...Frank M. Horwitz* University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Competitive pressures have increased the strategic value of a skilled, motivated and adaptable workforce, and the HRM strategies to support and develop it. A strategic perspective of HRM requires the firm to identify and adopt human capital initiatives likely to enhance competitiveness and shareholder value. A key question considered here is the extent to which multinational firms adapt internally consistent human resource strategies across national boundaries to address these issues. Case-study data on how eight multinational firms in Singapore apply strategic approaches to human resource management are presented. Findings show that while some adaptation considering local context occurs, the diffusion of headquarters and centrally initiated, but competitively differentiated strategies across cultural boundaries, is significant. Effective human resource strategies were understood as ‘configurational’, integrated both vertically and horizontally. Keywords: convergent/divergent practices, human resource strategy, multinational firms There is a paucity of empirical, especially case-study research on human resource management (HRM) strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) in South East Asia in general and Singapore in particular. The economic * The authors acknowledge the research assistance from Chang York Hiang, Andrew Fung, Lo Tat Keong, Lee Chee Meng, Liaw Hin...
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...Explain the responsibilities of an organization and strategies employed to meet them6 2. Understand the nature of the national environment in which business operate 6 2.1 Explain how economic systems attempt to allocate resources effectively 6 2.2 Assess the impact of fiscal policy and monetary policy on business organization and their activities 7 2.3 Evaluate the impact of competition policy and other regulatory mechanisms on the activities of selected organization 8 3.1 Explain how market structures determine the pricing and output decision of business 9 3.2 Illustrate the way in which market forces shape organizational responses using a range of examples 9 3.3 Judge how the business and cultural environments shape the behavior of a selected organization 10 4.1 Discuss the significance of international trade to UK business organization 11 4.2 Analyze the impact of global factors on UK business organization 11 4.3 Evaluate the impact of policies of the European Union on UK business Organizations 12 References 13 Introduction: The business enterprises are created with the time dimensions for the production and distribution (services) of commodities/ products....
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...1.Introduction BenQ, a Taiwanese-based company, grabbed the international headlines on June 7, 2005, when it acquired the money-losing mobile phone division of Germany’s Siemens and launched the brand, BenQ-Siemens. Subsequently the acquisition proved to be a strategic mistake, as the two companies could not successfully integrate. This article tracks BenQ’s acquisition of Siemens, from the perspective of BenQ, through a qualitative case study. The analysis focuses mainly on culture and communication issues in what became an unsuccessful acquisition. The results indicate that the German Siemens and Taiwanese BenQ are different in important ways, from national culture to organizational culture. BenQ’s failed acquisition of the Siemens handset was a wakeup call, providing a valuable lesson to other companies planning to create their own global brand recognition. The issue here is the extent to which the two companies’ incompatible cultures made it unlikely that they could add value and create synergy. This study concludes that an international merger and acquisition has a better chance of success when managers consider the host country’s culture and allocate enough time and resources for assimilation. Furthermore, managers need to communicate and clearly define objectives and performance expectations during the integration and implementation process. Taiwan has spawned many top-tier electronic component...
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...performance of business activities that direct the flow of a company’s goods and services to consumers or users in more than one nation for a profit” much similar to domestic marketing. However Kahler (1983) argues and identifies that “International marketing differs from domestic marketing for one basic reason: it involves doing business with individuals, firms, organizations, and/or government entities in other countries”. The author further argues that the difference between international marketing and domestic marketing is environmental in nature. Organisations have to accept and deal with it as the way differences exist. Global customers do have the same basic needs for food and shelter but, existence of habitual differences, differences in cultural lifestyle, climatic changes and physical environmental changes also make a huge difference in...
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...and demanded a bigger participation in world governance. The tsunami that struck Fukushima in Japan in March 2011 creating a nuclear accident has convinced many nations to reconsider their energy policy. Despite all of this, globalization, even though criticized, is still active. Firms are moving to the new emerging economies in order to capture the consumption appetite of the growing middle classes. It is still relevant and important to put together all aspects of global strategic management. This third edition is still about global firms and global management. Its objective remains to help undergraduate and graduate students, as well as company executives, to understand the main issues that companies and their managers confront when they ‘go global’ or ‘manage globally’, and to cope with these issues. Data have been updated and several new cases and examples added. At the end of each chapter there are now one or two new ‘Mini-Cases’ that students may discuss in class. The book...
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...Core HR: Why and how SUCCESSFACTORS / WHITE PAPER CORE HR: WHY AND HOW Core HR: Why and how Creating a global process platform Imagine today’s global talent landscape. In New York City, a marketing director shares a highly qualified candidate for a hard-to-fill management position with her counterpart in Singapore. An engineer designing a pipeline in an office in Sao Paolo finds the answer to a question about fluid dynamics from a colleague in the field in western Canada. And in Paris, three well-qualified internal candidates from three different continents arrive at company headquarters for interviews to be the next vice president of procurement. Many organizations today need to manage talent globally. Is yours one of them? The cultural, geographic, linguistic, and structural silos that divide global enterprises are smaller obstacles than ever if you have the right technology. Cloud technology — especially talent management systems integrated with core HR systems — can bridge differences and break down boundaries in your organization. However, you must create global processes that account for regional dissimilarities and accomplish three goals: • Compliance: Protect your company and your people globally and locally. • Consistency: Cut costs as you improve efficiency and mobility. • Capability: Improve the performance of your workforce. Consistent global processes can transform your enterprise. As you create your global HR and talent strategy, you can learn from experience...
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...For example in china, there is cheap labour hence why many clothing company have their products made in china and imported back to their countries. • Companies can also gain access on critical resources • Companies also benefit from lowering the risks of operating in one country. For an example if there is a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tsunami, your business can disappear just like that, but when you have another business outside your home country that can still generate money. Here is a broader supply base. • A company might have lots of competitors in their home country buy find that in another it is dominating. This can bring up sales and allows your company to flourish. Fewer competitors makes it easier to trade. • Customers can also enjoy a variety of products, employment will be increased .International trade creates more jobs because now newer industries are formed. Two countries will build a relationship. When countries have economic dependency amongst each other, they often have a close cultural relationship and can avoid wars between...
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...Siemens Corporate Strategies: A Siemens AG Case Study Jeff Head Loyola University Chicago Foundations of Organization CPST 250 Dr. Marilyn Stocker February 13, 2015 Siemens AG, An Organizational Analysis “Siemens is a global technologies company comprised of 343,000 employees worldwide” (Karczewski, 2014). For the purpose of this paper an analysis of the company will be presented, to include a look at the company mission, human resources, markets, products offered, recent financial performance, and how engineering plays a major role in Siemens AG. Description of the Organization In 2013, Peter Loscher was replaced as CEO of Siemens AG by the current CEO Joe Kaeser. The following year Kaeser presented “Vision 2020”, a comprehensive plan to get the company back on track. This vision provided focus on the company’s path, positioning, culture and strategy. The strategic framework to support the vision centered on the company with four contributing elements: Customer and Business Focus, Governance, Management Model and Ownership Culture. Siemens History and Operations “Siemens was first founded in 1887 and started to expand with mass production and established a branch in Saint Petersburg and London for Russian lines and English lines” (Choudhary, 2013). It increased its production and started producing electrical power, lighting, and other advances after the Industrial Revolution, which enabled it to gain strength. After the end of World War II, it faced expropriation of over...
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... Advantages of Developing Asian Leaders Asian Trend: Sourcing Locally A Hudson Recruitment survey of 500 multinational companies indicates that 87% of companies do not plan to bring in new expatriate employees in the near future. This strategy is expected to avoid the increasing salary costs and lack of local market knowledge common 2 among expatriate new hires. Trend: Developing talent locally—According to a Deloitte Touche Tomatsu study (n=680), local employees will significantly outweigh expatriate talent in senior management positions in China in the coming years. Leaders at multinational firms expect expatriates to only hold 26% of senior positions that they currently hold. Therefore, to compete with other companies in the future, companies should invest now 1 in developing their local leaders. 2 Expatriates are expensive—The primary driver behind localization of the senior leadership in China is cost savings. Costs of expatriates include housing assistance, relocation costs, hardship payments, compensation, traditional benefits (e.g., healthcare, retirement savings), and non-traditional benefits (e.g., providing for children’s education, commuter assistance). Local Chinese salaries are significantly less than foreign expatriates’ salaries, and companies generally do not offer local Chinese as many 3,4 benefits. Local...
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...solutions are not; what works for an innovation project conducted in a single location doesn’t necessarily work for one dispersed across many sites around the world. That’s partly because many important enablers of innovation happen naturally in colocation. Single location projects draw on large reservoirs of shared tacit knowledge and trust, and when issues arise, senior management is on hand to make decisions and provide direction and support. Team members october 2012 harvard business review 85 10 Rules foR Managing global innovation share the same language, culture, and norms, enabling flexibility and iterative learning as the project unfolds. When a project spans multiple locations, many of those natural benefits—often taken for granted—are lost. Part of the challenge of dispersed innovation thus becomes how to replicate the positive aspects of colocation while harnessing the unique benefits of a global initiative. To explore this challenge, we spent more than a decade doing field research at 47 companies around the world, including Citibank, HP, Hitachi, Infosys, Intel, LG Electronics, Novartis, Philips, Samsung, Siemens, Vodafone, and Xerox. In 2004 we teamed up with Booz &...
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...must be to manage the large differences that Managing Differences arise at borders, whether those borders are defined geographically or otherwise. (Strategies of standardization and those of local responsiveness are both conceivably valid responses to that challenge – both, in other words, are global strategies.) Moreover, assuming that the principal tension in global strategy is between scale economies and local responsiveness encourages companies to ignore another functional response to the challenge of cross-border integration: arbitrage. Some companies are finding large opportunities for value creation in exploiting, rather than simply adjusting to or overcoming, the differences they encounter at the borders of their various markets. As a result, we increasingly see value chains spanning multiple countries. IBM’s CEO, Sam Palmisano, noted in a recent Foreign Affairs article that an estimated 60,000 manufacturing plants were built by foreign firms in China alone between 2000 and 2003. And trade in IT-enabled services – with India accounting for more than...
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...Trust unites us Annual Report 2012 siemens.com/answers Company Report 2012 What sets our integrated technology company apart Introduction – page 1 Proximity How Bangalore’s new airport is driving progress across an entire region Global presence – page 8 Ideas How our Biograph mMR scanner is enhancing patient care Technology and innovation – page 20 Strength How efficient technologies are shaping the future of energy Portfolio management – page 34 Networking How intelligent IT solutions are creating unimagined value Cross-business activities – page 54 Diversity How our employees’ wealth of experience is inspiring us Employees and management culture – page 66 How our strategy is pointing the way to the future One Siemens – page 78 COVER PHOTO – James D. Palasek and Amber Sherman, two of the 370,000 Siemens employees working together in our global network of trust. To learn more, please see: SPECIAL REPORT: DIVERSIT Y, PAGES 66-75 When a new international airport is being planned, when a doctor recommends a treatment to a patient, when political leaders and society want to ensure reliable energy supplies for the future, when a company wants to offer tailor-made service solutions, when the development of innovative products demands the creativity, experience and dedication of a wide range of experts, that’s when tough decisions have to be made – far-reaching decisions based on a strong sense of responsibility. The success...
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...Systemic Development Talent Acquisition Organizational Climate Survey Effort Reviews Capability Building Employee Life Cycle Management Pharmaceuticals 360 Degree Feedback Human Development Third Party Audit H R Processes Global H R Mission Performance Management Processes Upward Feedback Clasroom Learning On-the-Job Development Superordination Leadership Pipeline * The contribution of these authors have appeared in Part I of the Colloquium in the July-September, 2011 issue of Vikalpa. The names of authors appear in alphabetical order. Neharika Vohra and Deepti Bhatnagar T he Colloquium on Leadership Development was planned to put together the experiences of various companies and practitioners in companies located in India. In trying to be inclusive and extensive, the final Colloquium turned out to be a diverse and rich collection of 17 different perspectives. Limitations of the journal (in terms of page length and inclusion of other features) did not allow us to carry all the perspectives in one issue. Thus, in the previous volume, we...
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...and its first profitable year since 1995 (Streetwalker 2001, 1). AMD owns engineering, manufacturing, warehousing and administrative facilities where it produces not only PC chips but also microprocessors, memory circuits, logic circuits, flash memory devices, telecommunication products and embedded processors (Moody’s 2000, 2520). The company’s headquarters and research and development site are located in Sunnyvale, CA, while the wafer manufacturing plants are located in Austin, TX and Dresden, Germany. The test and assembly facilities are located in Bangkok, Thailand and Penang, Malaysia. The company has also established production at the Singapore’s test and assembly facility as well as an analysis and design plant in Suzhou, China. In addition, a new plant in Japan, a joint venture of AMD and Fujitsu, called AMD Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd. or FASB, will begin operations in the first half of 2001 (Dum 2000, 2). AMD, like many technological multinational enterprises (MNE), prefers to locate its factories and assembly plants in technology clusters in stable and democratic countries. However, AMD knows that East Asia is one of the best places for setting up factories because of cheap wages, stable countries, proximity to suppliers and potentially large markets. In fact, six out of AMD’s nine facilities are located in East Asia and employ approximately 5,600 people. The company’s consolidated global position produces a very interesting case. This paper will...
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...“To do business in China, you have to do local, that is, local innovation with a global perspective.” (James Xia, 2006) 1 Introduction I recently visited Shanghai to attend the Cass Business School China Symposium. There were a number of very interesting presentations by excellent leaders and experts from across the industry spectrum. For me, the most compelling of these was the ‘Branding in China’ presentation given by Ruth Ang, and this paper focuses on that topic. The main area that I will be analysing is how Chinese and foreign companies are building brands in China, and what the future holds in terms of branding in China. Here I will look at the activities that firms are pursuing in order to build a lasting competitive advantage, not only in the tier one cities like Shanghai and Beijing, but also in the tier two and three cities where hundreds of millions of consumers live, work and purchase. I will also briefly examine the impact of fake brands in the Chinese market. I then briefly analyse exactly how Chinese companies are positioning their brands outside China, and conclude by looking at what branding and marketing core competencies are required in order to build a lasting competitive advantage both inside and outside China, and how Chinese firms can position themselves to succeed strategically in these fluid markets. 2 Branding in China “If it can be Chinese, it should be Chinese.” (Professor Chris Brady, 2006) One only has to look at some of the big established...
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