Define multinational enterprises. What challenges do they pose to operations managers?

A multinational enterprise is an organization that sources, markets and produces its goods and services in several countries to minimize costs and to maximize profit, customer satisfaction, and social welfare. Some issues that operations managers must confront in a global business environment include (1) how to design a value chain to meet the slower growth of industrialized countries and more rapid growth of emerging economies; (2) where to locate manufacturing and distribution facilities around the globe to capitalize on value chain efficiencies and improve customer value; (3) what performance metrics to use in making critical value chain decisions; and (4) how to decide if partnerships should be developed with competitors to share engineering, manufacturing, or distribution technology knowledge.