Management Skills Exercises

Learning activities in this section are aimed at helping you develop global management skills.

 Cases

McDonald’s Is Lovin’ Global Growth

“McDonald’s Is Lovin’ Global Growth” (p. 79) and its Challenge Case Summary were written to help you better understand the management concepts contained in this chapter. Answer the following discussion questions about the Challenge Case to better understand how concepts relating to managing in the global arena can be applied in a company like McDonald’s.

  1. 4-5. Do you think that at some point in your career you will become involved in international management? Explain.

  2. 4-6. Assuming that you are involved in managing a McDonald’s in Japan, what challenges do you think would be the most difficult for you in improving this Japanese McDonald’s success? Why?

  3. 4-7. Evaluate the following statement: McDonald’s can learn to manage its U.S. operations better by studying how successful competitive operations are managed in other countries.

Coca-Cola’s Effort to Refresh the Whole World

Read the case and answer the questions that follow. Studying this case will help you better understand how concepts relating to global expansion can be applied in an organization such as the Coca-Cola Company.

People know Coca-Cola as a global brand. However, when the company entered the Indian market in the mid-1990s, it was the company’s second try. Coca-Cola had operated there from 1950 until 1977, when it left with other Western firms in reaction to a law requiring foreign businesses to have Indian partners. A decade and a half later, the government relaxed restrictions on foreign companies, and the enormous population and economic growth lured Coca-Cola back. Now India has become one of the company’s top 10 markets.

Coca-Cola reentered India by purchasing the brands and distribution system of an Indian soft-drink company. Despite this advantage, the return brought challenges. Employee turnover was high until Coca-Cola improved hiring and training. To build stronger business relations, it identified local sources for its materials and invested in farms selling key ingredients. It learned about its customers—for example, that young Indians are heavy users of mobile devices and that the small stores where most people shop have poor electric service and need help keeping drinks cold. The solution: company-provided, solar-powered coolers. Other problems have been more difficult to solve. Farmers are pushing back against efforts to open a new bottling plant. They also grumble that Coke is using too much water, causing shortages. Indeed, the water supply in India has decreased dramatically, although the farmers themselves may be contributing to the problem. Whatever the cause, the government is restricting water use and the locations of bottling plants.

Coca-Cola’s CEO, Muhtar Kent, is well prepared to lead his company in facing these challenges. Kent has a global perspective from his childhood as the son of a Turkish diplomat. Besides living in Sweden, Iran, Poland, Thailand, and the United States, Kent lived two years in New Delhi, India, when his father was posted there. He saw India as a beautiful and exciting—but also complex and challenging—place. Later, as a manager, he learned that doing business there requires flexibility. Just as the company has been creative in adapting its distribution to the needs of India’s small merchants, advertising combines corporate-wide themes with locally tailored messages. In a recent television ad, Indian movie stars present a story of young people experiencing moments of joy; Coke’s “Open Happiness” theme is about a universal emotion.

Efforts such as these have helped to make Coca-Cola the world’s largest beverage company. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, it sells products in more than 200 countries. Along with its signature cola, the company sells more than 3,500 products, including such brands as Dasani, Minute Maid, Powerade, Sprite, and Vitaminwater.

Because of Coke’s global presence, the company has a global perspective on social responsibility. It identifies the needs of the communities where it operates and the actions that will benefit both the company and those communities. For example, by extending electric power grids into Indian villages, it makes life more comfortable while making it easier for stores to sell cold soft drinks. By addressing climate change, it is also addressing drought and the disruptions to its supply of sugar beets and sugar cane that are caused by changes to regional weather patterns. The company is especially concerned about water conservation. In India, it intends to conserve water, locate plants only where there is sufficient water, and provide more support to local communities. Other efforts at sustainability include recycling of plastics and reduction of carbon emissions.

These efforts preserve Coca-Cola’s standing as a respected brand and a multimillion-dollar business. The global scope is essential, as North American consumers have increasingly cut back on soda consumption. Coca-Cola’s fastest growth has come from international markets, especially China and India. Today, if a consumer “opens happiness” in a bottle of Coke, he or she could be anywhere in the world.66

Questions

  1. 4-8. Based on the description in the case, is Coca-Cola Company a domestic, international, multinational, or transnational organization? Why?

  2. 4-9. How can an understanding of India’s culture help a Coca-Cola manager succeed there?

  3. 4-10. Besides the measures described, what else can Coca-Cola do to maintain ethical conduct in the countries where it operates?

Experiential Exercises

Building a Global Management Curriculum

Directions. Read the following scenario and then perform the listed activities. Your instructor may want you to perform the activities as an individual or within groups. Follow all of your instructor’s directions carefully.

You are the president of Fiat Lux, a small liberal arts school in Denver, Colorado. In recent years you have tried to provide leadership in building more of a business emphasis into your curriculum. Following your lead, your faculty over the past four years has been developing courses in organizational studies that focus primarily on managing people in organizations as well as how to organize and plan. Although you are pleased with the progress the school is making, you realize that the school’s offerings should be expanded even more to include a new major called Global Management.

Based on your goals, you’ve asked a few global business leaders from the community to help you develop eight courses that could comprise this new major. Your goal is to propose this new major and its related courses to your faculty members as a vehicle they can use to prepare your undergraduate students for careers in global management.

You are presently leading a meeting of this business advisory group. Introduce your task for the group and lead a discussion concerning what the eight courses should be. Be sure to get course titles as well as descriptions of what the courses should include and rationales for why the courses should be included in the new major. When completed, your eight courses should provide your students with the essential knowledge they need to begin and be successful in entry-level positions that include global management responsibilities.

You and Your Career

You have just accepted a job with Nestlé and will soon be working in China as the manager of a 300-employee plant that is producing a new type of dog food. You know that Nestlé as a whole has about 250,000 employees, of 100 different nationalities, and that your China position looks to be a place where you can build an exciting international career.

You know that in your new job, you will be managing mostly Chinese nationals. As such, you have read many articles about the Chinese culture and have learned the following:67

  • Personal relationships are extremely important to the Chinese.

  • The Chinese prefer working with friends.

  • The Chinese avoid punishment and embarrassment.

  • In China, gifts are used to build and strengthen personal relationships.

  • Chinese businesses are built around family.

  • The Chinese shy away from confrontational and direct conversation.

  1. 4-11. Is what you have found out about the Chinese culture important in building your career at Nestlé? Explain.

  2. 4-12. Would the way you manage in China change based on your new understanding of the Chinese culture? How?

  3. 4-13. Would it be easy for you to make such changes? Why or why not?

Building Your Management Skills Portfolio

Your Management Learning Portfolio is a collection of activities specially designed to demonstrate your management knowledge and skill. Be sure to save your work. Taking your printed portfolio to an employment interview could be helpful in obtaining a job.

The portfolio activity for this chapter is Managing a Business in Japan. Study this information and complete the exercises that follow.

You are an American-educated manager who believes in Western management philosophies. You have just accepted a job as a middle manager in a Toyota manufacturing plant in Tahara, which is slightly south of Osaka in Japan. The plant manufactures Toyota’s new Lexus hybrid sedan. For your entire 10-year career, you have worked as a middle manager in a General Motors plant in the United States and followed traditional American management practices. Toyota was clear, however, about expecting you to fit into its culture and follow its management practices, which have built company success. You know little about Japanese management practices and start to read as much as you can about how Japanese companies operate. Based upon your study, you come up with the following points about the differences between the ways Japanese and American companies are structured:

  1. 4-14. U.S. companies tend to have a well-defined organizational structure, whereas Japanese firms tend to be more loosely structured.

  2. 4-15. U.S. companies tend to have several people involved in making decisions, whereas decisions made in Japanese firms tend to be made by only one or a few people.

  3. 4-16. U.S. firms tend to value making profit in the short run, whereas Japanese firms tend to value building long-term growth.

  4. 4-17. Management of Japanese firms tends to be more centralized, whereas management of U.S. firms tends to be more decentralized.

  5. 4-18. Job descriptions in Japanese firms tend to be broader and less precise than job descriptions in U.S. firms.68

    Exercise 1: Overall, based on the information given, list three major challenges you will face as a manager at Toyota and steps you will take to meet these challenges.

              

              

              

    Challenge 1:           

    What I will do to meet Challenge 1:

              

              

              

    Challenge 2:           

    What I will do to meet Challenge 2:

              

              

              

    Challenge 3:           

    What I will do to meet Challenge 3:

              

              

              

    Exercise 2: Based on the information given, to be successful in Japan you will probably have to change the way you plan, organize, influence, and control somewhat. List the changes for each management function you probably will have to make.

    Changes to the way I will plan in Japan:

              

              

              

    Changes to the way I will organize in Japan:

              

              

              

    Changes to the way I will influence people in Japan:

              

              

              

    Changes to the way I will control in Japan:

              

              

              

    Exercise 3: Do you think you will be successful in this job as a manager at Toyota? Why or why not?

              

              

              

    Exercise 4: Overall, what did you learn from this experience?

              

              

              

    MyManagementLab : Writing Exercises

    If your instructor has assigned this activity, go to mymanagementlab.com for the following assignments:

    Assisted Grading Questions

    1. 4-19. What are the risks and rewards of operating a multinational organization?

    2. 4-20. Discuss the role of “examining context” in maintaining ethical practices in international management situations.

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