Instructions

Read the following passages carefully and answer the questions given at the end of each passage.

PASSAGE 2

The company will tackle this problem much more readily if reverse innovation is part of its repertoire. And yet until recently, PepsiCo took a glocalisation approach. The company developed products for the US and then sold and distributed substantially similar products throughout the world. As a result, PepsiCo’s growth, particularly in emerging markets, hit a wall. The company’s brands bumped up against local needs, tastes and habits that could not be satisfied by lowest-common-denominator global products. Under the glocalisation scenario, what first appears to be promising momentum hits a wall - often sooner than later. The renown of even the most potent global brands wear thin when the offered product is neither designed expressly for local markets nor priced for local means. These days PepsiCo is finding ways to address sharp differences across borders by designing products with local tastes and consumer needs in mind and is capturing a greater share of the opportunity in emerging economies. But that’s not all. PepsiCo is finding that its innovations in emerging markets have the potential to have an impact and deliver performance with purpose all over the world. For example, PepsiCo is finding that some long-popular ingredients in emerging economies such as lentils in India have healthy profiles that suggest new dimensions for snacking across geographies. The company’s approach to reverse innovation combines local product development efforts, strong support from global resources, plus efforts to ensure that the raw material of PepsiCo’s innovation - ideas, flavours, ingredients, marketing expertise, packaging materials, manufacturing methods and so on can flow in any direction within the organisation. Concerns about childhood and adult obesity are on the rise. It’s not news that snack foods are not commonly associated with health and wellness. Nonetheless, PepsiCo saw that there was an enormous opportunity for impact in creating options for healthier snacking. “Consumers interact with our products on three levels; the neurological level, the gut level and the metabolic level.” Traditionally food and beverage companies have focussed only on the first. The neurological level is where brands, marketing and sensory payloads operate. Looking at the problems of emerging markets it is important to also understand what PepsiCo’s products do to the person’s gut? What do they do to their body chemistry? If those effects are ignored then it is indulgence without any balance. As PepsiCo geared up for its efforts to develop Aliva, it wondered whether there were any examples in which PepsiCo had already practised successful reverse innovation. There was one such example in India. It was a lentil and rice-based snack called Kurkure. Introduced more than a decade ago, it had grown to be Frito Lay India’s top-selling product. PepsiCo had learnt a lot from the Kurkure experience. Once emerging nations aspired to have access to rich-world products. But these days they want rich world quality baked into products with local origins. It exemplified the idea that innovations shouldn’t simply be handed down from on high.

Question 47

According to the above excerpt, most MNCs face problems in emerging countries because they interpret the concept of ‘glocalisation’ as

Solution

In first part of the paragraph the author states that most MNCs face problems in emerging countries because they didn't consider local need, tastes and habits which could have been a major differentiator as compared to glocalisation approach.The products offered by most MNCs were neither designed expressly for local markets nor priced for local means.Hence, these global products couldn't succeed in local markets. 

We can see that in option (B), (C) and (D) we have at least one of two qualities local need or pricing is mentioned hence these options can be rejected. Therefore, option A is the correct answer. 

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