Wilkhahn Asia Pacific - A strategy and performance evaluation of an international commercial furniture company (ePub)

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,5 (A), University of New South Wales, Sydney (Faculty of International Business), course: International Business Strategies, language: English, abstract: The objective of this report is to evaluate the strategy and performance of Wilkhahn Asia
Pacific (WiAP). The focus will be on the business-level strategy. An analysis will be
conducted to identify if a match between the strategy pursued by WiAP and the internal and
external environment exists. Subsequently, we will synthesize the information gained from
the analysis in order to identify possible proble ms and generate alternative strategic solutions.
Finally, we will offer recommendations to WiAP on future strategies based on an evaluation
of the strategic solutions.
WiAP is a subsidiary of the German multinational commercial furniture manufacturer
Wilkhahn GmbH. WiAP started its operation in Australia in 1999 with its regional
headquarters in Sydney and sales offices in Melbourne and Brisbane. The company has
grown rapidly and has recently established a presence in Asia through sales offices in
Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. After the first two very successful years,
Wilkhahn Asia Pacific has recently experienced a decreased sales performance.
We have considered Wilkhahn as an interesting firm for our report, given that it is a
multinational company with presence in Australia. Given our own nationalities, German and
Swedish, we found it interesting to evaluate the performance of a northern European firm
operating in Australia. The reason we choose the office furniture industry is that one of us has
previously worked in the industry in Europe.
With the help of WiAP's Managing Director, Michael Prenzlau, and his staff, we were able to
collect valuable information about the office furniture industry (external environment) and the
company itself (internal environment).