Dixon
“ We are moving rapidly away from a world in which national economies were relatively self-contained entities, isolated from each other by barriers to cross-border trade and investment; by distance, time zones, and language; and by national differences in government regulation, culture, and business systems.”(Hill, 4).
The company was founded in the 1870 by Joseph Dixon as The Joseph Dixon Crucible Company. He introduced the No. 2 yellow pencil to the United Sates, and came to be the world’s largest dealer, and consumer of graphite world wide What began as a small business in Salem, Massachusetts with the discovery of graphite as a stove polish and an additive in lubricants, foundry facing, brake linings, oilless bearings, and non corrosive paint and manufactured lubricants soon expanded nation wide with annual revenues of a hundred million dollars and more. In 1982 Joseph Dixon Crucible merged with Bryn Mawr Corporation forming the Dixon Ticonderoga Company (www.dixonusa.com).
However, in 1990 business was not as easy (refer to Appendix 2). The Company was faced with some foreign competition .Which could put the American pencil industry out of business. “The Chinese were dumping pencils on the U.S market” (Hill, 32). The American pencil industry felt threatened and heavy antidumping duties where placed on Chinese pencils which raised their price. However the Chinese still had a better product and continued to eat up the American market. The Dixon Ticonderoga Company had to realize that the economy was shifting more and more towards globalization. The global market place is where business now lies. Trading relations between countries have improved as well as the falling barriers to cross-border trade have made it easier to sell internationally.
SITUATION ANALYSIS
Facts or Size Up
Dixon Ticonderoga started of as a very promising business. They where making annual revenues of a little over $100 million during the early...
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