Thinking Globally, Acting Globally

    "Potato chips are a snack for the world," said Salman Amin, the company's head of global marketing. The U.S. snack market is largely saturated, and in order to grow — the key to remaining successful — the company had to look overseas.

Riskey's strategy rests on two beliefs: first, that a global product offers economies of scale with which local brands cannot compete, and second that consumers in the 21st century are drawn to "global" as a concept.

Frito-Lay honed a strategy for moving into new countries where a local snack industry is already established. Rather than face the costs of building a new business in an unfamiliar market, the company identifies the leading local snack manufacturer and offers to buy it out. If the local manufacturer refuses to sell, Frito-Lay moves into the market on its own, using its size and marketing experience to cut into the local manufacturer's sales. Often, at that point, the local company gives in and sells, sometimes for a lower price than the original offer.

The executives behind Frito-Lay's global expansion acknowledge that they try to swing national eating habits to a food that was created in America, but they deny that amounts to economic imperialism. Rather, they see Frito-Lay as spreading the benefits of free enterprise across the world