting the company's business in Philippines referring to factors such as the socio-cultural factors, the technological factors, political/legal factors, ethical and echological factors. The company's motivating factors of investing abroad are also discussed and evaluated such as the supply factors, demand factors, political and other factors.

Analysis

The company has different global business operations such as hospitality business operations, aviation, construction and retail business operations. According to Willcocks, (2016) global business refers to how international trade and relevant operations are managed and this occurs across the world. In case of ITHC; the company is doing great efforts to present effective and high quality services abroad in all the different fields and activities as for example; the company has established different hotels of very high quality in different areas of the world such as Movenpick Hotel – Kuwait, The Convention Centre and Royal Suites-Kuwait, Swiss-bel Hotel Plaza – Kuwait, MoevenpickHuma Island Palawan – Philippines and the United International Hotel Group - Kuwait, Lebanon. These projects include different operations such as providing the best customer service, presenting new products and having strong human resource. The company depends on strong and effective global business operations in order to keep competitive and not to be in need for supplying a cost-effective foundation. The company gives great care for its talents as it focuses on talent balances, for example, in the retail department, the company tries to match between the supply and demand of skills in marketing, distributing and sales. The talents of the company can run specific support processes in order to reduce costs and raise profits. Technology is highly used by the company in order to cope with different changes occurring in global technology, the company focuses on specific uses for technology especially in its construction projects as it uses technology for providing its clients with the best and most advanced engineering designs and modern analytical systems. According to Birula, (2014), most foreign trade categories are specialized in machinery and transportation such as automobiles and others. In the case of ITHC, the company is globally trading in aviation field to support customers with the aircraft assistance through the business of the Golden Falcon Aviation which is a young company for presenting services of cargo, passenger and military aircraft assistance in Kuwait. The company uses multi-skilled staff for producing a safe ground service that is fast and cost efficient. The company global business operations are run by a professional management team that uses different approaches for running the international business of the company.     

The company is making different projects in Philippine such as the Movenpick hotel resort for providing high quality hospitality services which is excellent and innovative. There are different environmental factors in Philippine that affect the business of the company in Philippine and these factors influence the business in many ways and can be analyzed using the PESTLE analysis as according to Abdullah and Shamsher, (2011), the PESTLE analysis can help the organization identifies the important factors related to the environment that can affect the organization and this helps it improve its processes to reach better outcomes. In case of ITHC, the environmental factors affecting the company in Philippine are as follows:

Political	The Philippine is a small country that has an honesty scheme of the Supreme court and the court has a tax appeal that makes business there is easy and attractable. The country is known for unpredictable shifts in its national politics as there are mass protests, laws reversals that lead to a climate of uncertainty that makes foreign investors very careful to have business there. The country has different laws that may be challenging such as laws that prevent married women from work which affects businesses that depends on women such as hairdressers and different needed services for women, this makes ITHC raises its effectiveness in its business there with high protection via the contracts with the companies there and organizing its workforce and relevant issues alongside with the laws and legislations and politics of Philippines.
Economic	The Philippines is a country of strong economy that is ranked as the 19th of the 41 countries of the region of the Asian Pacific and it is ranked as 44th biggest economy internationally based on estimates of the HSBC. The best performance in the region is in the stock market which makes it a good economic opportunity for ITHC to market its retail products there. There is an economic expansion in the country and it is continuing. Economy there is supported by the governmental reforms and the stable industrial environment.
Socio cultural	Filipinos are kind people, friendly and talented. They have a wealthy culture with different traditions that are affected by the culture of Spain and America. Rice and coconut are main products there. Hospitality industry is preferred by people from all over the world in addition to tourism industry. The Filipinos like shopping and going outside which makes the hotel industry is vivid there.
Technological	The country depends on innovating different industries and fields to cope technological advances in the world. There is a wide range of using advances information systems such as depending on the Innovative Rainwater Harvesting System (IRHS) that makes the country protected from rains by the strong leak-proof system. The country also has an advanced GSM Data Terminal system that gives business organizations a good opportunity to have easy wireless access to many online sites for getting data easily and making financial transactions easily and securely. (Nehru et al, 2012)
Legal	The country has a different legal systems that support businessmen and foreign investments there. Taxation system is also flexible and suitable for foreign investors. The foreign direct investment Philippines policy is very liberal as it is release to any corporation or financier that would like to spend in it. This makes the opportunity of ITHC is great in business there.
Environmental	The country has a very nice environment that has fine weather and many beautiful sceneries and views which makes it a preferable tourist destination and makes the opportunity of making good hospitality business good for ITHC. (Abad, 2013)

There is a number of motivating factors for investing abroad that ITHC depends on such as the supply factors as the company tries to set suitable prices of its products and services as it depends on analyzing the market and presenting reasonable prices based on the needs and demands of the market locally and internationally. An example is the prices of the Alta Moda Boutique owned by the company as it presents a variety of prices that are ranged and reflecting for the high quality of the products there compared to other international brands for retailing clothes. This makes the company has increase supply. (ITHC, 2016) Technology is also regarded by the company in all different activities as a factor for improving its supply, for example, the company is keen on presenting the best and most advanced technologies in its construction and aviation services, the company has very fast aviation and cargo services that are also accurate and based on latest technology. According to Berg, (2009) regarding the customers' expectation is important to be considered within the factors affecting investing abroad, the ITHC company makes this by investigating the market where it is marketing its products internationally and making needed analysis for realizing the expectations of the market and how far the company is trying to reach them and even exceed them. Among the factors affecting the company's international investment is the number of producers in the market as this decides the demands of the market to the company's products and the amount of production needed, this also refers to the amount of production needed and the quality level that should be exceeded or at least met. The company is also keen on realizing the shifts in the supply curve that can lead to changes in the market demands and prices of different products. According to Newton, (2008) there are natural conditions that affect the foreign investments of international business organizations such as the natural elements in each country the company is investing in, people's interests and the workforce as well as other factors such as labor costs and raw materials produced in the country. In relation to the international investments of ITHC; the company is regarding natural conditions of the countries it is investing in such as the people's interests in Kuwait as the company realizes how far people like shopping and are interested in clothes and latest fashion especially women which made it open its retail shop for women clothes known as Alta Moda Boutique. Other factors are according to Wood et al, (2012) are the government policies that can support the international business or worsen it as in some countries there are strict laws in some countries imposed on imports and exports and impose high taxes that are able to changes according to laws. This can be applied on the case of ITHC as the company makes business in Philippine where there are high taxes imposed over the imports and exports which makes the company careful for its contracts with the business entities and suppliers in Philippine as the company's projects there depends on using their work labor and procuring various raw materials that are subject to the Philippine laws and legislations.      

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to state that international business is important to improve the competitive advantage of business organizations and it increases profits as well. There are many different fields and regions in the world where ITHC works as an international company in many fields including construction, aviation and retail businesses. The company has some projects in Philippine such as its hotel Movenpick project and the country has many factors that affect the business and international investment of the company there such as the political, environmental, legal, technological, socio cultural and economic factors. This is presented through the PESTLE analysis. The company has main motivating factors for investing abroad such as demand factors, supply factors, market needs, customers expectations and others and the company is very careful to regard these factors when it is making international business there.