1. Research updates on the business environment. Pick a company you are familiar with and do a SWOT analysis for considering entering the Cuban market. 2. What entry strategy do you think would work best for this company.

Let's conduct a SWOT analysis of Amazon.com entering the Cuban Market.

Explanation:

Strengths: Amazon.com has a vast network of suppliers all over the world and has enough finances to become a first-mover in the country and quickly become a market leader.

Weakness: Amazon.com has never invested in a closed-economy like Cuba before. Apart from investments in the Middle East, the company has not invested in a lot of non-Democratic countries because of uncertainty.

Opportunities: The country is close to America and with so many Cubans living in Florida, most of the population is open to American corporations and will enjoy the services offered.

Threats: Cuba has a very poor internet infrastructure which can hamper the growth of Amazon. Also, the country has been sanctioned many times and can put Amazon right in the middle of a political conflict.

a manufacturer of printed circuit boards uses exponential smoothing with trend to forecast monthly demand of its product. at the end of december, the company wishes to forecast sales for january. the estimate of trend through november has been 200 additional boards sold per month. average sales have been around 1000 units per month. the demand for december was 1100 units. the company uses α = 0.20 and β = 0.10. make a forecast including trend for the month of january.