The document discusses Texas Instruments' (TI) strategy to enter the South Korean educational products market. It analyzes TI's corporate structure, history in South Korea since 1989, and diversification strategies. TI partners with universities to train students on its products. It established an educational center to understand local needs and culture. This local integration helped TI bid for a $2.5 billion government contract to supply tablet computers and software to schools. TI's global matrix structure and focus on both integration and local responsiveness allow it to compete internationally while meeting South Korean requirements.

1. A Detailed Study to Explore the Market Opportunities in South Korea for TI 1
A Detailed Study to Explore the Market Opportunities in South Korea for Texas Instruments
Charm Rammandala
California Intercontinental University

2. A Detailed Study to Explore the Market Opportunities in South Korea for TI 2
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore the market entry strategies for Texas Instruments to
supply educational related products for newly opened up South Korean market. The study will
look at how to position the company and what are corporate level strategies as well as business
level strategies best fit to achieve the competitive advantage. Further, to increase the effective
decision making and efficiency, study will look at the best management structures and
diversification strategies for the company.

3. A Detailed Study to Explore the Market Opportunities in South Korea for TI 3
A Detailed Study to Explore the Market Opportunities in South Korea for Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments is the world 3rd
biggest semi-conductor manufacture with more than
100,000 product portfolio which includes, analog IC’s and embedded process as well as
software, hardware and tools. It employees over 30,000 personal throughout the globe which
includes 15,000 in across Asia including Japan & South Korea (Rumelt 2014)
South Korea is the 11th
largest economy in the world and one of the biggest in Asia after
China & Japan. It had a dramatic economic success since world war 2. In 1961 South Korea’s
per capita was US$ 3250 which was less than what it was in Sudan. Today GNP is US$33,500
per capita, slightly behind Japan (Brazinsky 2013)
The primary reason for the dramatic economic success was partly due to the caliber of
human capital developed by the country over the last 5 decades. In order to keep the trend going,
government of Korea is planning to introduce latest information technology to school children so
they would have the competitive advantage in the job market and firms in Korea would have the
access to best equipped work force for innovation, R&D and other related jobs (Kenny 2015)
The government decision to introduce latest IT in to class rooms opened up opportunities for
companies to supply relevant hardware, software and technical knowledge to the newly opened
market segment. Texas Instrument is one of the pioneer in the field of supplying industry leading
digital educational packages and related hardware. It is important for the company to align its
business level strategies to capture the market (Guillen 2014)
Organizational Structure best suited for TI
As a global company with special attention to strategically important countries, TI needs
a comprehensive management structure which ensure highest attention to its regional and

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country needs and product offerings. Among the four types of corporate structures typically
considered for global companies, the best suited corporate structure for TI is the Global Metrix
structure. As a company which has its business interests across the globe and vast product
portfolio, it is essential to have an efficient information exchange between regional staff and
product managers. Metrix structures help various departments, regions and countries to work
closely and attend to customer requests more effectively and swiftly. Efficient communication
essentially improves the productivity and enable quick decision making. Above chart
demonstrate the global matrix corporate structure of Texas Instrument (Rumelt 2014)
USA Asia Japan Europe Rest of the world
Communication
Computing
Industrial
Consumer Electronics
Automotive
Education
Chart 1
How Texas Instrument used integration responsive framework upon arriving in South
Korea
Texas Instrument has presence in 35 countries in the world with over 100,000 customers
worldwide. TI first opened up a country office in South Korea in 1989 to explore the local
market as well as to design products. As a part of the extended strategy, TI has been partnering
with Universities to train students on its products. Taking a step further they have established

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TMIC educational center affiliated to Hanlim University in Chunchion, Korea. This illustrates
the long term strategy TI had on the Korean market. Essentially long term view of the company
has given TI competitive advantage on securing the new initiative of the Korean government
which is to supply tablet computers to students and replace traditional books with digital
interactive text books (Brazinsky 2013)
Integration responsive framework discuss two major objectives management have to discuss
in order to keep the competitive advantage and to realistically gain a market share. First is the
importance of global integration to take the advantage of economies of scale and keep the cost
down. Price is a major factor for customers when it comes to deciding from whom to buy.
Specially a project such as buying tablet computers for all students with estimated cost of
US$2.5 billion is a major decision for any government and it’s a subject to scrutiny by various
parties. Being able to compete with local and international firms is a must for TI (Kenny 2015)
The second area to focus on is local responsiveness. Looking at the contract TI is bidding
for, it is very important to have local presence with in-house solutions for the customer needs.
Supplying tablet computers along with related software is a massive undertaking in-terms of
problem solving, software integration, networking and customer service. TI will have to make
numerous presentation with local and national governments and its agencies, meet teacher
groups, student representatives as well as other software developers and content developers to
understand the requirements and see the compatibility. South Korea has its own language and
customs hence knowing the local culture, way of thinking and work practices are essential part of
the success of the project. Initial steps TI took to localization by liaising with local universities
and opening up design and sales office would come handy on this regard (Rumelt 2014)

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Diversification strategy and framework
TI first moved in to South Korea in 1989 as a part of the long term strategy. The company
was taking a keen interest in Japan and it was one of the most important market for the company.
With that experience TI moved to South Korea as it showed promising signs for the company
products and services (Brazinsky2013)
Initially company was exploring the market dynamics and how to establish roots in the
country. As a part of the strategy, company opened up a design center to carry out research and
development on products and services localized to country needs. As an extended strategy,
company partnered with local universities to train students on TI products. These early initiatives
helped tremendously for company to understand the local needs and diversify its product
portfolio. Further, these steps help in negotiating and bidding for sensitive contracts such as
supplying hardware & software for schools costing billions of dollars as local governments
couldn’t dismiss the bids saying foreign companies don’t understand the country situations and
requirements. This eliminates the disadvantage of foreignness and highlights the advantage of
being an international company with local roots (Kenny 2015)
Conclusion
Texas Instrument is one of the pioneering company in the field of developing software and
hardware for the educational sector. Recent decision by South Korean government to arm its
school children with tablet computers and related software, given an opportunity to for the
company to increase its revenue from the country with initial amount of US$2.5 billion and
essentially other earning stream from the followed up contracts. In order to secure the deal,

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company needed to have the right management structure which gives best localized products and
services for a very competitive price using economies of scale within the company.

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Reference
Brazinsky, G (2013). Nation building in South Korea: New York, Pearson
Guillen, M (2014): The American model of the multinational firms and the New Multinationals
from the emerging markets: Journal of strategic management: Retrieved from gala virtual
reference library: http:/galegroup.com (10/18/2016)
Jain, V (2016). Global Strategy: Competing in the connected economy. San Francisco, McMillan
Kenny, G (2015). Diversification Strategy: How to grow a business by diversifying successfully.
New York, Person
Rumelt, R (2014): Strategy, Structure and Economic Performance. Irwin, McGraw-Hill