An international strategy means that internationally scattered subsidiaries act independently and

operate as if they were local companies, with minimum coordination from the parent company.
Global strategy leads to a wide variety of business strategies, and a high level of adaptation to the
local business environment.
Key differences in international and global strategy are as follows:
1. International strategy gives their subsidiary firms independence in taking competitive
moves whereas in the global strategy, they execute their competitive moves throughout
the global scale.
2. In an international strategy, they do not require a centralized governing authority whereas
in a global strategy, they require high coordination between the center and other
subsidiary units.
3. In international strategy, the firm has to respond to the local business needs whereas in a
Global strategy, center should standardize all operational aspects in all the countries.
Example of Nike for a company following Global strategy. It has standardized its operations all
over the world. Throughout the world they produce and sell same type of products. Subsidies of
Nike also follow the same process of production.
Example of IKEA for international strategy. The furniture industry is an example of an industry
that did not lend itself to global strategies. They initially entered the markets of USA and failed
miserably. From that failure they decided to change their process depending on the needs of
customers of different countries.

Ikea can be global as well as international. We have seen that IKEA was able to
achieve economies of scale through standardizing their operations which is a
feature of globalization strategy. The in-depth study of IKEA says that the initial
stages of IKEA followed globalization. Later on it followed international strategy.
From globalization they shifted to international strategy because they understood
that they have to adapt their business according to the culture, tastes and
preferences of the country they are functioning in.