Global management

Résumé du document

What was so far the internationalization strategy of the ABUS company? What should the company do next in order to address the new tensions described in the case? What type of structure would support this endeavour in the company?

Extraits

[...] What should the company do next in order to address the new tensions described in the case? What type of structure would support this endeavour in the company? The ABUS group was established in 1924 in Germany, and has grown from manufacturing padlocks and brass locks, to a wider sector, which encompasses other security devices, such as video surveillance and alarm technologies. In 2001 and 2003, the ABUS group consolidated its presence in the security and surveillance sector, and expanded its production capacity with facilities in China, Europe and the United States. [...]

[...] This is due to the fact that physical distances are such that central headquarters cannot afford to exercise tighter monitoring on local management. Alliance partners can afford ABUS not to invest too much in operational integration with the rest of its activities around the world. • Although distances remain a significant factor, the linguistic and cultural differences are even more significant for European markets, and local representatives of subsidiaries are given a great deal of latitude in organizing their market strategies. [...]

[...] To illustrate this attitude, the email Mr Zhang sent starts with reassurances that the production quota will be fulfilled, then asks indirectly for more details by means of claiming that the instruction for production were lost in the mail. Mr Zhang feels that more direct request for details is too confrontational, and thus formulates his request in a way that avoids it. Thomas on the other hand, takes Mr Zhang's answer at face value, and forwards information that is either irrelevant to Mr Zhang's true request, or difficult to process as it is written in a different language. The same discrepancy in cultural attitude can be verified in Laura's interaction with the Spanish customer support manager. [...]

[...] The group knows that their core manufacturing activities are maturing – locks and other security devices- and therefore they need to allocate as many resources as possible to innovation and formulating new ideas for products. In resource management terms, ABUS' capital resources are marshaled primarily for R&D expenditure. A loose organizational framework with light-touch supervision from HQ is therefore beneficial to ABUS, compared with a more direct local presence. What cultural differences have caused the misunderstandings in the Netherlands and Spain? Why do you think the Spanish call centre employees treat their customers differently in comparison to e.g. [...]

[...] Did Dennis fail on his assignment and is this why he has returned so early? Try to look at his assignment from the position of the organization and the expatriate himself. Dennis' early return should not be construed as a failure, since he left with an ill-defined and obscure remit. As head of he was to travel to ABUS' Eastern European subsidiaries, and observe how they incorporated the newest ABUS product range. He was in fact sent there to identify problems that are not necessarily linked to his area of expertise, namely R&D. [...]