Developing a Global Mindset

Globalization is the trend of the era. Every country is reaching out for international contacts and opportunities. There is an evident desire on part of the individuals to have a profound international experience. Global workforces are developing at a rapid pace.

Global management has its own set of challenges. There is a lot to learn and practice to be successful globally. I always wondered where I should start to develop the essentials for being an international manager. A question kept ticking in my mind, “How do I develop a Global Mindset?”

When we started with the course on Global Management, we listed the 3 essential skills of a Global Manager. That exercise took me back to the question I’ve been trying to answer for some years now.

Having a Global Mindset is one of key base thoughts for being a Global Manager. It initiates a process of transformation from being an ordinary manager to being a Global Leader. It means that that you develop and interpret criteria for every decision; personal or professional; that you make. The thought process shouldn’t be dependent or influenced by any single country or culture. One should consider the situation and the environment around in that particular country and culture to implement any specific decisions.

As learned through the course of Global management, developing a Global mindset requires some ground work to be done. There are certain concepts which we should understand and apply in the different cultural settings.

Firstly we have to evaluate the cultural background of our own self, how much do we know about ourselves. The values we hold, the skills we practice, the thoughts we think, the ideas we generate etc. Then it’s time to look for similar traits in others, to analyze how do the others differ or match with your own culture and thinking.

It would be advisable to follow the same sequence when analyzing your organizations, with that of the others. Try to understand what the dominant orientation of the organization is. Whether the organization is based out of hierarchy, or adhocracy; whether it has a very friendly clan culture or is it only focused on the market shares. The perception of the organization may change from that of an employee to that of a senior manager however the overall orientation of the organization may be similar throughout the organization.

It is important to note again that, whether at individual level or the organization level the visibility of the tasks remains the same. What you see as the norms and behaviors of the individuals in a particular country or culture is only the tip of the ice berg in the wide ocean. Personal values and attitudes are less visible parts of the ice berg which can be seen but need a close examination and analysis. The Cultural values and Assumptions are the hidden and submerged part which needs to be questioned everyday to know what they really mean.

The Bafa Bafa simulation was a perfect example to learn how an individual would react to a new culture or trend. What would be his/her initial tactics to adjust to the new culture and how quickly the individual can accustom to the new culture? It would be a great if we could device a similar exercise in real life scenarios to learn more about different cultures and traits.

The MBI analysis gave us a methodology to formulate a high performance output. Although not to be followed in a sequential manner the MAP, BRIDGE, INTEGRATE method gives us an analysis tool to evaluate the formulation of the particular task. The Mapping indicates understanding the differences, the cultural perspective and its various dimensions. The Bridging is a step to communicate across borders trying to overcome the differences with motivation and confidence. Bridging also helps decenter or focus on particular standpoints where it doesn’t appear to be blame. Integrating is an art managing the differences and it involves a lot of smaller activities like promoting participation, resolving conflicts and developing on new ideas. The MBI methodology teaches you to value the differences and the differences thus create value, thus achieving high performance output.

Though learning to survive then excel in the team and organization is an important objective in developing the global mindset it is primarily more important to realize what are the personal changes required to achieve that objective.

One has to learn how to mould oneself to get into the framework of developing a global mindset. It involves grooming yourself with skills and techniques to face the situation. These range from developing Leadership skills, to mastering the art of persuasion. It also tests how you influence the people around you and what are your abilities for conflict resolution.

It was essential learning to find out what my strengths are and how do I work to improve upon them. The Strengths based Leadership session was indeed a new learning and thought provoking. First there were some qualities which were never recognized as strengths. Second, I didn’t notice that I actually used these qualities so frequently. Third, the realization of strength gave a new approach to developing the Leadership skills.

The usual approach till now was to work on my weakness such that I can be efficient enough if I ever had to encounter them. However with the realization, that developing the weaknesses would only enable me to withstand the situation gives me a feeling of insecurity. On the other hand working on the strengths gives me an opportunity to excel and be a domineering force in that particular field.

It’s not a rocket science realization that working on strength does make you extraordinary personnel. But it really works for instance, I have an anomaly that prevents me from being a fluent speaker, something called as a cleft. The consequence is that I have to make an effort to speak coherently. This is a weakness I have been trying to overcome since years. The more I try to overcome it, the more difficult it gets to conquer..Despite being a confident person I end up missing a lot of verbal communications. Over the years, I have found an alternative solution to my inability to speak, viz. to write. I have been more efficient to converse in the written format than the verbal communications. I can now surely consider it to be one of my strengths. Thus moving ahead I’m going to work on my writing skills and develop it to such an extent that it makes communications far easier for me.

The Strengths based Leadership assessment identified some more  of my strengths viz. Belief, Woo, Maximizer ,Ideation, Positivity

I have natural ability to charm others. Now I have to make sure that I do that with integrity such that almost all my contacts turn into my followers. This would be an excellent opportunity to build the trust in others and maintain a long lasting relationship.The working point on this strength should be to find out ways to develop these relationships and take them to the next level.

There is indeed something to cherish when you find “Ideation” as one of your strengths. It is easier to come out with ideas to do things in a different way. Lateral or alternative ideas are always appreciated and paid a heed.  I can always question “why” I do a thing in a particular way and then explain to others. This way it does let people see that I’m working on improving. More importantly it is to make things more simple and comprehensible to everyone around. Ideas sometimes can be confusing and annoying but it would be a challenge to articulate them such everyone else can see what I want to express.

I also believe that attitude of service is more important than any other religious or spiritual belief. Surely talent in action speaks a lot louder than words; it creates a lot of integrity in you.

There are several more lessons learnt from the Global Management course and takeaways are way too many to summarize in a single document with limited number of pages. If you really have to develop a global mindset then I have apply all or most of the concepts learned in the course.

When Social Media changes the Game

One of the unspoken occupational hazards of social media is the fact that many of our strategies are contingent upon the whims of the platforms and communities we operate within. What happens when one of the social media platforms changes the game?

For a pharmaceutical company engaging in social media, a slight shift could require drastic changes in social media strategy. It’s no secret that Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms have demonstrated a propensity to change policies on a dime. Decisions that Facebook makes on privacy settings or changes Twitter makes to who has access to the firehouse can cause panic amongst the pharmaceutical companies operating within those communities.

People seem to forget that companies such as Facebook and Twitter are businesses too.  If a policy change is going to provide more data for advertisers or attract more page views, they are going to do it without blinking an eye.  It’s all in the name of profit.

So where does that leave the pharmaceutical industry that has sought to exact some measure of control in social media? Where does it leave a cautious industry that has designed a whole strategy aimed at staying compliant with current regulations?  If a social network can change its tune at any moment—how does a tepid industry stay prepared?

Plan better.

At a recent conference I attended I listened to a session on global implementation of a pharmaceutical social media marketing program. The session addressed the challenges of dealing with different regulations across country boundaries. The point of view shared was that you should find the most restrictive regulations and use that as your benchmark—ensuring you are in compliance in less rigid regulatory environments. In the case of the social media platform that can change its guidelines at any moment, the opposite is true. Plan for the current environment, but have a contingency plan for what you will do if the game changes. Don’t be forced into reacting to changes, address them before they even arise. Plan for the moment when social media becomes entirely community and conversation driven with no pre-moderation options.

What is your contingency plan if a conservative approach to social media is no longer an option?  There will certainly be naysayers inside the organization that will want to peel back social media engagement as a result of looser restrictions on social media platforms.  Be prepared to convince them that pulling out of these communities is the wrong decision.  Demonstrate that you have planned for this scenario and have a plan in place to step up your monitoring capabilities, fit an AE-reporting framework into the existing escalation procedures of the company and prove the benefit to continued involvement.

Changes on social media platforms will continue to occur—whether to existing sites or emerging.  Don’t be caught off guard.

Are you Balanced?

My partner is a worry wart.  She’s the type of person that will read a study about the effects of metal touching metal and immediately decide that silverware should no longer be used when cooking.  She’s constantly making sure I locked the door, buckled my seat belt and arrived safely at work.  She’s a great balance to my overly laissez faire attitude.  Unlike her, when I hear the latest study, I always quip: “you can prove just about anything if you set out to do it.”  Why sweat all the things that can go wrong?

Just like she is the ying to my yang, pharmaceutical social media programs need to find a balance (you knew there had to be a segue right?).

Like a scientist trying to prove an established hypothesis, a pharmaceutical marketer can make the case for just about any social media strategy if they look long enough.  Before conducting any type of online listening or social media research, a marketer could have already decided that Facebook is the perfect platform.  With this decision already made, the process of finding supporting research is a selective exercise.  The research that supports the conclusion is pulled to the front and the rest is simply glossed over.

It’s reasonable to walk into pharmaceutical social media planning with a hypothesis.  The danger arises when you are unwilling to change your conclusion based on the research at hand.  Social media demands an open mind.  The way people interact, the functions of community and the social currency are all unique.  A social media marketer needs to research, listen and observe and allow that to shape strategy—not the other way around.

On the flip side, there can be a tendency to get so lost in the research and data that you never emerge with a conclusion.  You can spend months rehashing the same information without forming a cohesive strategy.  While a willingness to follow research is important, decisiveness is equally important.  It’s that whole yin and yang thing again—you need balance.

Online listening is a critical step to developing a social media strategy.  It helps to inform the strategies and tactics that will best serve your audience.  Use the information gleaned from social media listening to build a social media strategy that ties directly to the patient need.  But don’t use the mountains of information as a crutch.  Don’t use it as an excuse to continue stalling engagement.

Be thoughtful.  Be flexible.  But be decisive.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP- A need or a passing trend?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is subject to a case of debate and criticism. Corporations face the dilemma of pursuing CSR or not. Over the years corporations have come to realize the need for the corporate self-regulation to be integrated in the form of a business model. Propagators of CSR have come to argue that there is a strong business case for CSR, in that the corporations would benefit in a multiple ways by operating with a broader perspective than their immediate short term goals. Critics argue that it is nothing more than putting a face to the existing chaos of insufficiency and hypocrisy. It distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses. CSR has been redefine and evolved over the years  however it essentially tilts to aid the organization’s mission as well as a guide to what the company stands for and will uphold to its customers.

Let us consider the arguments put forth by the critics to define whether CSR actually defines to pass the criteria for being the need of the hour.

“Dilutes the primary focus of the business         Profit maximization.”   Many have stated that the corporation’s main goal is to maximize its profits and ensure that its shareholders have a substantial return of their investments in the organization. The general perception is that it is the responsibility of the individual to look forward for the well-being of him and his society. The corporation has no obligation to be concerned about the society and it would act as an additional onus on the corporation to think about the social and environmental issues.  The corporation would have to take into consideration the perspectives of the stakeholders and then formulate their pursuance of their primary objective of profit maximization.  This invariably will please the stakeholders however it will dilute the interests of the shareholders of the corporation.

Another issue that CSR induces is, confusing not only the employee but also the public about what could be ulterior motive of the corporation to adopt the social responsibility. It is perceived as a distraction adopted by the companies to counter the ethical questions raised by their core operations.

CSR on the other hand “addresses issues by using business resources and expertise.”

The scale and the nature of benefits of CSR are difficult to quantify however the benefits can be attributed to various business resources and expertise. CSR uses a variety of business resources like the Human resources, business development and public relations to display its applications.

Human Resources: A CSR program can help in recruitment and staffing in the competitive high skilled graduate market. It also evokes a higher employee engagement particularly when the employees become more involved in the fundraising activities and community volunteering.

Risk Management: CSR focuses on “doing the right things at the right time” thus noting the risk involved in its operations. Risks are an impeccable part of the corporate strategies and have a high visibility in the media, regulators and courts.  Risks like corruption scandals and environmental accidents can bring down age old reputations in a matter of hours.

Brand differentiation:  CSR plays a role in customer loyalty on ethical basis. It acts as the unique selling proposition (USP) for the corporation to attract more stakeholders. Major brands like “the Corporate Group”, “the Body shop” are built on ethical values. Integrity and Best practices help the organization put up a strong brand image.

The rise of ethics training inside corporations, some of it required by government regulation, is another driver credited with changing the behavior and culture of corporations. The aim of such training is to help employees make ethical decisions when the answers are unclear. Tullberg believes that humans are built with the capacity to cheat and manipulate, a view taken from (Trivers 1971, 1985), hence the need for learning normative values and rules in human behavior (Tullberg 1996). The most direct benefit is reducing the likelihood of "dirty hands" (Grace and Cohen 2005), fines and damaged reputations for breaching laws or moral norms. Organizations also see secondary benefit in increasing employee loyalty and pride in the organization. Caterpillar and Best Buy are examples of organizations that have taken such steps (Thilmany 2007).

Increasingly, companies are becoming interested in processes that can add visibility to their CSR policies and activities. One method that is gaining increasing popularity is the use of well-grounded training programs, where CSR is a major issue, and business simulations can play a part in this.

In the documentary “the Corporation”, the history of organizations and their growth in power is discussed. Corporate social responsibility, what a company does to in trying to benefit society, versus corporate moral responsibility (CMR), what a company should morally do, are both important topics to consider when looking at ethics in CSR. For example, Ray Anderson, in The Corporation, takes a CMR perspective in order to do what is moral and he begins to shift his company's focus towards the biosphere by utilizing carpets in sections so that they will sustain for longer periods. This is Anderson thinking in terms of Garret Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons," where if people do not pay attention to the private ways in which we use public resources, people will eventually lose those public resources.

References

http://blog.marketingdoctor.tv/2008/03/28/dr-tantillos-30second-how-to.aspx

http://www.careers.ed.ac.uk/STUDENTS/Careers/Corporate%20Social%20Responsibility%20and%20Ethical%20Careers.html

Zara came a long way

Zara’s Business issues

• There was a need to respond quickly to the demands of fashion conscious consumers, with high volatility in the forecasting abilities.
• Store Managers used to decide on what was likely to sell and then placed the orders accordingly, without consulting the headquarters.
• No Advertising – Only did promote twice a year annual sales and opening of new stores which resulted in a marketing expenditure of just 0.3% i.e. tenth of industry average of 3%- to- 4%. Zara spent  heavily on stores to get a prime location, 
• Zara customers were aware of the frequent change in the design and the short span of availability if the stock, average stock of 3-4 weeks and they also knew that to get the latest design, they should visit the store more frequently.
• Inventory management was a very good, no old inventories were stored, and produced as per the demand, and very less storage time in DC 
• The whole designing, estimation and delivery was based more on intuitive estimation, and the future demands were based on the current trends, which virtually negated the possibilities of stock-outs or replenishments.

Information Technology issues

• Age-Old Point of Sales( POS) system- DOS operating system was  no longer supported which meant that there could be  Requirement FOR UPGRADE
• Managers had to manually check the stock and estimate the new order quantity. The current IT systems were unable to give accurate inventory estimates
• Although they had an IT department, it wasn’t a robust structure with no CIO, no definite budget, no formal justification of the costs and cost benefit analysis. The IT was rudimentary in their approach of a “Need Based Action”
• The record keeping and data transmission was not correct and many irregularities were seen like theft, damage, losses etc.
• The IT approaches were quite peculiar in the sense that most of their systems were developed internally rather than buying commercially available software.

Analysis:

Despite of so many issues Zara had managed to lead the fashion industry, which implies they were managing their business well with whatever IT services they had.

It wouldn’t be a good advice for Zara to change their Point of Sales (POS) systems with immediate effect. The POS could be replaced over time to handle the compatibility issues.  Before moving ahead to change in the POS, Zara should build a strong inter store network such that the store managers have a better estimate of the Inventory. 

If the store managers could get the trends of competitors as well as more definite figures about Zara’s own sales, then they could come up with a better forecast.

Zara’s IT strategy needs a robust central structure with the stores connected to the headquarters. 

Salgado was ensuring that the vendors didn’t change the POS terminals such that they couldn’t work on DOS any longer. Along with that he engaged himself in the thoughts of developing the IT infra-structure.

Heading the Services way

Otis Elevator a long established company that revolutionized the world by creating the first passenger elevator in the 1800s. Otis is an example of how an innovative company cannot stay in the “status quo” and needs to evolve and adapt to the rapidly changes of the economy, technology and client needs. Otis Elevator was able to transform from the manufacturing industry into the logistic and service industry, leveraging its transformation with the use of IT and information management systems.

The key issue - moving from the largest manufacturer to the service industry

• The elevator industry entered in a wave of transformation and it is clear that not only the quality of the product, responsiveness and price were key drivers for clients when selecting an elevator service company, but also the cost of service became a major consideration as building aged and competition for tenants increased. 
• Small companies dedicated solely to the elevator service increased the competition in the maintenance area. As a result, it was clear that Otis needed to change the company culture from an operation and manufacturing company to a service oriented business. 

IT initiatives taken by Otis to address the key issue
Several IT initiatives were taken by Otis in order to become a company that envisions to “maintain elevators and service customers through logistics and information management”.

IT Initiatives	Purpose	Benefits / Results
OTISLINE®	Create a centralized customer service system to dispatch service mechanics and call backs reports to do the proper follow ups	24 x 7 customer service Responded to a customer in less than a second Savings due to restructure of the company
REM	Elevator monitoring to control the overall performance of elevators	Produced reports that allow mechanics to solve problems before the elevator went out of service before customer were even aware of them
SIMBA	Standard-interface for product strategy, product development and  production	Lowered project costs throughout the value chain
IT Initiatives	Purpose		Benefits / Results
e*LogisticsTM	Integration and automatization of the supply chain in order to generate real time information flow from sales, factory and filed operations via Web		Project Proposal – Automatization of main elements: gathering account information, determining elevator configuration and proposal preparation Sales Processing - Improved lead times, reduce inventory levels and reduced costs across the value chain Order Fulfillment - Flexible and globally integrated supply chain  by managing factories, suppliers, field feedback and product improvement process Field Installation - Reduced inconsistencies, maintain lean manufacturing and low inventory levels by generation e-mail remainders  of job status

Relevance and analysis

• Otis was able to shift from a manufacturing company to a service oriented business by leveraging in the use of technology, network, Web and new computer and software’s that are product of the overall evolution of the world economy. This highlights the importance of a business to keep up with the technology development in order to obtain competitive advantages and develop key success factor within the industry.
• An additional factor that the Otis case illustrates is the importance of how IT is tight to the strategy of a company. The shift in Otis strategy and vision was product of the proper implementation of IT systems that were align with the overall strategy that the company needed to develop in order to keep up with the new market waves.
• Future challenges for Otis will relied in ability to fully integrated the e*Logistics program with the other 50 financial systems and 15 different manufacturing systems that are currently operating all around the world. In addition, it is important for Otis to fully integrated the new global orders through the e*Logistics system in order to replicate the success that were achieved in the UK market.

Do they need a CRM?

 Moore Medical’s critical needs: 

• They have an ERP system that was unable to forecast demand because it is reactive to market conditions. 
• The ERP system was extremely cumbersome in creating a bid and/or quote for customers and the related information between customers and their quotes.
• The ERP system was not flexible enough to handle Moore’s preferred pricing method.
• Customer service representatives were taking longer to handle orders because the system was more vertical and difficult to navigate horizontally.
• Account setup was in itself a two-fold problem. First, new accounts could not be reviewed against existing accounts. This led to the second problem where information could be entered into the system more than once.
• 84% of Moore’s non-perfect orders stemmed from split shipments and back-orders. This pointed at the lack of an efficient forecasting ERP.
• Unable to determine why churn rate for customers was higher than the industry average.
• Moore’s product line was not broad enough for it to be considered a true “one-stop” shop for all the customer’s needs to be filled.

First, the cost/benefit ratio would be a factor in deciding how to allocate funds for each of the systems. By the end of 1999, Moore Medical had spent almost $7 million with Arthur Andersen Consulting and an ERP system designed by J.D. Edwards. Their CRM initiative began to take shape at the beginning of 2001with Clarify Consulting responding to a Request for Proposal 

Second, the success of a CRM system depends heavily on the vision of the company.. 

Objectives for CRM:

• Increase rep effectiveness and efficiency.
• Introduce single point of contact philosophy by providing cradle to grave customer data/ history information
• Increase customer interaction consistency among all reps by increasing company control and manner of customer interaction.
• Minimize loss of customer interactions (via transfers or rep time off) by tracking interactions from start to finish regardless of channel.
• Increase cross-sell and up sell options for reps.
• Increase effectiveness  of campaigns and promotions
• Increase and measure success rate of bids and quotes by introducing scheduled follow ups.
• Introduce accuracy and accessibility of information obtained from customers.
• Introduce business consistent customer interaction dispositioning regardless of interaction channel. 
• Improve sales forecasting and supply chain management by providing sales pattern information for use with data mining and forecast modeling.
• Reduce inventory shelf time.
• Reduce learning curve for new reps.
• Increase cross utilization of reps between departments.
• Reduce time to implement script changes for outbound prospecting/ customer service
• Capture and present data in a Window GUI based environment on the rep desktop.

In order for Moore to pursue the development of CRM, they will need to take care of a few things first. First, they will need to make sure that their Vision and Strategy are in-line with the CRM initiative. Next, Moore will need to focus both externally (to customers’ values) and internally (organization-wide acceptance) in order to gain momentum. Following, these two major building blocks, the CRM processes, information requirements and technology needs must be well defined before looking at “what’s out there.” This way, the company can focus on what the needs are instead of what they may want. Finally, Moore must take a hard look at what metrics will need to be collected and analyzed for forecasting into the future and meeting their customers’ needs.

Some of the critical success factors that directly impact Moore are: 

• To know which strategies will support the corporate goals and to tie measurement processes to them.
• To ensure that the skills, knowledge and associated behaviors required by the workforce support the enterprise’s CRM strategy.
• To change the compensation of the workforce to achieve the desired behaviors and cultural shift and motivate employees to rally behind the strategy.

The benefits to implementing the CRM system would improve customer relations and profitability. Some of the benefits that Moore could realize include consistency across channels, employee empowerment and compensation, and involvement of collaborative partners. Retaining customers in turn could in turn increase profits for Moore and take care of their high churn rate. 

Conclusion

Moore Medical has a number of issues it needs to address before it can really make a good decision. The answer could have been found in acquiring a CRM system, adding bolt-on modules to the existing ERP system, or going some other non-technological route. In understanding where the needs are and what the benefit would be in investing in these areas, it is imperative that Moore continue to fund the IT side of their business, as well as develop their overall business plan in order to harmonize the systems with the company’s vision and goals. 

Moore employees will need to be thoroughly trained in using the system and understanding the benefits that come with it. Also, the web site will need to be optimized to meet the needs of the customer and free up sales people to actually make sales. 

Building the system that would accommodate Moore’s needs would take time and investment of dollars. However, both the short and long-term ROI’s should be realized as long as they stay customer-focused and true to their aim of being a one-stop shop that meets all their customers’ needs.

References

McAfee, Andrew. Moore Medical Corporation. Harvard Business School Case, Harvard Business School (Cases) and Harvard Business, rev.February12, 2003.

FORM 10-K. Lexis-Nexis™. URL: http://80-web.lexis-nexis.com.ezproxy.lib.depaul.edu/universe/document?_m=f19800026f9387e66fd70ccef3d79403&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVzb-lSlzV&_md5=5d86a10161c676254c2ee1ebbe59210b

“About Moore,” MooreMedical.com URL: http://www1.mooremedical.com/index.cfm?PG=Gen&FN=AboutMoore&CS=HOM

“Our History,” MooreMedical.com. URL:

http://www1.mooremedical.com/index.cfm?PG=Gen&FN=OurHistory&CS=HOM

“Executive Summary,” MooreMedical.com URL: http://www1.mooremedical.com/index.cfm?PG=Gen&FN=execsummary&CS=HOM