Abstract

The case “Samsung: Going from ‘Make in India’ to ‘Make for the World’” discusses how the manufacturing and the R&D strategies that the Samsung Group (Samsung) formulated to excel in India could help it succeed internationally. In the mid-2010s, Samsung launched the “Make in India” initiative and enhanced its domestic manufacturing to take advantage of certain sops given by the Government of India (GoI) to induce multinationals to make India their manufacturing base. In conjunction with that initiative, Samsung also launched the “Make for India” initiative, through which its Indian R&D centers came up with innovative products after studying Indian customer needs and taking into account customer feedback. The case discusses in detail some of the products launched under the “Make for India” initiative and describes their impact on the company’s market position. It also describes how Samsung began to gradually enhance its domestic production to take advantage of other sops provided by the GoI. Samsung eventually announced the launch of its “Make for the World” initiative, under which it planned to shift its production from other countries and make India a base from which to supply products internationally. Will Samsung make India its sole production base in future in Asia? Will its customer centric products help beat the competition?

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Devise methods to build brands in international markets.
• Scrutinize the strategies used by governments to boost domestic manufacturing.
• Appreciate the importance of Multinational Corporations (MNC) understanding local market conditions when entering new markets.
• Examine the ability of product glocalization to capture market share.
• Recognize how innovations in product designs are vital for survival in global markets.

Keywords

Business Environment; Make in India; International Marketing Strategy; International Product Management; Glocalization; Make for India; Government Policies; Foreign Direct Investment; Product customization; Customer-centric; Research & Development; Multinational Operations; Innovations; Manufacturing decisions; Outsourcing