School of Social Sciences

Master in Business Administration

Postgraduate Dissertation

The international operations of Greek dairy industry - The case study of FAGE

Antonopoulos Athanasios

Supervisor: Tsinopoulos Christos

Patras, Greece, September 2018

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The international operations of Greek dairy industry - The case study of FAGE

Antonopoulos Athanasios

Supervising Committee

Supervisor: Co-Supervisor: Tsinopoulos Christos Theotokas Ioannis HOU HOU

Patras, Greece, September 2018 Athanasios Antonopoulos, The international operations of Greek dairy industry – The case study of FAGE

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Tsinopoulos Christos for his guidance in the completion of my dissertation.

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Abstract

This thesis has examined the case of FAGE and how it works in international markets. It is easy to understand that in the current economic climate the only way out for a business is to operate in international markets. This work was based on qualitative research done on a company executive as well as on data collected by the company. The analysis has shown that the company is based on a combination of direct foreign investment in the main markets and local partners in smaller markets. The company is also trying to be flexible and to respond directly to challenges (such as relocating to Luxembourg). Work closes with the proposal for future research that should be done in a larger sample and with more businesses.

Keywords

FAGE, international strategies, strategy, foreign direct investment.

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Περίληψη

Αυτή η διπλωματική εξέτασε την περίπτωση της ΦΑΓΕ και το πως λειτουργεί στις διεθνείς αγορές. Είναι εύκολα κατανοητό ότι στην παρούσα οικονομική συγκυρία η μόνη διέξοδος για μια επιχείρηση είναι το να δραστηριοποιηθεί στις διεθνείς αγορές. Η παρούσα εργασία βασίστηκε σε ποιοτική έρευνα που έγινε σε στέλεχος της επιχείρησης καθώς και σε στοιχεία που έχουν συλλεχθεί από την εταιρεία. Η ανάλυση έδειξε ότι η εταιρεία βασίζεται σε ένα συνδυασμό Άμεσων Ξένων Επενδύσεων στις κύριες αγορές και με τοπικούς συνεργάτες στις μικρότερες αγορές. Επίσης, η εταιρεία προσπαθεί να είναι ευέλικτη και να αντιδρά άμεσα στις προκλήσεις (όπως η μεταφορά της έδρας στο Λουξεμβούργο). Η εργασία κλείνει με την πρόταση για μελλοντική ερεύνα που θα πρέπει να γίνει σε ένα μεγαλύτερο δείγμα και με περισσότερες επιχειρήσεις.

Λέξεις – Κλειδιά

ΦΑΓΕ, διεθνείς στρατηγικές, στρατηγική , άμεσες ξένες επενδύσεις.

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Table of Contents Abstract ...... v

Περίληψη...... vi

Table of Contents ...... vii

Chapter 1 - Introduction ...... 1

Chapter 2 - Development strategies for companies which seek to externalize ...... 4

2.1 The usefulness of strategic planning ...... 4

2.2 The configuration of the strategy ...... 6

2.3 Development strategies - Theoretical Approach ...... 8

2.4 Internationalization strategy ...... 17

2.5 Business development strategy through acquisitions and mergers ...... 17

2.6 Crisis management ...... 18

2.7 Latest developments – Blue Oceans Strategy ...... 20

2.8 Foreign marketing strategy and internationalization ...... 22

2.9 Modes of international operations ...... 24 Chapter 3 - Success stories of Greek companies - Strategy for the development of Greek enterprises ...... 27

3.1 Coco-mat ...... 27

3.2 Korres Company ...... 30

3.3 IKEA - Fourlis ...... 31

3.4 Plaisio Company ...... 33

Chapter 4 - The empirical part ...... 35

4.1 The methodology ...... 35

4.2 Company profile ...... 36

4.3 Data retrieved from review ...... 40

Chapter 5 – Conclusions ...... 45

References ...... 49

Appendix : The Research Questions ...... 51

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Postgraduate Dissertation viii Athanasios Antonopoulos, The international operations of Greek dairy industry – The case study of FAGE

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Businesses today are organizations, whose main concern is to be able to respond to the challenges and threats that exist in their environment. It should be stressed that the environment today is very volatile and this has the effect that it is very difficult for businesses to create a strategy that will be long-lasting.

An important parameter is that in today's crisis environment, but also innovation and new technologies, businesses have to cope with a highly complex environment that, to understand, one should have the relevant knowledge and experience. This means that today it is more necessary than ever for companies to invest in their human capital, so special attention should be paid to executives.

The most important concern that businesses have with their executives is to shape their strategy. Strategy formulation is an important process in terms of strategic management. It exploits the data in the previous stage of strategic management, which is the analysis of the environment and gives direction for the strategy to be realized by creating a set of interrelated concepts and processes. It should be noted that strategy development is a development of long-term plans to make management effective, as well as the opportunities and threats posed to the environment in light of the strengths and weaknesses of a business. It includes the definition of the company's mission, the adoption of achievable goals, and the development with a series of strategies so that strategy shaping takes several stages. One may wonder how much strategy is needed. The answer is that the benefits of the organization are many and plan the future it has. Specific benefits are listed below.

Strategic planning initially can work positively with the organization, as it can minimize uncertainty and risk.

At the same time, it acts aggressively as the organization can cope with possible opportunities that may occur. In addition, it creates conditions for co-ordination, so that the best possible structure can be made and the organization can use its individual functions.

Through strategic planning the organization focuses its attention on important issues and its resources are appropriately allocated to activities that can offer the highest profit. It also identifies, evaluates and tries to prevent possible threats.

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Strategic planning is a reference framework for the budget and operational plans. It is a road map showing the route the company is going through and what it should follow in the future. Finally, it tries to predict and control the future.

For many, strategic management is a very important move for the business and especially for multinationals ones. As a point, there is a logic in the most models have been applied mainly to large companies. But today we must not forget that the backbone of the economy is small and medium-sized enterprises.

It should be noted that for many strategic planning has been built on the logic of the continuous growth of business. But in recent years businesses have faced a reverse situation due to the financial crisis. The result of this is that there is a need to develop growth strategies in a particularly difficult environment, such as the economic crisis.

Hence, the Greek economy is on the verge of the economic collapse and this is something that has affected overall the performance of Greek firms. Indeed, the economic crisis has affected the perception that Greek companies have over their strategies and what to do. The outcome is that many Greek companies have taken the decision to externalize their operations. There are many examples of companies which have made a successful entrance into new markets. Some of the examples are Apivita and Coco Mat. Fage has been a case of a company which has been able to successfully enter into new markets. The market entrance modes used from FAGE are various. For example, on some countries it is using exports, but on some other uses FDI. Recently, the company decided to expand its activities to America by constructing a factory. Furthermore, the company’s management has transferred its financial departments to Luxemburg, not only due to taxation but also (mostly) due to the weakness of Greek banks to loan further activities. Furthermore, the company is constructing a new factory there so as to provide more efficiently the central Europe reducing transportation costs. What we see here is a company which becomes from an international company into a global company. Through FDIs FAGE is able to empower its position in the global markets by creating a global value chain.

Therefore, the aim of this project is to analyze the foreign market entrance modes that the company has used till now, but also its international marketing strategies. We will also make recommendations on which strategy to use in the following years. To be more precise, the research will provide answer upon the following research questions:

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 What is FAGE’s global strategy?  How does this strategy help the company to obtain a competitive advantage?  What is the impact of the crisis upon FAGE’s global strategy?

The data will be collected from two sources. Firstly, it will be collected from market reports and other sources (secondary), while there is going to be an interview with a key executive (primary research). Hence, the author will combine all of the data so as to produce the conclusion of the thesis. The importance lies on the fact that this is a research which indicates how Greek firms can externalize and develop competitive advantages in such a difficult environment.

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Chapter 2 - Development strategies for companies which seek to externalize

2.1 The usefulness of strategic planning

No business in modern management, either small or large, cannot move on to strategic moves without having studied it. It should be noted that many companies often make decisions, such as expanding into new markets without taking into account changes in their environment and without having the appropriate resources to enter a market with a number of issues that determine strategic planning. We must say that strategic planning is necessary not only for large companies but for all organizations. There are not only a few cases in which small business decisions are taken by managing without a proper strategic analysis and planning of movements, with the result that implementation fails (Berry, 2008). So far we have analyzed the strategy as a concept. We also need to look at the strategic necessity that is useful to business.

The strategy is a coherent integrated decision-making system that reveals and defines the purpose of each organization in terms of its long-term goals, action programs and priorities (Wang et al, 2007). It selects the areas in which the organization is active to start the business in the future. It endeavors to maintain its advantageous position in each program for the long term, responding to the opportunities and threats of its environment, as well as to the demands and weaknesses that arise from it. It employs all hierarchical levels of the organization while defining the nature of financial contributions to staff, administration and the public (Mullins, 2009).

The strategy is a basic context in which organizations reaffirm their vital continuity by facilitating adaptation to the evolving environment.

The existence of strategic policy in an organization is important, because it contributes to the need of survival in a climate of significant changes within a modern environment. The course of these is the inability to predict future trends.

At the same time there are pressures on business financing especially in economies in crisis. This results in the need for performance measurement and rational management. At the same

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time there are demanding consumers at all levels for the goods and services provided. Increasing disposable income and leisure have made the world more aware of quality issues.

In addition, there is globalization, i.e. the existence of products and services that are highly standardized and homogenized throughout the world. The massive increase in supply and capacity of consumer goods, which exceeds the increase in demand from visitors, results in competition between companies.

In this way, businesses try to attract the same visitors and impose changes in their management. The result is that the strategy has evolved in recent years into a panacea in all forms of businesses. Even in companies that have not been the focus of interest for years, such as nonprofit companies, strategic management is a panacea.

It is important to note that the strategy is not only about individual agency functions, but also a think-tank that concerns the organization as a whole (Griffin, 2009). It starts with the vision of the body and the people who have created the body and moves into action. In order to do this immediately, that is to move from thought to action, there is a number of decisions in order to set goals so that the strategy can be realized.

In addition to the company's internal environment, the strategy also takes into account the external environment, i.e. helping the organization adapt to the demands of the environment in which it operates. So we understand that the strategy is not just about specific functions, people and departments but the whole organization (Papadakis, 2012).

It should be noted that strategic management is presented through four schools of thought. The first is the classical school of thought, which concerns the organization's direct profitability and in this case the strategy is determined by the organization's management and the criteria by which strategic choices are made. The second faculty is the school of evolutionary thinking, which states that the organization's strategy is defined by the changes in the environment. This means that the strategy is not stable but environmentally changing. The third thinking school is procedural, which states that the strategy is not the result of programming, but it emerges. In this case, the strategy is not the result of senior management decisions, but results from processes involving all employees. Finally, there is a school of systemic thinking in which all the elements of the organization's environment are computed to link the strategy. In this case, the organization adapts to the environment and operates within it (Griffin, 2009).

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To close the module, we must say that the strategy is important because it can change according to the situations experienced by the organization. From what we have already seen, the strategy is not one-dimensional. There are many different schools of thought with different approaches to strategic choices. Classical school, for example, refers to a stable environment that is rare today. On the contrary, the procedural approach is more realistic and refers to reality (Thompson et al, 2012).

2.2 The configuration of the strategy

The formulation of a strategy is the development and design of long-term plans so that there is an effective management of opportunities and threats of the external environment in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of the interior. The formulation of the strategy involves defining the mission of an enterprise as the expression of the vision of the executives and the statement of the main purpose for which the enterprise operates and the objectives that indicate it should be attained until describing the final results of the enterprise, the development of the alternative strategies and the formulation of the policies needed to implement the strategy.

Strategic decisions by nature are complex because they contain a high degree of uncertainty and risk and are based on views and positions of future staff. In addition, they require a general integrated approach to business management as opposed to functional decisions that cannot solve the problems by exploiting the knowledge of a particular child. Executives therefore have to deal with the company's problems outside the limits of the management departments and must agree with each other regardless of any differences (Georgopoulos, 2013).

Moreover, strategic decisions usually lead to significant changes within the business. These changes are difficult to decide and to be designed and even more difficult to implement (Therios, 2014).

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The mission

The mission of an organization is the basic purpose of its existence. The mission defines the only purpose that makes it stand out from other organizations while highlighting its intentions and expectations in relation to the products and services it produces, as well as the philosophy it exudes on the market, as well as the internal environment, as well as the vision of the organization.

The purposes

Objectives are the final results of activities that are designed to target what and when to accomplish the mission. The goals determine the result through the time it takes to complete it. Some typical goals of organizations are profitability, growth, reputation and leadership.

Policies

Policies are a broad industry that is linked to the formulation of a strategy through its implementation. Policies are applied in all levels of operations according to their mission and goals and provide the direction that is necessary for clear guidance to complete the task.

Strategy implementation

At this stage, the strategy designed by senior executives is mainly applied by middle and bottom executives in the development of budget and process programs. The program is about identifying specific steps that business executives must follow to successfully implement the strategic plan. Program features include the changes that come from the company's strategic plans.

Budgets are the financial expression of business plans, as they analyze the costs to be borne by the firm if it implements the procedures set out in the program and the profit that can be obtained. Important tools in strategic planning are that the implementation of the business plan is economically advantageous. Procedures refer to the operational functions, which in turn can be subdivided into individual processes that are repetitive (Georgopoulos, 2013).

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Valuation and Control

Valuation and control are the final stage of strategic management, which is critical to businesses operating in a competitive environment. Management at this stage is required to evaluate the results of the strategy's implementation and to assess whether these were expected in relation to the defined objectives. The use of evaluation indicators at this stage plays a major role in drawing conclusions on the implementation of its strategic plans. Finally, evaluation helps to achieve the business objectives by helping executives make the necessary adjustments required.

With regard to the policies that refer to the strategy's design, it is a point that aims to lead to a competitive advantage. For this reason, we will proceed with the presentation of the strategy theory of competitive advantage.

2.3 Development strategies - Theoretical Approach

Business strategy is the moves that take place to achieve a competitive advantage by choosing and managing a mix of business activities that may be in many different industries or markets (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2001). The business strategy that a business can follow is determined by the dynamic nature of the industry in which it operates but also the problems it faces. There are three (3) categories which:

• Stability Strategies. • Growth strategies • Turnaround strategies

From these, development strategies will be considered next.

These strategies are designed to achieve growth in profits, sales, or both. The main reason why they were created, is that because businesses operate in a dynamic and changing environment where they need to grow to ensure their survival. They include the following categories:

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1. Vertical integration 2. Horizontal integration 3. Diversification / differentiation of activities, which is specialized in:  related diversification  unrelated diversification 4. Market penetration 5. Market development 6. Product development

The following paragraphs will detail the strategic options and highlight the advantages and disadvantages often posed by businesses.

Vertical Integration

It is a strategy whereby businesses try to get forward or backward by undertaking vendor or distributor activities. In this strategy the purpose is to enable the company to control the production chain and the distribution chain. Through this move, production and distribution costs can be reduced, as well as the company's full control over the process. Alternatively, it may follow a strategic alliance with other companies at other stages of production. In order to do this, the company has to make serious investments related to the acquisition of other businesses and the entry of new units. This means that the company has to incur costs and risk in terms of the outcome of the investment (Johnson and Scholes, 2009). The firm must invest in vertical integration when the following applied:

1. When there are few or expensive or unreliable suppliers / distributors of products who significantly reduce the cost of distribution & storage.

An example is a company that is active in pursuing a vertical integration strategy by undertaking its own instruments such as product transfer from producers.

2. Protection of product quality

The firm undertakes vertical integration backwards significantly if it has a presence at that stage of production due to competition.

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3. When the company has invested in specialized resources

The acquisition of innovative material reduces production costs and improves the quality of the product, which is very likely to be differentiated from competitors. Because of the situation of mutual dependence between two parties and holdup risk, companies find it difficult to persuade or trust others, which are active at parallel stages of the production chain, with a result avoiding such investments.

4. When creating barriers to competitors

Since control of raw material flow or distribution channel control is excellent, the company is almost certain to increase its profitability, since the presence of competition will not be so intense in the industry it operates.

5. The existence of advantages of stable production

With programming and coordination of the different production stages, vertical integration is achieved. Savings on storage costs and faster distribution of market products are also achieved, resulting in companies reducing their dependence on suppliers and responding more easily to market changes. The disadvantage of vertical integration is the internal costs that arise from the organization of the company's vertical integration and competition. These disadvantages are the following:

1. Cost disadvantages

Vertical integration strategy can become a competitive advantage when external suppliers are able to produce a cheaper product. In vertical integration, the company must buy from inflows from domestic suppliers, resulting in costly costs. At the same time, domestic suppliers know that they can have their production in other units in the group and this has the effect of weakening the incentive to minimize their operating costs and possibly also innovation.

2. Failure to achieve crew

There is not always good coordination between different production units, with vertically integrated companies not having the expected benefits. In a vertically integrated business, strategic priorities and differences in the trans-cultural culture increase bureaucratic costs.

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All this is important because they can frustrate the synergies expected from the strategy, especially if vertical integration has resulted from acquisitions and mergers.

3. The difficulty of leaving this sector (high degree of commitment and risk)

A wholly integrated enterprise is directly linked to the industry in which it operates and its future prospects, for example, if there is a fall in demand in the sector, the vertically integrated company will suffer negative consequences. It can still be ruled out that there is overcapacity at some stage of production, so the company can face high cost problems.

4. Perpetuation of obsolete processes

Today, technology is constantly evolving, and the requirements are changing. Thus, businesses are adjusted accordingly. With the vertical integration strategy, the ability of an enterprise to change suppliers or distribution systems is minimized.

Horizontal Integration

It is a strategy whereby the business tries to grow and redeem itself by creating a series of businesses that create and operate at the same stage in the production chain. Bank acquisitions that have been made in recent years are examples of horizontal integration. The goal of the integration horizon is to acquire monopoly advantages in specific markets. It is a strategy that can ultimately bring important pieces of market operation into a business. This strategy is implemented by businesses that believe they can achieve significant economies of scale in the production or disposal of the product. At the same time, they often take on the acquisition of competitors, who are known to face financial problems, considering with their administrative talent and the best management systems they can reverse the negative course. Horizontal integration is practically dominant in the chessboard of strategic business moves. The sectors where impressive mergers and acquisitions take place are those that are subject to environmental changes, so that horizontal integration is considered necessary to ensure business competitiveness and survival. Most advantages and disadvantages that apply to the vertical, also apply to the horizontal. As far as the disadvantages of horizontal integration are concerned, we can say that there are several similarities to vertical ones. First of all, an enterprise that implements a horizontal integration strategy is tied to industry and its prospects. At the same time, the lack of good coordination due to differences between companies expecting successful actions has the

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effect of failing to materialize. Particularly in the case of horizontal integration through aggressive acquisitions, businesses can reverse the negative climate by taking the expected benefits of integration. Last but not least, the suspensive action taken by national and supranational competition protection bodies which study horizontal movements should be disregarded as they are in a position to impose fines and to decide on their annulment, since they restrict the conditions of competition (Georgopoulos, 2013).

Diversification

Differentiation concerns a company's decision to grow by entering a new market with a new product. This can be done with the correlated and uncorrelated differentiation (Georgopoulos, 2013).

Associated Differentiation

Associated differentiation occurs in businesses that engage in similar activities to each other. An example of associated integration is PepsiCo, which is active in the beverage and ready- to-eat industry.

Reasons for Coordinated Diversification

1. Transfer of competencies

Associated differentiation is common and significant as horizontal integration. Its purpose is to create value that takes place when the business expands into new activities that are similar to the existing ones, thus transferring capabilities between production activities. The transfer of competences is done from the existing activities to the new ones and vice versa.

2. Range economies

Achieving profitability is a reason to implement this strategy and this is achieved by reducing costs from economies of scale. In particular, if there are similarities between the business activities, production facilities can be used together, while distribution and management and development marketing costs will be lower, with the result that the company offers more attractive prices than competitors with less dispersal.

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3. Market power

In addition, market power is strengthened as a diversified company acquires control over supplies and markets and can thus cope with the attacks of its competitors. Another reason for choosing this strategy is to assume that a form of balance is achieved that complements the range of products and services thus bringing the customer closer.

4. Decrease of seasonality of sales / Expansion of product range

This means in practice that a production company may be involved in the production of other non-seasonal dairy products seeking to increase their product sales. Many companies choose this strategy because they believe they are not balanced and complement the breadth of their products.

Unrelated Differentiation

When an undertaking recognizes that the industry, in which it operates, is not so attractive or that it no longer has unique capabilities and a competitive advantage to it, it may decide to diversify its product mix and transfer its skills to another sector or object other than which was active until today. An example of unrelated diversification is Hyundai Corporation, which produces cars, petrochemicals, ships, medical equipment and services, provides financial services and more (Thompson et al, 2012).

The uncertainty regarding the future course of an industry also leads to the unambiguous differentiation decision. The underlying reasons for a business to implement uncorrelated activity are:

1. Need to invest in capital surpluses

Need for investment presents businesses with surplus funds that cannot invest in their industry and resort to related industries.

2. The business competes in a sector with declining growth and profits

3. Existence of resources and administrative talent that create risk spreading

Managerial aspirations or the existence of resources and administrative talent to compete with business in a sector often brings risk spreading.

4. An important opportunity to acquire an unrelated business

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5. There is financial synergy between acquired and acquiring business

6. Monopoly power is punished and therefore growth is sought outside the industry

7. Ambitions of powerful executives

8. Incentives of senior executives - Reduction of employment risk and increase of their privileges

The negative that we can say is that the company's desire extends to more than one activity and requires co-ordination, so differentiation creates costs that are bureaucratic costs.

There is a series of surveys that have been conducted in the past with regard to linking profitability and diversification. Griffin (2009) states that profitability remains the same while recent similar investigations (Thompson et al, 2012) indicate that companies applying correlated differentiation show higher profits than others. On the contrary, surveys examining the issue of the correlation of differentiation in critical periods show that there should be financial incentives for successful implementation of such a strategy (Mullins, 2009).

In related differentiation the motivation is the desire to develop synergies and value creation through capacity transfer and exploitation of broader economies by increasing the power of the enterprise in the market, while in the correlation of differentiation the motivation is economic due to nature through acquisition of enterprises and their reorganization (Johnson and Scholes, 2009).

We also have to say that the benefits of strategic differentiation during a recession are more obvious in companies operating in different geographic markets because the recession does not occur simultaneously in every part of the world and its impact on some points can never happen. It should be noted that sectoral diversification is characterized by many scholars as an important strategy to tackle the recession. Otherwise, we can say that it is a size inversely proportional to how vulnerable a business is to the pressure of recession (Wheelen and Hunger, 2005).

Thompson et al, (2012) report that diversification is a strategy that is adopted by businesses to smooth fluctuations in sales and profits, to mobilize faster growth and to operate in a non- return market. It depends on the economic circles of the region or industry.

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We can therefore say that the strategy of differentiation is the foundation stone to deal with an imminent recession and its implementation is preventive. Businesses need to develop differentiation through the onset of recession.

We can also say that the strategy of diversification is the foundation for a possible recession, and its implementation must be preventive. The company must have developed its differentiation before the recession occurs, in order to be ahead of developments and to prevent possible detrimental effects before being exposed to risks. Miller's research (cited from Wheelen and Hunger, 2005) has shown that diversification due to the spread of risk is an important strategy for an environment characterized by uncertainty and potentiality which is in the midst of a recession. However, many times during a recession an enterprise prefers instead to apply a diversification strategy to strengthen its core business, if it is very strong in it and has a major competitive advantage.

Thus, the company redistributes its resources by giving weight and priority to its core business on the one hand and by applying cutbacks to activities of minor importance on the other hand. This strengthens the activities that are the cornerstone of survival during the recession and the development afterwards. If businesses have a strong competitive advantage, they must safeguard it in every way so as not to lose it.

Concentration - Market Penetration

The concentration strategy consists of making available the resources and capabilities of the business to the more profitable development of a market or a dominant technology. It can be achieved by increasing the use of the product by existing customers in order to increase consumer volumes or increase the sales rate of the product or to incentivize the purchase of more product units by attracting competitors' customers. This is also done by attracting product users or advertising new product uses such as aspirin for those with heart and circulatory problems. These markets must not be saturated, therefore should be room for increased use of the product by the existing consumer, so that market shares grow and there are economies of scale that offer significant competitive advantages. An enterprise that does not follow this strategy is obviously vulnerable to large markets, self-limiting in a sector but also to changes in the market environment (Georgopoulos, 2013).

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Market Development

Market development is a strategy by which the business tries to promote its products to new markets. These markets may concern other market segments, and new geographic areas. An enterprise can also choose to market its products through new distribution channels. This strategy is appropriate when reliable distribution channels exist (Thompson et al, 2012). It is also appropriate when there are untapped or unattractive markets.

This strategy can be implemented with the development of geographic markets at the domestic or international level, such as expansion to a particular region. It can also be realized by attracting customers from other market segments. Through a market development strategy the company can enter new distribution channels. The market development strategy is important when there are untapped or unsatisfied markets. So many companies are forced to follow this strategy because they have excessive production capacity that has to be channeled somehow.

Product Development

This strategy is to produce new products that have to be placed on the existing market. New products can be brand new, variants of existing ones and products resulting from the modification of the characteristics of existing products (Johnson and Scholes, 2009).

The company must have successful products that will be in the maturing phase as the industry is characterized by major technological developments. It requires the development of new skills related to the production and supply of new products.

With the product development strategy, products can be developed for the existing business or the company can make major changes to existing products. The strategy can be achieved in three different ways.

The company must develop new features of its products. For example, it can modify the color or shape or want to achieve a combination of ideas. It should also develop quality product variants and develop models and additional product proliferation.

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2.4 Internationalization strategy

What the oldest years were almost unlikely to happen, can now take place. Businesses are internationalizing at a very fast pace. One of the categories of growth strategies was the growth of the market, of which part of the growth is in the international market. Therefore, competitors of a business are not only inside the country but also abroad. It is necessary to develop strategies that will help the company to cope with developments in the international environment.

The way of internationalization is specific. More specifically:

• Through exports that are a low-risk, but limited, outlook

• Through direct foreign investments that have a high risk and can at the same time have direct effect

• The franchise deals with the granting of a right, such as a name, to a local businessman against a percentage of profits

2.5 Business development strategy through acquisitions and mergers

One of the main ways of developing a business, apart from internal development, is to increase its business through acquisitions, mergers or alliances. Redemption is when a business takes part or the whole of the business from another paying a consideration (money or share exchange). With this transaction, the acquired company will either operate autonomously as a legal entity or will be fully integrated and will cease to function as before. A takeover or merger may be in the form of:

• Horizontal: occurs in businesses that have the same products to increase their position in existing markets

• Vertical: It happens between customers and suppliers who are aiming at the vertical integration of production, reducing production costs and price control

• Complementary: when their work is completed

• Unrelated: when their activities are not related to each other

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Many takeover businesses are located or have their headquarters in another country. This is due to the globalization of international trade and the new conditions that lead to the creation of large business opportunities.

These developments in mergers and acquisitions are due to increased liquidity in the market. For example, changes in legislation and regulatory frameworks (liberalization of the telecommunications market, electricity, etc.) or because of banks and the stock market (Thompson et al, 2012).

It also needs to be considered whether the acquisition or merger can contribute to a competitive advantage for the firm and to increase its market position vis-à-vis its competitors. So it is necessary to make a precise assessment of the assets and analysis of future impacts for all sizes of business (e.g. Income, expenses, profits, costs), as well as disadvantages (Johnson and Scholes, 2009).

Ultimately, the final question is "Which of the above strategies is the most appropriate?"

The business strategy (in the background) has a main goal: to increase the company's profitability. From there everything starts. Every business tries to compete successfully, find the right partners, make the right decisions and win more customers. It is trying to increase its profits. The way it will do it, is to do with the strategy it is going to follow.

Once the basic strategic approaches examined in connection with the development, the next step will be evaluated how strategically a company manages the issue of crisis. This is the subject of the next subsection.

2.6 Crisis management

It should be stressed that a particular aspect of the crisis is not just the strategic choice of how to develop a company in a difficult environment, but it is also that it should not only decide what strategy to choose but also how internally and externally to manage it, especially in such a difficult period as the carrier characterized by the financial crisis. It should be emphasized that it will place particular emphasis on the management of development in the current crisis environment so that this study is considered timely.

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It is understandable to everyone that the economic crisis has brought about a series of negative circumstances that businesses need to manage. An important element is risk management by the management of a business. The decision on strategic development can bring about a number of moves such as:

• Close and / or open units • Changes within the company • Personnel transfers

The above movements may have an inconvenience in the process of running the body as well as a number of side effects. For this reason, it is important that any decision on the strategy to be taken should also have the appropriate management within the organization (Veil et al., 2008).

In this case, the management of an organization should be able to tailor the way in which it communicates to the staff and to the rest of the company's audience (shareholders, suppliers, etc.), the reasons for the strategy for the further development of the business as well as the what changes will be and what benefits. This means that a particular burden falls into communication with the public of the organism in order to reduce the uncertainty that will exist (Lachlan et al, 2014). At this point there are researches, like him.

Madhok (2010) states that a common growth strategy in times of crisis is that of strategic alliances and mergers. In this case, the issue is not managing the uncertainty in a business, but how it will be managed in all the businesses involved. In a particularly interesting article, Williamson and Zeng (2009) refer to the strategic approaches that an enterprise can take in times of crisis to overcome any obstacles. More specifically, this article states that some companies should make the relevant moves to gain the competitive edge by producing value for money strategies. For this reason, strategies are considered to be highly innovative, such as encouraging consumers to do less and spend, to do the same for less or more efficient (do more but spend no more).

Williamson and Zeng (2009) report that for businesses that want to be able to survive in this particularly difficult environment, it should be mentioned that the competitive advantage will not come from policies that aim to reduce costs but above all the production of innovation. Of course, in practice most businesses - especially multinationals - are producing low-cost goods by neglecting that an innovation, but one of its effects will also

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be cost innovation, may be the growth strategy brings the end result for the business. Of course this is a strategy that is different from the ones mentioned in the previous section.

For example, there is the case of the BYD battery manufacturer that produces high quality products for large markets. The company has a strategy that includes production in countries with cheap workforce coupled with innovations in the production line. At this point, Williamson and Zeng (2009) report that especially in countries in the developing world such as India and China which have prospects for the future as well as economies facing the crisis, the only way to grow is that of investing in innovations that will diversify the product but also will reduce production costs. This strategy can be an alternative strategy to traditional development strategies.

2.7 Latest developments – Blue Oceans Strategy

The principles of the blue ocean strategy are based on the principles of strategy formulation and implementation as well as the risk factors for the business, as the basic principles of the strategy are based on rebuilding market boundaries, focusing on the overall picture, market approach through demand and proper strategy rotation (Hanson et al, 2014).

Through these principles, a number of risk factors such as search risk, scheduling risk, rating risk, and business model risk are created. In order to implement a blue ocean strategy, organizational barriers have to be overcome and implementation implemented in the strategy. These authorities face a range of risks such as organizational risk and administrative risk.

The basic principles of linking and intersecting, the basic principles for implementing the blue ocean strategy and the tools mentioned above enable businesses to create their own basis and escape the principles of competition, to claim a new beginning by recreating and having access to new markets. This defines the boundaries of markets while setting goals and eliminating the fears of those threats that are an obstacle for the strategy of the blue oceans. The most important step in this strategy is to pay close attention to the overall picture.

In this way, it is based on regular moves that help the business achieve its goals in the long run in addition to its short-term goals that are more tangible. For the strategy, management's

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involvement in it measured but it is not based on details as the process is participatory and based on the demand that is observed.

A basic element of the blue oceans is overturning. Thinking must be original and this element is very basic to this entrepreneurship. Strategic steps take place in a specific order. Initially the strategy is designed to prevent failure. In the right order, the foundation stone of the business enters and the chances of it succeeding are increased. This can lead to a lucrative and profitable operating environment along the way. Another factor of success is the solution of the organizational issues and the main goal of its implementation and success is to address and solve the organizational issues. In order to do this, the employees of the company should be informed about the importance of the strategy and the benefits it derives. Employees must be committed to the business as in the Cirque de Soleil so that the administration can take decisions that need to be developed quickly and in a simpler way. At the same time, it must implement and apply the basic principles of leadership that inspire its employees and motivate them to be committed to and believe in the goals of the enterprise (Thompson et al, 2012).

Another element of the blue ocean strategy is, that it is necessary to take into account six specific tactics that do not need to be implemented at the same time but have the effect of generating innovation. The first and most important element is to explore the strategic groups and their similar branches. Industry best practices need to be taken seriously as there may be elements that may be missing from a branch and a range of alternatives. A second element is to look at the range of clientele. In this way, the center of attention is shifted to specific categories of customers that were not easily discoverable in the past and which are a source of success for the future (Hanson et al, 2014).

Additional and accompanying products should also be considered, as few of those products and services are the means to meet customer needs. The choice of these products plays a special role for the blue oceans. Another element is the examination of the sense of feeling the product offers. Many products provide a basis in either case. Denying one of the two categories can lead to the creation of a blue ocean.

At the same time, different time periods need to be explored. By exploring opportunities for lifestyle change and taking into account all trends, the blue ocean entrepreneurship is boosted.

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One last point is creativity techniques which aim to contribute to the creation of innovative products and services. Innovative stimuli are a challenge for the blue oceans as they may cause a series of ups and downs (Hanson et al, 2014). But the question remains whether the universal implementation of a business strategy can lead us to a blue ocean, and if that is enough for success. Definitely not.

At this point, we should emphasize that supply response to demand should come from the marketing science as defined by the exchange process, by implementing a strategic marketing plan that can respond to the specific conditions of the Blue Ocean strategy but also in conditions of economic crisis and slowdown of the global economy. As far as we have seen the relevant theory, it is important to consider what is happening and the practical application of the models, as mentioned in the next paragraph.

2.8 Foreign marketing strategy and internationalization

The term "internationalization" encompasses all the activities undertaken by a business as far as its relations with foreign markets are concerned. Political and economic changes occurring globally have affected the term to include more activities than a simple export to other countries. Therefore, internationalization can take various forms, such as investing in a foreign country (foreign direct investment), forming partnerships with foreign companies, subcontracting foreign experts, participating in international networks (Williamson and Zeng, 2009).

Ιt is important to argue that the concept of strategy is an integral part of the future of your business as it will shape the goals for your business. Therefore, this is a very important decision as it concerns your long-term activities. For many SMEs, the concept of internationalization is not part of their strategy and most senior executives of start-ups prefer to focus their activities on the local market, until their company is strong enough in relation to their local competitors. Something that could be considered logical as SMEs operate on a smaller scale than multinationals with the risk factor being greater for them. High cost is undoubtedly one of the most important barriers to the internationalization of SMEs as well as inadequate capital and increased risk factor. However, we should take into account the fact that the smallest scale of SME activity could serve as an advantage by making them

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more flexible and effective. Efficiency is not only a good prerequisite for empirical learning but can also be seen as a remedy to tackle the scarcity of resources (Mullins, 2009).

Nevertheless, the strategy of internationalization as a result of a firm strategy can prove to be successful and to give your business the competitive edge on the global market. Below are briefly outline the key advantages that your business could gain by adopting a strategy of internationalization based, of course, on the size of your projects and projects (Madhok, 2010):

 Access to new markets (through market diversification) and customers for existing products and services  Capital resulting from penetration into foreign markets  Access to valuable production processes and minimization of labor costs: cheap labor, skilled workforce, raw materials  Development of basic skills (technology, know-how, for more strategically oriented companies)  Corporate risk management  Promoting new products as a result of increasing international competition in the domestic market (the more complex the form of internationalization the greater its impact on competitiveness)  Networking, which stems from the interaction between companies can lead to the transfer of know-how and collaboration in research and development (this is addressed to complex strategies and major projects)  Considering the above advantages, it is obvious that the strategy of internationalization is consistent with the prospect of a value chain as maximizing profits and minimizing market, production and sales costs

Historically, the internationalization of business began alongside the ability of people to travel from one country to another and to cross the borders. In this context, the term of internationalization can be interpreted and defined through many different perspectives. The number of small businesses operating at international level is growing slowly but steadily and their contribution to the global economy is therefore recognized, which has changed their position, making them a potential trading partner. Researchers point out that the time between the creation of a company and its international activity has become shorter. This is

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an important factor in encouraging SMEs to carry out their activities in a timely and organized manner, in line with developments in the economy. However, an SME that decides to engage in international activities (both internally and externally) must follow a specific program that includes a series of actions that will be integrated into the company's strategy. This script will be the company's internationalization strategy and should be based on its available resources, as lack of resources can seriously affect the level of achievement of international action it wishes to undertake (Wheelen and Hunger, 2005).

What the oldest years were almost unlikely to happen, can now take place. Businesses are internationalizing at a very fast pace. One of the categories of growth strategies was the growth of the market, of which part of the growth is in the international market. Therefore, competitors of a business are not only inside the country but also abroad. It is necessary to develop strategies that will help the company to cope with developments in the international environment (Johnson and Scholes, 2009).

The way of internationalization is specific. More specifically:

• Through exports that are a low-risk, but limited, outlook

• Through direct foreign investments that have a high risk and can at the same time have direct effect

• The franchise deals with the granting of a right, such as a name, to a local businessman against a percentage of profits

2.9 Modes of international operations

Strategy Formulation

The strategy is one of the key elements to be taken into consideration before you reach any international market. By shaping a strategy for internationalization, not only will your goals be achieved but will also be clarified and any doubts you may have that may affect your decision on its form. In short, keep in mind that the strategy of internationalization is very likely to be fruitless without developing a specific strategic plan. Also, make sure your strategy is clear and based on realistic choices, taking into account all the factors that can shape this process (Johnson and Scholes, 2009).

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The strategy of internationalization involves risks that will play an important role in shaping your business strategy. In addition, a large number of obstacles must be addressed, both by external factors (such as technical barriers and financing problems) and endogenous (such as inadequate knowledge of foreign markets, fear of taking risks, lack of knowledge of foreign languages, etc.)

In the process of shaping your strategy for the internationalization of your business, the manager should know the key ways of penetrating the market and choose the most appropriate way at the right time. The most important element in shaping a strategy is the time, especially when it was an attempt to enter a foreign market that is in itself an extremely important project.

Penetration into foreign markets can be achieved by developing the following mechanisms: (1) Exports, (2) Licensing, (3) Joint Ventures, (4) Direct Investments. Those are (Griffin, 2009):

(1) Exports: Exports are the most traditional form of internationalization. All export-related costs are mainly marketing, so it is not only the most traditional way of penetrating a foreign market but also the safest, as there is no need to move your business premises and so everything can be done easily and directly in the country origin. However, there are some related risks and costs that have to do mainly with transport issues, most notably the impossibility of approaching foreign markets (indirect access to market data, etc.).

(2) Authorization: By this we mean the formal or legal license to make or obtain something specific. From the point of view of business, licensing is the process by which an undertaking (that is, the franchisor) grants the right to another enterprise in the country that wishes to enter to use its own property. A well-known form of licensing is also the franchise, but it is provided in the long run while licensing is about short-term commitments. Licensing is another form of "secure" market penetration since it does not require much from the franchisor, of the right in the respective foreign country to use the intangible assets of their business, such as the trademark.

(3) Joint Ventures: A consortium requires cooperation between two companies. Therefore, in this case you will need to identify an external partner and conclude a common strategy based on negotiations. By a common strategy, you mean that each company will pursue the fullest possible fulfillment of its own goals. On one hand, it should be borne in mind that

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this form of market penetration may entail certain risks, such as cultural differences, management difficulties or the risk of your partner becoming your competitor (conflict of interest and uncertainty over profits). On the other hand, a 50/50 consortium gives you easy access to your partner's knowledge of the market in which they operate and vice versa. In this way you can take advantage of others' knowledge, cultural differences and local networks to achieve your goals.

(4) Direct Investments: OECD defines as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) the investment effort of a business wishing to expand its business outside its country of origin. In other words, this is a process in which the enterprise of one country invests in buildings, for example factory in another country. In short, it concerns the creation of a business by a foreigner. The process involves the transfer of resources, including capital, technology and personnel and thus more investment resources. This implies that this form of investment carries a greater risk and a higher level of commitment on this strategy (Griffin, 2009).

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Chapter 3 - Success stories of Greek companies - Strategy for the development of Greek enterprises

The aim of this chapter is to indicate how Greek companies can overturn the outcome of the crisis and to create successful strategies on the global setting. Before moving on with the empirical part, the researcher makes clear that there is a need to investigate the practices used from other Greek companies who have managed to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage.

At this point, the author would have to clarify the reasons for providing those case studies and also why he has made the choice of FAGE instead of some other company. The next case studies are useful so to indicate how different companies have acted in terms of their response to the crisis and how they managed to stand in the global environment. Those cases are analyzed because the author would like to provide some examples of how related companies have acted. However, the big case of this thesis is FAGE, which has been indicated because is a global player, especially in the yoghurt market, for many years while the other companies have appeared recently and they do not have much global-oriented strategies as it happens in the case of FAGE. Hence, the bigger case is needed so to indicate how a well-established brand acts.

3.1 Coco-mat

In the case of Coco-Mat, the company has managed to build its name through a range of activities such as the uniqueness of its products produced from environmentally friendly materials without using chemical or substitutes (Coco-Mat, 2012).

The company also allows consumers to visit its stores in Amsterdam and New York to make a "test-drive" on its non-metallic mattresses and other sleep products by offering them the opportunity to test them in a special room featuring a large bed and shower (Athens Voice, 2012). The company has implemented a set of good practices related to corporate social responsibility actions, equal treatment of its employees and has won a number of awards such as EFQM (Coco-Mat, 2012).

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At the same time, however, its products are sold at much more expensive prices than those of its competitors, given that the operation of the company and the raw materials are not the usual ones that will be found on the market, so they also have relatively high costs that the consumer is required to pay to own these products.

Based on what has been mentioned in the previous paragraph, Coco-Mat follows a differentiated focus strategy. Johnson and Scholes (2009) write on this issue that this strategy concerns businesses that target a segment of the market and aim to identify the particular needs of some consumers by offering products that will only satisfy these consumers. In the case of Coco Mat, we have a business that meets the needs of specific consumers who are willing to pay something more to buy an environmentally friendly commodity, offer a unique sense of sleep but also as a company with a good reputation for its return to corporate social responsibility. This adds value to a premium consumer group as a result of strategic focus through differentiation.

It should be noted that CocoMat has been developed with a particularly thoughtful plan in the hotel market.

It should be noted that a business can be developed through a range of strategic options. However, the business should choose the strategic development model that best fits the resources and capabilities of the business as well as its external environment. The following paragraphs analyze the strategic development of Coco Mat.

A first strategy that has been highlighted is that of vertical integration. In the sense of vertical integration, we refer to the company's attempt to acquire a presence either towards the property through the ownership of the distribution and supply activities of the market or backwards related to the supply chain of the company by its suppliers. At this point, the company, either with its own forces or through strategic alliances, undertakes the supply of raw materials and / or the distribution of its goods in the markets. According to press reports, Coco Mat, having the cooperation of Hotel Brain, has proceeded to developing high-quality hotels that will use Coco Mat's products to a large extent and a privately owned distribution system. This means that the Coco-Mat Hotels & Resorts Worldwide development strategy is a vertical integration strategy and backwards, since a significant portion of the supply of white goods, mattresses and furniture will be made by Coco Mat with vertical integration and forward by booking from the business network diversification. This is the case when

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the activities developed by the business are not linked to each other. In the case of Coco- Mat Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the company has sought to link the operation of hotel units to that of Coco Mat stating that in both cases the "key word" linking activities is hosting (http://www.tovima.gr/finance/article/?aid=477076).

The bottom line is that the home and mattress market is a completely different market than this of the hotel. Of course, the first one can supply the second (e.g. Mattresses for hotel beds), but these two markets are by no means connected.

From a critical glance, Coco Mat's decision to take the business risk of uncoordinated diversification lies in the fact that the boutique hotel market is the fastest growing market in America. The New York Times reported that boutique hotels currently account for 6% of the market, but will soon exceed 10%, while other markets in the hotel sector are in the process of ripening or even recession (Νew York Times, 2014).

This means that Coco Mat has made the right decision, although it has a relative risk, since it concerns a new market, it is not a prospective market but it has already felt its presence through the supply of well-known hotel chains.

Finally, the strategy has been chosen is also a "Diversification of Activities" strategy. This is because the company has followed a strategy for entering new markets with new products for the business. In this case, we refer to a strategy that the company has chosen to get into something completely new to it. Both the hotel market and the hotel product of Coco-Mat Hotels & Resorts Worldwide are something unprecedented for Coco-Mat and is certainly a high-risk strategy in a critical view.

Βased on the international strategies proposed from Papadakis (2012), Coco-Mat is a company which have relied on its own resources in order to expand abroad; mostly with FDI. The company is well aware of its competitive advantage and hence it has used its innovation so as to promote itself abroad. However, it is important to remark that the company relies on its own resources.

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3.2 Korres Company

The choices for a business are many. Of course, the issue is not only to choose the most appropriate strategy but also to apply it properly. Korres has placed emphasis on penetrating the market. Market penetration is the growth strategy where the business focuses on selling existing products on existing markets. In this case, the business focuses on markets and products which knows well. It is likely to have good information for competitors and for the needs of the customer. It is unlikely that this strategy will require many investments since the company already knows a lot of market parameters. In order to be able to implement this strategy, Korres emphasizes the strengthening of its relationship with both buyers and the final consumer. For this reason, Korres has a program of support for all market players such as producers, traders and end-users so that it can offer the best possible products and increase its market share at the same time (http://agrotikon.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog- post_06.html).

Another parameter is development with vertical integration. Vertical integration is ideal when the industry grows rapidly and has good prospects as well as when there are many barriers to entry for new players.

Korres is based on vertical forward integration, which is realized through the creation of stores selling its products in many parts of the world, but also through cooperation with large stores, pharmacies and with Johnson and Johnson in America. In this way it gives value to the sale of its products. The choices made by Korres are careful and focus only on chains and areas that are close to the target markets have chosen as well as value. The result is to be selective in terms of the choices made by the affiliated companies.

According to Papadakis (2012), an important element on international strategies is to acquire the cooperation of other companies; especially on the local markets. In the case of Korres, the company had an innovation to promote but it had also the cooperation and the alliance of important companies in the market; such as Johnson and Johnson. Hence, strategic alliance is an important factor for helping small family companies to transform into global conglomerates.

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3.3 IKEA - Fourlis

Before proceeding, we should mention that 2009 is considered a landmark for the market because it is the year that the crisis passes from America to Europe but also on a global scale. As of 2007, the global economy is in recession. It started in 2007 with the bubble of real estate in the US market and soon expanded to Europe. While the US market seems to have partly recovered from the crisis, Europe seems to have serious problems. According to the latest figures, the problem is not only with the countries of Southern Europe, such as Greece (operating through Fourlis), Portugal and Spain along with Ireland. Unfortunately, it seems that richer countries, such as France and the Netherlands, are in recession. For example, the Netherlands may not be in recession but has the largest household debt in the EU, which means that there may be problems with private loans in the future. This recession does not only affect one country as it did in the US in 2007 but it also appears to be much higher than in 2007, with Greece for example being in the sixth year of the crisis (http://www.voanews.com/content/europe-recession-financial-crisis/1661912.html).

Thompson (2012) observed that during a crisis, the business should focus its efforts on two areas. One field is to minimize the impact of the crisis on its work. This means that we need to review some of them police and get rid of what it does not need in order to reduce its cost. The second is that the crisis will surely have some victims. Some businesses may go bankrupt which will leave room for further space in advance for businesses that will survive and create opportunities. Indeed, as reported by Hill & Jones (2001), the crisis can create threats but also opportunities. It is up to the company to decide how to use this hypothesis. In most cases, businesses try to minimize their costs either by redundancies or by finding ways to reduce their costs by switching to low cost suppliers or by using innovations to reduce their costs.

For IKEA, in Greece, the company has already adopted some of the aforementioned practices from the beginning of its activities. For example, cooperation with low-cost suppliers found in China and elsewhere and the flat-rate delivery method of products combined with a minimal cost culture prevailing in the company do not leave much room for cuts. The company is already operating on a cost leadership approach. On the other hand, it cannot keep the same thing as there are no indications that some of the major markets are on a downward path and the company also had a poor performance in recent years. At the

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same time Fourlis has proceeded with the automation of its warehouses with an automatic system for collecting and delivering the pieces. More specifically, in Boeotia operates the subsidiary of Fourlis with the name of Logistics which is considered to be one of the most advanced logistics units in Europe. For Fourlis, it allows significant economies of scale, cost savings and accuracy in deliveries.

From the above we understand that the concept of strategic focus with cost leadership should not change, but what needs to be changed is a few practices. In order to provide some arguments for this choice, the reason for rejecting the other proposals should be explained. Differentiating products is a matter that is out of the question.

The business should complete and change its attitude and increase costs, which means that the whole brand idea and the type of customer that it focuses on should be changed. Surely this will not work for IKEA and will alienate either existing customers or premium customers who would expect to buy a quality furniture from IKEA. So the case is ruled out.

A second case is with the cost leadership strategy. This means that to broaden the idea of the brand and focus on a wider audience and not just the B and C1 classes along with a few classes A. From the first glance this can work but on the other hand, do not want to have in your store a variety of social classes especially those under C1. The brand is not something elitistic, but the combination of low-order middle classes can also alienate existing customers. Also, many of the low-class customers will wonder just around the shops buying something or just buying a few portions of food offered at low prices as an augmented service rather than a basic product.

So its proposed strategy in Greece is to remain the same. What can be done is to review some of the suppliers and try to reduce some of the costs. For example, for the transport of products, the company has used the larger trucks to have more space and have fewer transports to save money. At the same time, IKEA gives Greek consumers the opportunity to buy cheap furniture in a particularly difficult time.

Fourlis has been able to capitalize IKEA’s reputation so as to expand in Bulgaria and Cyprus. Having a global brand name is a very important asset (Papadakis, 2012). Fourlis has managed to use IKEA’s global brand name but also its resources (products, ideas etc.) while it has used its knowledge on the Balkan markets and its logistics network. Hence, this

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partnership has allowed IKEA to enter those markets in a very low risk while for Fourlis it has been a unique chance to increase its presence.

3.4 Plaisio Company

The Plaisio follows a complex approach. It has not been developed only in a way but with a variety of approaches. We cannot say that it follows an individual approach. On the contrary, it is distinguished by a complex approach that has helped it to grow successfully.

A first development strategy that has been identified is that of vertical integration. Frame is a manufacturer (as far as private labels are concerned) but also a distributor and seller of its brands. It has the ability to assemble and manage the supply of the market by installing it in Magoula and then reselling it from its stores. From this we judge that the Plaisio has a vertical integration strategy both forward and backward. This does not involve others in the distribution and marketing of its corporate labels. As a result, we have the efficiency but can also keep the costs low.

However, the Plaisio has also added-value partnerships. By working with major market vendors such as Dell and Apple, they act as their representative. In fact, Georgopoulos (2013) presents schematically the added-value partnerships for the computer market where the Plaisio has the part of the distribution to the final consumer. Essentially, each company can play an important role in the success of the other. For example, Apple is innovating while Dell in creating cheap computers moving through the Plaisio sales network, which in turn benefits as it moves high-demand products.

The strategy of related differentiation concerns the diversification of the company's products but they have a relationship between them.

The company started selling stationery and designing items. But when digital design came into place, Frame made the big step in computing and then expanded to new markets such as mobile telephony, technical support and various accessories such as printer ink and what else is needed.

Finally, the Plaisio has also been based on product development strategy since it continually develops new products for existing markets or makes modifications to products already in the markets. For example, in the Turbo-X computer series that has been the corporated label

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of the Plaisio since 1986, there has been a continuous renewal of its features as well as new variations. In this way it can continuously renew new products and renew them by offering the final consumer a wide range of products according to his wishes.

Papadakis (2012) has remarked the value of the added-value partnerships. Those partnerships-alliances can become win-win situation for both parties. Plaisio has utilized its expanded network and reputation so as to attract the interest of major manufacturers which allowed the company to sale its products on very low prices.

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Chapter 4 - The empirical part

4.1 The methodology

For the scope of this research the author had to collect data related with the externalization of FAGE. This means that the focus on this research must be given on testimonies of the persons who are behind FAGE’s strategy, therefore this is a qualitative research. Another argument in favor of qualitative research is that it can produce results based on a small sample of participants but also when a research concerns a strategic matter, then it is strongly recommended to be a qualitative one (Saunders et al, 2003).

The author has constructed a set of interview questions so as to make a number of in-depth interviews with some of FAGE’s key managers. However, the company has allowed the author to have access only on Mr. Krommydas Haris, who is the Chief Athens Plant Officer. This meant that the author would have to comply with the company’s decisions. Mr. Krommydas received the questions via email and he replied by sending a powerpoint file which contained the answers on the questions given on graphs and on data. Surely, this is a different approach on conducting a research since the standard procedure is to conduct a 45 minutes interview, but still Mr. Krommydas was able to provide useful information. At this point, it is important to mention that the author has used his own access on FAGE through his father, who is working in the company for many years. FAGE, like many other companies, is hesitating to provide any data on outsiders. Hence, the author had to ask his father to communicate with the top management so to get the permition. The author made it clear that he tried to collect as many interviews as possible, but the company did not help on this. However, the person who is been interviewed is the exact person who handles the foreign strategy of FAGE, while a useful insight is that he provided a lot of information including figures and inside information which were useful for understanding how the company draws its foreign strategy.

The author has also enriched the information used by using secondary data. This data derives from the company’s internal reports which were provided to the author from within the company. Another reason for using a secondary data is because the research is pretty limited

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due to the fact that there is only one participant, though that Mr. Krommydas has provided some useful internal information. Secondary data has been also extracted from the company’s reports and internal sources which are pretty reliable. For this reason, the research will combine primary and secondary data.

4.2 Company profile

This section will present the company’s profile based on data retrieve from the company.

FAGE is Greece’s leading yoghurt company, producing milk, cheese, and yoghurt for customers worldwide. Owned and strategically led by the Philippou family since its founding in 1926, FAGE features traditional-style Greek yoghurt known for its famous taste and texture. FAGE first distributed its products in the United States in 1998. FAGE’s U.S. plant in Johnstown, New York, opened its doors in early 2008, officially making FAGE the first Greek company producing Greek yoghurt in the United States. FAGE products are currently available in Greece, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, Germany and Cyprus, among 25 other countries. Americans are now coming to appreciate the benefits of this old-world yoghurt and the market for FAGE Total is thriving.

FAGE began its journey from a small dairy store in Athens in 1926 and managed to become a leading international dairy company specializing in yoghurt. FAGE products are produced in state-of-the-art facilities. The US plant in Johnstown, New York, began to produce the enjoyable FAGE products in April 2008 and is currently the largest of our factories producing yoghurt products for the US market as well as the rest of the markets in the America. The two factories in Greece serve the rest of the international markets outside of the US continent and have expanding production capabilities to serve the growing demand in the markets of the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and other countries.

FAGE products are distributed in around 300 food chain chains, which supply about 50,000 stores in approximately 44 countries, mainly in the US and Europe. In addition, it has its products in smaller shops, bakeries, pastry shops and dairies. FAGE has succeeded in creating products that lovers of good food love around the world. Its success is due to high quality standards, multi-generational know-how, innovative products and dedicated employees. Today, more than ever, the company puts emphasis on creation, leadership,

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innovation and growth. All of its actions are directed towards achieving the absolute quality and faithful respect of the founder's basic principle: "We would never make a product that we would not give to our children."

On 1 September 1926, Philippou opened a small dairy in Patisia and his yoghurt became known. In 1954 they created the first mass production network of yoghurt in Attica. In 1964, the first yoghurt factory was opened in Galatsi. In the late 1990s, with its popularity, FAGE began marketing its products in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Since 2001, its enormous popularity, even outside of Greece, has led to its establishment in the United States where it has its headquarters in Jonestead, New York. The yoghurt was later presented in Saveur magazine. In the United States it appears in many magazines and books that promote healthy eating. In October 2012, the company announced that it will transfer its headquarters from Greece to Luxembourg. The reasons for the move include more favorable tax conditions, better access to bank finance and reduced exposure to the Greek financial crisis.

Its key products are:

 Yoghurt. In 1974 the current FAGE factory was built. In 1975, FAGE perfected the yoghurt preparation standardization which radically changed the Greek market. This made yoghurt have a consistent taste and longer life. New varieties and flavors were introduced a little later. In 1981, exports to the European market began. Total was introduced and made tremendous success.  Cheese market: In 1991 FAGE entered the cheese market, mainly manufacturing traditional Greek cheese. It produces, packs and supplies to the consumers in Greece and abroad a variety of cheeses. FAGE has a wide range of cheeses such as Graviera, Trikalino, Trikalino Light, Gouda, Edam, Playa, Regato and Flair.  Milk: In 1993 FAGE entered the fresh milk market by introducing FAGE Fresh Milk to all of Greece. In the same year, the company created new plans exclusively for fresh pasteurized milk, a new line of pasteurization, homogenization, new machinery and packaging. Moreover, after a significant investment in research and machinery, FAGE presented a new innovative product in the Greek market, High Pasteurized Milk, which created a new milk category.

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An important aspect is how the company is able to operate in global scale and at the same time to keep its Greek heritage and tastes. According to FAGE’s internal memo, for thousands of years the essence of Greek cuisine has been based on two principles: firstly, the use of the freshest materials and secondly, simplicity in their preparation. These are the main reasons why Greek diet is considered one of the healthiest in the world. Blessed with the Mediterranean climate and rich soil, Greece produces foods that are both fresh and tasty. You can taste it in a simple village salad with tomato, cucumber and feta, a slice of rustic bread dipped in extra virgin olive oil or the unsurpassed creamy flavor of Greek strained yoghurt with seasonal fruits.

A basic principle of Greek culture for thousands of years has been to maintain a healthy lifestyle full of positive energy. The idea of "liveliness" comes from Plato and the ancient philosophers but remains alive to this day - when we sit at any table in Greece, the first move before lunch or chat is to pick up all the glasses and wish.

FAGE is proud of its Greek heritage for our yoghurt made by the same family with the same recipe for 90 years and for having managed to become a foundation stone of the Greek diet. Its respect on Greek heritage is understood from the struggle yoghurt that it produces. In recent years, the world has discovered what the Greeks have known for centuries: nothing compares to the flavor and the potential of the strained yoghurt. Rich in protein by nature and low in fat, strained yoghurt is very different from what is known to the rest of the world simply as "yoghurt". This is why it is drained, resulting in a rich and creamy texture, more protein and fewer carbohydrates than simple yoghurts. Few foods are so delicious and with so many uses. In our country, strained yoghurt is the most common type of yoghurt and consumed at any time of the day as part of a meal or snack alone. Put a little garlic and fresh cucumber in the strained yoghurt and make the most delicious tzatziki, the Greek accompaniment dips that are famous throughout the world. Garnished with honey and nuts, strained yoghurt becomes a simple but very delicious dessert.

According to the company’s memo “When you enjoy strained yoghurt Total, you are part of the ancient tradition of "livelihood". When cooking with the strained Total Yoghurt, adopt the healthy Mediterranean diet. Every time you taste it, you enjoy more than the perfect flavor and nutrition of a perfectly natural strawberry yoghurt. You enjoy a tradition lifestyle dated back thousands of years and we are proud to call it ours and share it with you”. This

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has made strawberry yoghurt of FAGE to be seen in many parts of the world as an invaluable part of the modern and full of lifestyle.

The strained yoghurt Total of FAGE is an extremely nutritious food. It is formulated according to a family recipe dated back to 1926 and does not contain additional sweeteners, coagulants, preservatives, powdered milk, powdered cream or protein powder. Contains only milk, cream and live yoghurt. And thanks to the drainage process, the final product has a higher protein content than the other yoghurts.

FAGE's drainage process means that 4 liters of fresh, pasteurized cow's milk is needed to produce just 1kg of drained Total Yoghurt. Drainage is eliminated when draining and only the dense, velvety and creamy texture of the Total strainer is left. For our yoghurt we use our own live yoghurt cultivation produced at our premises. This creates the unique flavor of FAGE's whole yoghurt strawberry. A yoghurt that does not look like any other, with unsurpassed taste and texture.

This specially designed production process has established FAGE as the ambassador of Greek strawberry yoghurt all over the world.

An important source of information has become from the corporate annual reports. Based on those reports we have the following evidence:

 On October 1, 2012, the FAGE Group completed an internal restructuring designed to enhance the efficiency of its corporate structure and to reflect better the increasingly international nature of its business. As a result of the restructuring, FAGE International, which was incorporated on September 25, 2012 in Luxembourg and is beneficially owned and controlled by Mrs. Ioannis and Kyriakos Filippou, is the parent company for all of its subsidiaries. FAGE’s operations in Greece are conducted through its Greek subsidiary, FAGE Greece (the former parent company) in connection with the restructuring, FAGE International S.A., the new parent company, is now one of the two primary obligors (together with FAGE USA) on the Senior Notes. FAGE Greece, the principal Greek subsidiary, and FAGE Luxembourg, its principal subsidiary for the non-Greek operations, have entered into guarantees by which they have fully and unconditionally guaranteed the obligations under the Senior Notes. Guarantees by a Luxembourg entity are subject to certain limitations under Luxembourg law.

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 On September 30, 2014, Old FAGE Parent merged with and into FAGE Luxembourg. Simultaneously with the merger, FAGE Luxembourg (the surviving company in the merger) changed its name to FAGE International S.A. (“FAGE International”). In connection with the merger, FAGE International has expressly assumed all of the obligations of Old FAGE Parent and became one of the primary obligors of the 2020 Senior Notes. FAGE International and FAGE USA are the two primary obligors of the Senior Notes.  Following the issuance of the Senior Notes on August 3, 2016, the Issuers redeemed, on September 2, 2016, all of the $400.0 million aggregate principal amount of their outstanding 2020 Senior Notes.

4.3 Data retrieved from review

FAGE is a company which has in 2017 619 Million USD sales. Some key facts regarding its global presence are:

• 4 subsidiaries: Greece, USA, UK, Italy • 2 factories: USA and Greece • New plant in Luxembourg (end of 2019): +60,000 Tn annual prod. capacity. • Distribution in more than 40 countries

FAGE presence in the main Worldwide yoghurt markets – ranked on importance:

(1) America – US, MX

(2) Europe – GR, IT, UK, NL, DE, CY, BE, CH, FR, MT, ES, SL, FI, SE, PT, LU, NO, AM

(3) Middle East – AE, SA, BH, KW, LB, QA, OM, JO

(4) Asia – HK, SG, CN, PH, VN, MY, KR, TH

(5) Africa – ET, NG, SA

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Sales spread into many countries help diversifying main revenues, making FAGE a more stable company as its sales do not depend on 1 country source of revenue for example.

The history of the company’s entrance mode of strategies is the following:

United States

Since 1998, when the company introduced the FAGE Total in the United States, consumers have responded very positively and sales have increased significantly. Sales volume in the United States has increased from 8,896 tones in 2007 to 89,565 tones in 2016. The administration "sees" significant growth margins in the US market and estimates that US production capacity will reach about 160,000 tones of yoghurt annually this year.

Europe

In the markets of Europe, FAGE aims to further develop and increase sales volumes, particularly in the United Kingdom and Italy. The immediate plans are the completion of the new production facilities in Luxembourg before the end of 2019. Investments for the next two years are estimated at 140 million dollars.

Note that the group has distribution units in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy and intends to continue rationalizing the production and distribution of products internationally. At the same time, projects are expanding activities to other international markets and new geographic areas.

On the aspect of the drivers of externalization for the company, one key aspect was that the company had high quality products. For the company the key driver is to promote its high end products abroad. Since the customers accept FAGE’s products, then the company has the key driver to externalize. Of course, there are several other drivers which need to be taken into consideration such as the change on consumers’ patterns who have focused on healthy diet and yoghurt products, the globalization and the know-how gained from the company as it gains momentum in the foreign markets.

On the aspect of the key barriers of entrance into the foreign markets, Mr. Krommydas has stated that:

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 Logistics (cold chain) – Logistics costs from Greece make the product difficult to manage without local warehousing capabilities  Shelf life – Limited best before the product requires excellent product life cycle management  Consumption patterns – i.e. Europe high fruit yoghurt consumption (80%) vs plain yoghurt (20%)  Product and Usage awareness – Greek yoghurt (strained) is normally plained and has a different texture vs set yoghurts, which is what normally consumers are used to. Versatility with plain yoghurt is something still not widely known in some countries.  Pricing – Strained yoghurt is approximately 4 times more expensive than set yoghurt  Competition – Local strong players concentrate most of the retailing space

The next issue was whether the company uses local agents and how it operates in the foreign markets. The answer was “the company prefers to be in control of the whole distribution process and in our main Key Markets, FAGE comes directly to the market’’. In the smaller markets where we are present, we use main models:

 Importer / distributor model – the partner takes care of the sales and logistics to retailers while FAGE keeps the brand marketing investment decision  Sales Agent – the partner helps FAGE control sales in markets where due to distance or size, it is not advised for FAGE to count with local personnel

Hence, it is understood that FAGE is a company which uses multiple strategies depending on the nature of the market. However, it seems that on key markets the company wants to have the control of the operations and on some minor markets it prefers to act with intermediaries.

Becoming a global company brings another issue which is the case of how to handle with the global workforce. On the interview it was stated that FAGE has already become a multinational company and such, it has been defined as Company Policy to follow strictly local country legislation in relation to its personnel (labour law, holidays, etc). However, Greek roots and Greek workers still influence how the company behaves, as for instance, Saint days are known and celebrated informally as well as Greek holidays are kept into consideration when deciding special projects related to different countries. Finally, English

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has been chosen as official language to harmonize all relationships between the different countries and written communication.

Another key issue was whether the company uses standardization or adaptation. The answer was that the ideal strategy is always to act with flexibility and combine both. How FAGE behaves is to adapt to local conditions as much as possible and when achieving success, standardizing this success as a roll-out to the rest of the countries. For instance, FAGE FRUYO is a leading brand in Italy representing approximately 50% of total country revenue. Due to this fact, the range of FAGE FRUYO yoghurts is the widest in Italy and those flavours have been also produced and marketed in other countries following the sales ranking in Italy. Therefore, it seems that FAGE is able to combine both concepts so as to create a flexible approach on this issue.

On the aspect of which strategies that company uses to externalize, it was mentioned that FAGE is focusing on increasing market presence in EUROPE biggest countries with the objective to replicate the success achieved in the United States. This is going to be happen by targeting direct distribution to Retailers. In order to start new direct distribution or improve current one, FAGE will invest in:

 Local language products  Logistic infrastructure in the country of destination (warehouse)  Key Account Managers able to manage country sales

The next issue was how the company replies on the challenges from its competitors. On the interview it was stated that “By constantly innovating on what consumers expect from the brand: Very recently FAGE has changed the way our yoghurts communicate with consumers by rebranding them completely aiming to reflect better the brand values on them”. Indeed, FAGE has to face several challenges and threats, such as the case of Cobani Yoghurt in the US, which is an imitation of FAGE’s yoghurts. Hence, the company needs to be innovative and to focus on adjusting its brands with the needs of the consumers.

Another key issue was how the company managed to deal with the economic crisis in Greece and why it moved its HQ to Luxembourg. The interviewee stated that “Current crisis in Greece has accelerated the Company willingness to continue diversifying the company as the best survival strategy for the long run. In this sense, the decision to invest in a new factory in Luxembourg will possible make a better competitive scenario, as FAGE will be

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able to be logistically closer to its main markets in Europe”. Despite of the criticism over the decision to move to Luxembourg, it seems that this was a fair decision which would not only help the company to leverage its global profile but also to benefit from this country’s low taxes and healthy business environment.

On the aspect of the future of the company, it was stated that consumer centric mindset plus caring for all its Stakeholders must continue to be how the Company behaves and focuses on. This will be the only way to continue innovating and evolving so as to become an even bigger Worldwide champion in the yoghurt industry. Future plans will undoubtedly foresee new industrial investments in parts of the world in which logistically the company will be better off than with current situation for instance.

Finally, the interviewer was called to describe the current international strategy. He said that FAGE international strategy is a thorough and well planned long term investment into the future. It concentrates on the biggest Worldwide yoghurt markets and successfully invest to achieve leadership positions. Most of the resources are put there. In the markets where the brand is not yet present or does not have leadership position, FAGE maintains brand presence and improves its tactical performance till new resources are freed to be allocated there. If the Company continues with this philosophy and customer centric focus, the International strategy followed will need to bring further successful results.

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Chapter 5 – Conclusions

FAGE is a company which has managed to turn from a family company into a global player in the dairy industry. This focus of this thesis is to examine why and how the company has managed to achieve this. According to the related theory, a company which seeks to obtain a competitive advantage, shall first identify the necessary core competence (Τhompson et al, 2012). In the case of FAGE this is its Yoghurt and more precisely its TOTAL brand which is the original Greek Yoghurt. Of course, the company has developed several other product lines and brands but still it is the TOTAL brand the one which gives a competitive advantage.

According to Johnson and Scholes (2009), companies must be able to capitalize the opportunities which appear on their environment but also to understand the threats. For the case of FAGE, the company has worked on both ways. Firstly, it has understood that the consumers have turned into high quality product and they are looking after their health. Also, Greek cuisine is regarded from many as being healthy and for this reason there is a high demand for original Greek products on many markets. Surely, this has been a significant opportunity for a company which already operates on those markets. The second issue has to do with dealing with threats. The economic crisis in Greece surely affects every company which operates in Greece. For this reason, FAGE has taken the decision to shift to Luxembourg so as to benefit from the healthy economic environment of this country but also from its low taxes.

On the aspect of the mode of entrance and of the strategies, FAGE has developed two strategies. The first one is to enter the foreign markets based on using its own resources. During the interview it was mentioned that the company does not want to depend on third parties; for this reason, it goes ahead with major investments including the construction of factories and logistic centers. This happens on large markets, such as the UK and US. On smaller markets the company prefers to move ahead with agents and local partners since it wants to avoid the investment in markets where there are limited opportunities. Furthermore, despite of the fact that the company wants to have a standardized strategy, it has also a flexibility to adjust its products when this is necessary, such as in the case of Italy. The company’s management has also shown flexibility in terms of how its structure by moving

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to Luxembourg and launching new production units all over the world in order to strengthen its global presence.

Another evidence of its flexibility and the ability to change strategies in a global setting is that in 2017 the company has made the decision to complete exit from the milk market. That was decided by the FAGE International industry and for this purpose proceeds to the sale of all the buildings, plant and equipment related to the Amyntaio unit where the company produced all the codes in the category. Nowadays, the strategy of the strong group focuses firstly on yoghurt and secondly on cheese products, always on the axis of extroversion. As reported in the 2015 financial report last December, the company, in an effort to improve its profitability, decided to withdraw from the milk market, as this category proves to be unprofitable. FAGE is therefore in negotiations with several companies to sell all the property, plant and equipment associated with the plant in Amyntaio, Florina. Indeed, an independent company has taken on the role of valuing the assets associated with milk production in order to assess the "fairer" of the redemption proposals. It is worth mentioning that 37 million euros were made available for the construction of the state-of-the-art Amyntaio plant and the unit was inaugurated in June 2005, being the largest private investment in Western Macedonia employing 140 employees. The building facilities extend into a 52,000 m² plot. and is a total area of 14,000 sq.m. This indicates that the company is able to make sacrifices, even to close important units, in order to leverage its activities and to focus only on what it generates profits.

In any case, for the domestic market, this "exit" marks a new round of redeployments in the industry, as Faye is estimated to have a market share of 7% in the high pasteurization market in 2015 and around 4.3% in the whole category chocolates through the brands: Milk 10, Farm, UHT Milk, Choco, Yoko Choco junior and Drosato. It is recalled that FAGE had withdrawn from the category of "fresh" milk in September 2006 and is also present in the cream category which, however, does not specify whether it will be interrupted or retained by transferring production to another unit of the company. Hence, this confirms the intention of the company to focus only on “champion” market segments.

In order to drawn better conclusions, the researcher has given the following answers upon the research questions. Those are:

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 What is FAGE’s global strategy?

It is a mix of FDIs in key market combined with local agents and partners on smaller markets. It is strategy which helps the company to create “strongholds” on key markets such as the UK and US which generate profit for the company but also to enter new markets with a low risk.

 How does this strategy help the company to obtain a competitive advantage?

Despite of the fact that FAGE has become a global player it has not lost its touch with quality in terms of how its Yoghurt and other products are made. Also, special attention is given on adaptation when necessary. Overall FAGE’s flexible strategy and its commitment in quality has helped the company to retain its leadership.

 What is the impact of the crisis upon FAGE’s global strategy?

The crisis in Greece affected FAGE in a large extent. The firm did not want to be exposed in such a difficult situation. For this reason, it took the decision to move its HQ to Luxemburg.

It is also important to refer on lessons derived from the cases of other Greek companies which were examined on this dissertation. FAGE is a company which is close to the case of Coco Mat and Korres. FAGE has taken the decision to use its own resources – like Coco Mat has done – so as to expand abroad by using FDI, while it has also tried to make some partnerships. However, the whole concept of FAGE is similar mostly to the one of Coco Mat that has relied on its own resources. Of course, the fact that FAGE expands on key markets, such as the US, means that in the future it may have to borrow some of the strategies used from Plaisio and FOURLIS-IKEA, which is to create local partnerships and alliances – as it already uses on smaller markets.

From the above mentioned discussion, it is generally accepted that FAGE is a company which aims into keeping its leadership by establishing a flexible global strategy and turning from a family company into a global company by combing different modes of market entrance and standardization/adaptation models. The next point is to discuss the limitations of this research and how a future research can provide a better insight.

This thesis has two key limitations. The first one is that it focuses only οn one company. Of course the third chapter which has analyzed some case studies, though a future research

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must examine in-depth other cases so to make comparisons. The second limitation is that there was only interviewee. Despite of the efforts made from the researcher and the promised from the side of the company that it will help; only one person was allowed to provide information though the testimony was very useful, since it is the same person who is responsible for the global strategy of the company. This means that a future research must try to approach more persons so to take part in such as a research.

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Appendix : The Research Questions

1. What are the key foreign markets that FAGE operates and why they are so important? 2. What were the drivers of externalization for FAGE? 3. What were the barriers of entry on the key markets? 4. Does the company use local agents and if yes, how? What kind of partnership does the company with the local agents? 5. How the company deals with its foreign personnel? 6. What is the ideal strategy for FAGE; standardization or adaptation and why? 7. What strategies FAGE is using for its externalization. Please provide some examples 8. FAGE has faced strong competition in the US and other markets from similar products. How the company replies on such threats? 9. What was the impact of the economic crisis on the externalization of FAGE? 10. How the company must behave in the future? What shall be its future plans? 11. How will you describe the company’s international strategy?

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Author’s Statement: I hereby expressly declare that, according to the article 8 of Law 1559/1986, this dissertation is solely the product of my personal work, does not infringe any intellectual property, personality and personal data rights of third parties, does not contain works/contributions from third parties for which the permission of the authors/beneficiaries is required, is not the product of partial or total plagiarism, and that the sources used are limited to the literature references alone and meet the rules of scientific citations.

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