Market Entry Options and Sales Force Strategy
Does your firm have its own sales force? Have you chosen to enter the market through a broker, an EMC, a trading company (sogoshosha), a subsidiary, etc??
Where will you enter the distribution chain?
If so, what is the reputation of the sales force that will represent you?
What will the salesforce do?  Take orders? Make deliveries? Educate the customer? Solve problems?

Consider the Case of Domino’s Pizza
Fast home delivery service of pizza to consumer’s home
Dominos entered the Polish market in 1994
Problems with telephone service for reliable call-in orders
March 1994 - opened a sit-down restaurant
What about other markets?

Corporate Culture
Understanding the relationship between individual culture and corporate culture
What happens if someone from one culture works in a firm from another culture?
Suppose the person is from a high context culture, has a collectivist approach, and is polychronic.
The person is assigned to a firm whose corporate culture is low context, individualistic, and monochronic?

Five Cultural Dimensions- Hofstede
Power distance - concentration of power
Individualism vs. collectivism - I vs. we
Masculinity vs. femininity - achievement vs. relationships
Uncertainty avoidance - does uncertainty cause stress?
Long-Term orientation

Basis for U.S. Management Attitudes
“Master of Destiny” - hard work gets results
Independent Enterprise as an Instrument for  Social Action
Personnel Selection and Reward Based on Merit
Decisions Based on Objective Analysis
Wide Sharing of Decision Making
Never Ending Quest for Improvement - some cultures rely on tradition

Personal culture: What are you used to?
Many people in the U.S. agree that:
If you work hard, you will succeed
Women have similar opportunities to men
If you set goals, you can plan a path to achieve them
If you work hard, you will be rewarded
It is good to be recognized for your efforts among your peers
People will work with you, despite your background or ethnic group
But many cultures have different views . . .

Time Congruity
Person who is monochronic and highly-scheduled
Company which is polychronic and flexible
A mismatch in timestyles is thought to cause conflict

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator of Personal Characteristics (MBTI)
How was it developed?   Why was it developed?  Will it perform reliably in another culture?
Extrovert (action) vs. introvert (concepts)
Sensing (realistic, present time) vs. intuitive (possibilities, future)
Thinking (logic) vs. feeling (human aspects, human aspects of problems)
Judging (quick decisions) vs. perceiving (open to new information)

Attributes Required for International Operations
Maturity - can you interpret what is happening based on fact, not emotion?  Will you try to understand the events? - “decentering”
Emotional Stability - reasoned responses
Positive Outlook - do you need encouragement?  Can you survive on your own? Do you need constant reinforcement?
Suppose that rewards are much less often in Country X?  Suppose they go to the group?

More Characteristics
Flexibility - can you change if needed?  Or, do you want to keep to your plan, no matter what?
Cultural Empathy - can you allow people of other cultures to act as they believe, even if you do not understand their behaviors? Will you judge them on your terms?
Energetic - can you adjust to different time schedules?
Enjoy Travel

The Sales People Were Asked to: ‘Distribute 100 Points among the Rewards in Terms of their Importance to You.’ - Chart

Do’s of Global Compensation
Do involve representatives from key countries.
Do allow local managers to decide the mix between base and incentive pay.
Do use consistent performance measures (results paid for) and emphasis on each measure.
Do allow local countries flexibility in implementations.
Do use consistent communication and training themes worldwide.

Don’ts of Global Compensation
Don’t design the plan centrally and dictate to local offices.
Don’t create a similar framework for jobs with different responsibilities.
Don’t require consistency on every performance measure within the incentive plan.
Don’t assume cultural differences can be managed through the incentive plan.
Don’t proceed without the support of senior sales executives worldwide.

Preparing U.S. Personnel for Foreign Assignments
Overcoming Reluctance to Accept a Foreign Assignment
 Reducing the Rate of Early Returns
 Successful Expatriate Repatriation
Whom to recruit? How?
Training? Where? What kinds?
Motivation and compensation?
Evaluation?

Recruiting Marketing and Sales Personnel
Expatriates (people from your home office in the destination country)- what are the specific problems they may face?
Local Nationals - what are the advantages they bring?
Third Country Nationals - response by persons from your company and in destination country
Host Country Restrictions

Cultural Skills
Communicate respect and interest for people and their culture.
Tolerate ambiguity and cope with cultural   differences.
Display empathy by understanding needs and differences.
Be nonjudgmental by not judging by your value standards.
Recognize and control SRC as an nfluence.
Laugh things off when things do not work as planned.

Colgate-Palmolive Fast Track
Two Years-Rotate Through Finance- Manufacturing - Marketing - Market System -  Ad Agency
     - Marketing Research -  Product Management
Seven Months in Sales
Trip with Company Mentor to Foreign Subsidiary upon Completion of Two Years.
Foreign Posting - not Paris but Brazil, Zambia or some third world
Second Foreign Posting  Possible
Return to Domestic Market

Suppose that . . .
One of the women in class had gotten a job offer for a major global company and had done well in the domestic market
Now, she is offered a position as a manager in Saudi Arabia
What would you recommend that she do?
 

 

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