C P Managers example essay topic

A) Why does C-P place such importance on expatriate assignments? As a global company with a presence in 75 countries the expatriates themselves and their assignments become of great importance to the company. The rising share of foreign markets up to two thirds of the total revenue and profit of the company has made the expatriate assignments even more important for the company. The expatriate assignments are important not only for the financial aspect that is effecting the company but for other major reasons to spread the corporate culture and practices around foreign subsidiaries and exposing its managers to international training in order for them to take over higher managerial positions later on in their careers. The expatriate assignments usually deal with new found subsidiaries abroad or launching of new products, the company needs experienced people from its head quarters or other subsidiaries who have knowledge in order to hire and train local employees, introduce the products, techniques, values and culture of the company and adapt them to the methods in the local conditions. The transferring of knowledge and building up of the subsidiary in a foreign environment is not only difficult from the view point of the managers but it is also a very crucial aspect for the companies growth and competitiveness in its business and capturing the market.

If an expatriates assignment fails due to some reasons its puts the whole future of c-p in that country in to jeopardy as well as gives the competition a upper hand in that market. Because the expatriates are the driving force of next growth and creating new markets their assignments are of significant importance to the company and this the reason c-p pays such a lot of attention to the expatriate assignments. B) Are there other, more efficient ways, to transfer knowledge? Besides using the expatriate program which costs the company approximately 23 million dollars a year.

There are some other cost efficient and better ways to transfer the knowledge. Face to face communication is the most effective way of transferring knowledge therefore the company can have informal networking activities amongst managers through joint work in teams task forces both at the regional office level where all the managers from each country in the region would take part and also forming global teams which would In turn pay visits to subsidiaries on a frequent basis all around the world which would help the company transfer knowledge in a better way because face to face interaction between individuals facilitates transfer of knowledge that is experienced based and allows interactive communication, questioning, flexibility and adaptation of policies and strategies. This one on one interaction also creates a sense of belonging in the organization. The emergence of new technology such as the internet, intranet, videoconferencing can also be used by the company in order to link all the subsidiaries and regional offices with the head quarters so that there is a constant flow of information between all the places and each country knows what is going on in the other country, making the whole company a more cohesive one. The current organization structure of c-p needs to be reformulated, as the current structure has no interaction between regional heads and be changed in to a modified matrix structure such as used by the procter and gamble where the whole work place is in teams with interaction and inputs from regional as well as head quarters. C) What is the core problem with the expatriate policy?

The core problem with the expatriate policy is that its inability to adapt and ignorance of the changes in the society where dual - career families were becoming the norm rather than an exceptional case here and there. C-P executives had wives who were also pursuing a career and didn't want to give it up for their husbands assignments overseas. The belief of the management at C-P that only loss of money is the hurdle that determines a dual career family from going on overseas assignment was wrong and they created a policy for spouses assistance and one time payment of $7,500 seemed very less to most of them, moreover the women of the new century was in to a job not only for monetary reasons but also to build up a career for herself. The policy seemed to be designed for male managers whose spouses were housewives, if only male managers were considered the consideration for the husbands of any female managers seemed to be lost. Although the policy catered in with help to gain work permits and finding a job a harsh reality remained that the spouses if expatriate managers did not have legal rights to work in half of the countries where the C-P managers were placed. Even the assistance to start up a business for the spouses seemed to be a big failure as the fact remains that more that 50% of new startups tend to die down with in the first year of operations.

The places where the spouses were allowed to work they could not find satisfactory jobs as people would not be willing to hire someone who would be leaving in a year or two. D) Can the program be fixed? How? Yes the program can be fixed with some changes in the thinking of the management. To rectify the policy and bring it on track to what it was in 1983 in not possible with the onset of dual - career families in the society.

What can be done is change the expatriate policy from a long haul of 3 -5 years to a shorter periods of 6 -8 months. which would mean that the spouses of the managers would not have to move with them and the this could solve the problem of dual - career problems. Form the management's perspective the expatriate is regarded as the best man for the job but this perception needs to be changed to a more local one. The management needs to realize that there is local talent available and the right places need to be tapped for the talent and the biggest source of this local talent being the own subsidiary. The company could also be looking at locals studying in good universities and screening them and hiring them and then training them and making a career path for them and later on evaluating them. Their training process and evaluation process should be handled by the expatriates as they are the ones who would know exactly as to what the C-P expects out of the subsidiary. This change in the policy would give C-P a better hold and control over the local markets as the local managers would understand the markets better.

Another out come of this policy change would be that C-P would be able to utilize its limited resources of the expatriate managers in a better and much more focused way such that it could be able to send persons to markets where sales were going down or the profit was falling or send expatriates according to the product sales so as to improve a particular product sale in a particular market. This segmentation of the market and the focused attention of expatriates would not only give C-P a better competitive edge but also help the company solve problems at a faster pace and better way. When the managers go to country they are there to train and come back as soon as possible. The shorter periods in each country would also enable the C-P to form global assessment and inspection teams that could go in for a week or two in to countries not performing well or with some problems or some with new launches and have intensive brain storming sessions, training and assess the competitors etc... this would help the company do what a lone expatriate manager would take three to four years in much lesser time of around a year or so with much lesser cost. The objective of transfer of knowledge could be achieved at a heightened pace and with greater efficiency. This way the company could keep up with its international career development and loose no pride in its expatriate program.