Costco International Expansion

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UNGC ILO Ramya Nagarajan ramyanaga.99@gmail.com N/A N/A UNGC: Strategic Expansion of Businesses Country’s Relationship/History to the Topic: As many large corporations expand domestically and internationally, the primary concerns of the ILO remain the promotion of social justice and labor peace, the creation of decent work and and decent work standards, as well as the overarching working conditions that give both employers and employees a stake at peace, prosperity, and progress. The ultimate goal of strategic expansion is to increase the productivity of a business. This increase in “productivity”, which can be measured either by the increase in profit or the increase in output by the company, according to the ILO will only be achievable…show more content…
Costco has a few very distinct strategies that has allowed them to expand rapidly, both in number of stores and profit produced. Costco’s business strategy has involved a model that allows its customers to enjoy relatively low wholesale prices. Costco has a very low mark-up percentage, especially in comparison with similar retailers such as Wal-Mart. Not only does this attract large numbers of the general populace, it also allows small business owners to purchase supplies for their own businesses while still feeling as though they have some value as they are not required to pay a very costly price. Additionally, Costco offers some of the most competitive packages for their employees, which prevents them from ever being understaffed, and thus, Costco has a very high productivity rate. Of greatest importance, however, is Costco’s mastery of the relationship between the number of domestic and international stores they own. Costco has mastered the balance between domestic sale and international sale, which has allowed them to maximize their profit over the past decade. Moreover, Costco, in contrast with most large retailers, is actually relatively conservative in the sense that they will not enter a country if doing so requires a risk and they are already selling well in other parts of the region. For example, while Costco has a large number of high-performing stores in Korea…show more content…
The ILO does have a proposed set of international labour standards, passed as conventions which work to improve the quality of employment and promote decent work. Included in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up is the prohibition of all forms of forced and compulsory labour, child labour, and discrimination in the workforce. While these rules can technically be legally binding, it is often times not very difficult to circumvent such rules and continue malpractices in the labour force. Furthermore, while the ILO has proposed standards of international labour, which have been signed by many member states of the ILO, it is very difficult to regulate whether these standards are actually being followed. Nonetheless, the ILO is making progress in attempting to increase the number of governments with their own domestic labour standards, many of which relate to each other. Denmark and other European countries have recently passed improved versions of labour standards. Ultimately, though standards for international labour exist, it is extremely difficult to regulate these standards on a global

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