1. Evaluate the company’s relationships with its large global customers. What does this imply about Globalcast’s potential to support its customers’ requirements in intensely price-sensitive global markets? Globalcast was one of the world’s largest manufacturers of metal and plastic moulded components associated with almost every industry, including automotive, consumer durables, telecommunications, computers and power tools. With over 100 manufacturing facilities, it operated in every continent, usually in areas of established or emerging industrialization. In Europe, there were large factories in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and smaller ones in Scandinavia, Austria, Turkey and Israel. Every factory was considered to be a semiautonomous profit centre and was headed by a general manager. Each general manager reported to a regional manager of one of the divisions (e.g. plastics division). New business was generated both by national marketing and by word-of-mouth recommendations from existing customers, but most orders were for regular repeat business or for new designs from existing customers. The role of the small technical sales team at each factory was to follow up enquiries with technical advice visits to the customer followed by the preparation of quotations. In many cases, Globalcast provided design assistance to the customers. It was the role of the advisor to suggest ways of simplifying the overall design, which would be cheaper for the customer, while being fast, easy and profitable to be produced in the factory. Mould costs were calculated and quoted too, and in most cases the customer would pay for the moulds from the outset, retaining ownership. Globalcast organized the purchase of the moulds, each costing up to £50,000, and made a small profit on this activity.