1. Present the discrepancies of business practices, policy and strategy between the 2 countries Cobalt Systems is a multinational corporation present in more than 50 countries divided into regions. Cobalt Systems is a highly centralized organization as all the operations throughout the world are overseen by 13 US based ‘Management Board’ members. The company large number of layers between the Management Board and the local employees (hierarchical organization) doesn’t allow much room for empowerment. It is an ethnocentric company with a people oriented culture that provides all its local employees around the world with extensive training in order to socialize them to the Cobalt culture. Moreover, Cobalt Systems insists on fully …show more content…
SilverLight wants its employees to do things the ‘Silverlight way’ and join the ‘SilverLight family’ for the rest of their careers whereas Cobalt wants all its employees around the world to adopt the Cobalt culture. Cobalt sees its subsidiaries as national assets that have to be closely protected from competitors and therefore fully owned by Cobalt whereas SilverLight is seen as a Korean pride by the Koreans and the government and is cross-owned by a multitude of firms forming the SilverLight Chaebol. Cobalt’s world operations are overseen by 13 US based Management Board members creating a hierarchical organization whereas SilverLight is part of a horizontal multi-industry organization (the SlverLight Chaebol) and he still closely tied to the government due to historical reasons. 2. Using the cross-cultural criteria defined in class, list the expected discrepancies in the behavior of the Korean and US negotiators. For western companies and American ones in particular, time is money. However, in Asian cultures time is no relevant at all. It is probably why it was the Korean company rather than the American one who decided to take a break in the negotiation process. Therefore, the American negotiator will have to learn to take his time and not rush the conversation directly to business matters. It is important to know that Koreans want to get to know the people they are going
In China, they don’t believe time is a barrier and don’t put much into deadlines like the Americans. Chinese see the relationship building as their driver of time, rather then getting tasks accomplished in a short period of time. The Chinese people generally believe that a considerable amount of time should be invested in establishing a general climate of understanding, trust, and willingness to help, in matters quite apart from the specific business issues brought to the table. Producing a satisfactory agreement in as short a time as possible may be one of their least concerns. Therefore, the non-task sounding stage of negotiation often witnesses much time spending in establishing rapport and getting to know their partners. The Americans grew frustrated with this approach at the start of the negotiation as well as when Mr. Brickley
International business meshes across multiple domains most notably market entry strategies and sociocultural variances. Factoring in those two critical aspects and giving them the right amount of attention is the separating line between success and failure. Terralumen, Blue Ridge, and Delta are all successful companies; However, by not observing the basic requirements of
There was breach of faith by withholding information and not being upfront during the communication process between different parties. This situation was also caused by cultural differences like relationship building, “Guanxi”, emphasis on personal relationships versus factual-based legalistic approach, completely varied styles of doing business, and also
Canadian solar has an innovative management team and has first mover advantage in some areas ( recycling of silicones). They also have various offices around the globe to maximize operations and achieve low cost manufacturing. With its sales offices controlling specific markets and projects, the company has an eye on what is happening in different countries. Furthermore they have control on components since they practise vertical integration.
They are similar but also contain many differences when you look at the elements of organizational
Due to internationalization these companies have been able to spread their risk. Therefore, if one market is not performing they can rely on the other (diversification)
Why do you think these organizations have been able to capitalize on innovation and intrapreneurship while others have not?
In the area human resources, both organizations have the traditional website that allows candidates to browse for jobs. Also, both organizations a governing be federal laws as it pertains to wages to paid to workers. In the area of production, both organizations have corporate responsibility
In this negotiation, we learned that it is important to research your opponent, to understand their culture, not only of their country or backgrounds, but also their company culture. When we are able to understand our opponent’s way of thinking about business and doing business we can then understand how to approach a negotiation situation with them. In this exercise, we learned that it is difficult for us to adjust when it involves breaking or acting in a way opposite of what we are accustomed to. We also learned that although my classmates live in the same country as we do, their upbringings may have similarities to their origin country and will therefore help them to communicate and adjust to that country’s norms and standards. We were surprised how we were able to stay in character although it was hard and it was surprising how people responded when they were unaware of your intentions and strategies. If we had to do this exercise again, what we can do is do more research on our opponents so that we would have an idea of what to expect in the negotiation table.
6. Describe the way in which cultural differences can act to impede communication between business people of different nationality.
Foxconn has factories in Asia, Europe, Mexico and South America why is it that only China’s Foxoconn was in highlight and not any other country? While the Chinese factories happened to be the
Arcelor Mital, the first largest steel company of the world, on the date the article was written, arose from the merger between the UK/Indian based-company Mital and the French and Luxembourg-based
Our competitive advantage is that high quality of product, lower cost of solar panel, installation and maintenance, unique financial payment option and total coverage on-stop service, making it more reliable and convenient for customers than any other solar panel companies.
Explain each stage of the negotiation process and the role that culture plays in each stage. Give example to support your answer
The rapid pace of Globalization has led to a change in the global economy during the past several decades; it is believe that factors such as trade liberalisation, access to cheaper labour and resources, similarity of consumer demand around the world, and advances in technology and communication has widened the market of consumption, investment as well as production on a global scale. These globalization driven factors created new challenges and global competition for businesses around the world thus as a response many companies decided to expand their operation across national borders in order to be competitive. A company that operates their business in at least one country other than its country is called Multinational