Cross Cultural Mangement Renault Philippines free essay sample

After a detailed market survey, Renault the French automobile constructor firm, decided to establish a branch in Philippines. Indeed it appeared that the Filipino market is very attractive, and presents a lot of opportunities. Renault decided to set a first selling centre in Manila. This mission has been assigned to mister Jean-Claude Duss. The real challenge for Mister Duss will be to build a local team and to be its leader. Missions: -to find an office in Manila ( where the team will be trained ) -to build a team to set up a relation network -to develop an informal network -to build a brand image -to acquire a notoriety -to find new points of sale (Renault other place) -to recruit staff Mister Duss’ background Mister Duss is a French manager who has been trained in the Renault Headquarter in Paris. He is 40 years old and has 2 children, a 15 year-old daughter, and a 12 year-old son. His family is used to follow him wherever, then it is the same in the Philippines. He has already lead many projects in France, Turkey and also in Thailand where he has worked for 5 years. He has especially contributed to the launch of the latest model of car in Thailand. He is particularly appreciated for his â€Å"French humour† and his friendliness. As a French people, he tends to be a bit conservative. Then he tends also to have a circular thinking as Latin people. He succeeded, with high results, in his mission in Thailand; this is why he has been chosen to set up Renault in Philippines. He read a lot of books about the corporate culture in the Philippines in order to adapt himself fastly. He has also met a Filipino manager in Renault Thailand to brief himself about the way things happen in Philippines. Furthermore he has taken one hundred hours of Filipino language to try to adapt himself with the Philippines’ culture. His missions: -find an experienced human resource manager to help him in his aims -train 6 managers to the Renault corporate culture -teach selling techniques, and marketing/communication skills -inform about Renault’s products and services which could be adapted to the Filipino market Scenario: The first mission of Mr. Duss is to find an experienced human resource manager. He has worked for 2 months and has managed to hire the global human resource manager of Filimobile: Mr. Ramiro. Filimobile is the second automobile firm in the Philippines. So it is already a good achievement for him because he will be able to rely on Ramiro’s experiences and relations to hire good managers. Mr. Ramiro has hired 4 managers from Filimobile and 2 from Manilamobile (first constructor in the Philippines). Two of them will be in charge of sales, two of the marketing/communication, one of the customer relations, and the last of the finance. Ramiro has only hired people from the automobile industry, first because they know the Filipino’s automobile market, and secondly because he has already worked with most of them and has been able to see their results. All of these managers are between 28 and 40 years old and are fluent in English. Then the team is totally new and seems to be motivated by the new challenge which is offered to them. All the team has to adapt to others and especially Mister Duss. Tomorrow morning is the first day for all. How will it happen, and how Mister Duss will manage his new employees? Deadlines / Checklists / Agenda: Here is a very important issue because in a competitive environment, it is crucial to respect deadlines and to be impregnate with the agenda. It is one of the most characteristic things about Filipinos, they are late. It is usual to arrive at an appointment 1 hour late. However, Filipinos give a high importance to be well dressed during the appointments. Then, Mr Duss has always to be well dressed because Filipinos are very respectful of this kind of things. It will give him a better presence and if he is too friendly it will help to keep a certain distance between him and his team. The best time for the appointments is at mid-morning or mid to late afternoon. Filipinos are Christian, so Sundays and all days relating to the religion must be avoided for appointments. Furthermore, meetings have to be taken 2 weeks before, have to be reconfirmed with the purpose of the meeting. Then, to counter this lack of punctuality Mr Duss had two very subtle ideas. First he wants to bring forward deadlines of two days. On the one hand, if the work is done on time, it lets time to Mr Duss to check what has been done. On the other hand if the work is not done on time, he has still two days to make it done. Secondly, on the second Monday, it is planned to offer each employee a beautiful diary. Inside this diary, there will be a picture of all the team with families in the entertainment park. This gift is to remember subtlety deadlines, and to make a personalized gift as a sign of welcome. To help him in this task, Mr Duss has set up a checklist system. Then every week, Mr Duss will check the labour accomplished by the manager. After three bullets unreached, an individual interview is planned, and if problems continue, it is not excluded to fire the manager. Besides, Filipinos are known to never say â€Å"no†. Then Mr Duss has to be very areful of his explanations and has to know each manager to decode a smile or a weird face. He also has, maybe to repeat one thing in different way to be sure that it is well understood. Problem anticipation: To manage a team from a different culture is something not easy to do. Then some problems of comprehension can happen. Mr Duss has to read be tween lines and has to decode each manager behaviour. He needs to read hidden signals. A kind of feedback form can be set up to see what has been understood and what misunderstood after analyze. Furthermore, as we think everywhere in the world, to have good work connections can facilitate a deal. Surround with faithfully people is something important, especially if they have already good relations in the country. If a Filipino makes a favour, Mr Duss will have to remember this and to return a favour when it will be possible. Mission: To begin the first work day, a long presentation of each participant is recommended to break ice. It seems important not to rush directly to the mission. After a morning of personal discussion (family, background, leisure, etc), a lunch is organized in a typical Filipino restaurant to makes them feel comfortable and shows Mr. Duss willing to discover the Filipino culture. In the afternoon, Mr. Duss will have to explain the mission to the Filipino managers. Objectives have to be seen globally, then one by one, more in details (Asian people prefer to have a global vision before looking at details). Before fulfilling their missions, Filipino managers will, of course, attempt training courses for one week to integrate the corporate culture. Furthermore, courses about the different products that Renault sells and finally learn skills, techniques and tools the company provides generally. Managers are not expected to integrate exactly all these data, it is more to give them a state of mind. For example, it will be good to make them understand that some concepts like punctuality are needed for success, despite their habits. Roles repartition: After that all different courses are finished, managers will start their respective missions. According to their backgrounds and their skills, tasks will be divided. Filipino managers seem to be afraid by failure because it would make them loose face. That is why the roles repartition has to be well defined. An individual face-to-face meeting between Mr. Duss and each manager (with written objectives and agreement) will help to clarify the mission and to learn more about each employee (this interview will permit to define motivations and personality): After a short speech about personal issues, Mr. Duss will offer a personalized agenda and begin to discuss about the task. The importance of these individual meetings is preponderant; it is the beginning of a trust relationship between Mr. Duss and each employee. Indeed, Filipino people are quite emotional, sensitive and this privileged contact will influence the future of the project. Conflicts resolution: In every company, conflicts are present and lead to a loss of efficiency. Mr. Duss will have to base its judgement on the Filipino culture to success. First, Filipinos often try to avoid conflicts, that seems to be a good point. The reason is to avoid to loose face (Hiya = Shame), and to preserve harmony (like in most Asian countries). Most of the time, Filipinos prefer to keep silence, instead of arguing, but this can lead to unexpressed resentments. It will be a real challenge to read between the lines and to deal with this issue. Thus, Mr.Duss should use diplomacy: always talk to people involved individually, in a face-to face discussion (A public resolution would embarrass employees and deteriorate the situation). Mr. Duss will have to choice carefully his words, not to get upset each person involved in order to save face. Filipinos value frankness, honesty but because of their high context language, they dont expect it in a way that seems aggressive. With his French way of thinking, Mr. Duss will have to make efforts, by taking account of Filipinos sensitivity and fear of Hiya. Motivation, Rewards and Sanctions: In all companies, the individual motivations results in the global effectiveness. A big part of Mr. Dusss job is to make his employees continuously motivated. For that reason, he will implement a system of rewards and sanctions. An inconvenient of Filipinos mentality is their belief in the fatalism. It seems important to change (or at least sensibly them to this issue) their mind, to make them integrate the concept of self determination. For Asian people, Filipinos are quite individualistic, so that congratulations will be made to groups but also in private to individuals that out perform. For sanctions: always in private also but never direct to avoid embarrassment. Mr. Duss will have to use the high context language and fears that Filipinos have about failure and unemployment (Filipinos tend not to trust their countrys economy). Because Filipinos value more the well being of their family than their own achievement, rewards should be oriented (depending of each employees personality) to family advantages: company car, weekends all fees paid for the family (attraction parks), free tickets for different manifestations†¦ Filipinos value warmth, loyal friendship and furthermore like entertainment, so that organizing a barbecue for the whole group and their families, or a party should be a good idea to enforce the groups cohesion and to show Mr. Dusss esteem. However, Mr. Duss will have to keep the distance related to his position in the hierarchy. Progress and Feedback: Measuring progress and identifying weaknesses is crucial for any companies. Furthermore, feedback to employees is a good source of motivation. If results are good, workers will be happy, if not, pride will lead them to try to improve themselves. In all case, measure of results is important to show employees the result of their personal work. Mr. Duss should set up meetings every month to compare global performances with last months. He will have to be careful if results are bad in order to avoid embarrassing managers individually. Interviews with each manager should be organized (one or two times a year) to discuss about personal career achievement. Same kind of interview can be planned if some personal dysfunctions occur. Team building, Communication and relationship: First step after the week of work will be to invite the managers and their families to an attraction park (or another outside activity), to learn more about each other. This occasion may be helpful to create a synergy among employees that constitute a brand new team. Communication is an important issue to promote among members. To implement an effective communication system, Mr. Duss will have to push them to share information, for example, to organize a short daily meeting in the morning with only managers (Mr. Duss excluded). This will enforces the team building and makes them more autonomous. Like most of asian countries, business is based on trust relations. With the warm and friendly character of Filipinos, Mr. Duss will have to focus on personal relations with his employees, but always keep the distance due to his position. One of the added value that managers bring is their network of relations. This one will be essential and Mr. Duss will have to use it in a clever way: being introduced to people and developing new relations will help to solve lots of bureaucratic problems.