The success of overseas production subsidiaries

The smaller firm differs from the large in the greater attention it has to pay to ‘the bottom line’. The amount of profit — that which is left on the bottom of the profit and loss account after all expenses and claims have been met — is crucial to the smaller firm. The amount of profit is ultimately the source of survival to the smaller firm, and, in the shorter term, it determines too the friendliness of the bank manager, for the smaller firm has no muscle at the bank, nor in the corridors of government so increasingly and easily accessible to the large firm. The smaller firm therefore has to tread more carefully, for if a mistake is made it will have to rely on its own resources to recover. Additionally to the typical owner/manager, the bottom line is still a source of pride, an indication of a job well done, of competition met and beaten. For many smaller firms the success of the firm and of the man who runs it, is one and the same thing — the firm is the man. Hence most likely the most important question this book can answer is the simple one: ‘Was the overseas production subsidiary successful?’.