Product Overview

Rising executive Samantha Park is enrolled in an executive development program meant to prepare her for a new overseas leadership role. In a class on "global best practices," Park listens attentively as seasoned international businessman José Llontop describes his experience spearheading global construction-materials company CEMEX's move into the newly denationalized Egyptian cement market of the early 2000s. Llontop describes the many challenges he and the CEMEX team encountered when they entered the hotly competitive Egyptian market, including understanding the local culture, market, economy, and consumers; working with the community; growing and defending CEMEX's market share; dealing with pricing pressures; and devising an effective distribution and marketing strategy. Llontop notes the importance of working with local experts and of remaining at once highly flexible and highly goal-oriented. Ultimately, he reports, the success of his and his team's Egypt strategy depended on deeply understanding customers' motivations by conducting thorough, thoughtful market analysis. At the conclusion of Llontop's story, Park is left wondering whether CEMEX's success in Egypt reflects broadly applicable "best practices," or highly particular country-specific savvy. At Darden, this case is taught in the second-year “Cases in Global Strategy” class.