Case Study: (the case is notional; no such company exists and any similarities with existing
companies is coincidental) ( 3000 words)
“Potent Drive” is a US automotive components company that
develops components and intelligent systems used in vehicles of the agricultural
machinery sector. It is a supplier of a range of small and medium manufacturers
around the globe.
The company has two sites: in Griffin, Georgia in the United
States, which also houses the company headquarters, and in Sassuolo in Italy.
The CEO is in charge of the Georgia site, while the Sassuolo site has a local
country manager.
The company has the following divisions:
• Software development: Teams in Georgia and Sassuolo.
• Hardware development: Centered in Sassuolo.
• Integration: This combines the products coming out from
the software and hardware teams to provide the final products that are sold to
the customers. Centered in Georgia.
• Manufacturing: This is subcontracted to companies in the
US and Italy. There are teams in Georgia and Sassuolo to oversee this.
• Sales: Teams in Georgia and Sassuolo
In general cooperation is required among the different
geographic teams of the same division, particularly so for the software
division. Employees tend to be from the US and Italy (though not exclusively),
with mixed nationality teams operating in each site
The company is planning to open a third site in Zhongshan, a
second tier city of China. The objective is to move some manufacturing to China
and at the same time enter the Chinese market, providing components to local
agricultural machinery manufacturers. The site will initially thus have a
manufacturing and a sales team. To cope with the peculiarities of the Chinese
market and perhaps take advantage of the availability of well-educated programmers,
a local software development team will also be established.
What issues in terms
of leadership and people management in a multicultural environment could the
company be facing with its existing sites and structure? What issues should it
expect to come across as it develops the new site? How should it go about
attracting and hiring talent for the new site and could the formation of the
new site present some opportunities or problems for the existing sites? How
should the company build and lead the cross-cultural teams it operates?
The report should
also discuss the theory of the above issues as they pertain specifically to the
current situation and developments in this company. It should be structured as a business report to be
delivered to the management of the company advising on issues they could be
facing and offering recommendations on how to improve their operations and how
to move forward with their new plans
More specifically, the students have to perform the
following:
1. Present the nature of the corporation and its current
structure.
2. Discuss the possible cultural and contextual factors that
come into play with this structure and how they could present challenges in
terms of leading the company to success.
3. Present the nature of the changes that can be expected in
the company structure as it executes it current plan. Discuss how they will
impact the existing challenges and what further issues may the company face as
the plan is being executed.
4. Design a strategy for attracting and hiring the employees
that will populate the new site.
5. Discuss what other steps the company should be taking to
build the necessary cross[1]cultural teams in an
effective way so that they are productive, highlighting any challenges it may
meet along the way
Details for the Report format
Apply:
·
Any
Cover Page. Regarding your personal data only the UWL Student ID must be
noted.
·
Times New Roman font
i. Size 12 for Normal Text
ii. Size 14 for Headings
·
1.5 spacing
·
Justified text
·
A4 page size
·
Normal borders
·
Page Numbers: Bottom-Right corner
·
Appropriate Captions for all
Tables and Figures.
Harvard Style for your citations
