Product invention consists of creating something new for a specific country market. This strategy can take two forms. Itmight mean maintaining or reintroducing earlier product forms that happen to be well adapted to the needs of a givencountry, or a company might create a new product to meet a need in a given country.150) Many companies get involved in several international markets and ventures, such as exporting to one country,licensing to another, having a joint ownership venture in a third, and owning a subsidiary in a fourth. With increasedinternational activity, the company will need to move from simply having an export department to having morespecialized international divisions or subsidiaries.International divisions are organized in a variety of ways. An international division's corporate staff consists ofmarketing, manufacturing, research, finance, planning, and personnel specialists. It plans for and provides services tovarious operating units, which can be organized in one of three ways. They can begeographical organizations, withcountry managers who are responsible for salespeople, sales branches, distributors, and licensees in their respectivecountries; or the operating units can beworld product groups, each responsible for worldwide sales of different productgroups; or operating units can beinternational subsidiaries, each responsible for its own sales and profits.25
