Case Studies

These case studies primarily concern services provided by The Global Effectiveness Group:

• Case 1: US company expands to Europe
• Case 2: International company has communication challenges across cultures and regions
• Case 3: Company needs to better develop, utilize, and retain international leaders
  

Case 1: US company expands to Europe.

The Situation:

Company A had been very successful in the domestic US market. It had managed its growth through up-to-date, research-based Human Resource processes, which worked well to select outstanding candidates, help them work effectively and continually develop their competencies. When the Company then launched sites in Europe, it ran into difficulties. Its competency model and performance management processes, well-tested within the US, caused some resistance among the local staff-the "not-invented-here" mentality was reinforced by a sensitivity against anything that sounded like "American imperialism".

Our Approach:

Working at different levels of the corporation, we:

• coached the senior management team to help them understand their role as "people managers" and drivers of corporate culture
• facilitated workshops for the middle management team to help them take responsibility for the company climate, and tackle performance and team development issues. Part of this was defining the local company culture within the context of the corporate mission and values.
• conducted focus groups with staff representatives (all levels and functions) to help them make sense of the corporation-wide competency model by defining their own behavioral descriptors within the widely-respected overall competencies.
• coached expatriates who were sent into the new business sites on cross-cultural issues to help them understand their role as representatives of the company culture, and prevent them from acting as "bulls in a China shop" when driving the well-established corporate blue prints.
  

The Results:

• Better integration between headquarters and the local site; improved information flow.
• More self-sufficiency for middle managers: even though they still considered themselves part of the global corporation, they rediscovered their power to influence the performance climate at their local site.
• Improved climate and team spirit among the staff—an increased "can-do" attitude, versus lethargy or resistance. The local staff could now effectively participate in the corporate talent-management program and make global careers.
  

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Case 2: International company has communication challenges across cultures and regions

The Situation:

Company B supported its world-wide expatriate community through an international HR team with team members in three different regions. The team experienced challenges due to the complexity of the corporate culture, national cultures, distance, and organizational structure.

Our Approach:

We:

• conducted a team survey to understand the specific root causes of the problems
• designed and implemented a team development workshop that combined cross-cultural education with a problem-solving and action-planning session for the team.
  
  

The Results:

• Team members reported that they learned how to work more effectively with team members with diverse cultural backgrounds.
• The team got re-motivated to look at their team problems in a solution-oriented way,
• They now use their own progress to role-model effective cross-cultural behavior for other teams.
  

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Case 3: Company needs to better develop, utilize, and retain international leaders

The Situation:

US-based Company C had a goal of expanding operations into two new countries per year. New country managers were selected based on their technical skills in the US. These mid-level managers and their families were sent on multi-year assignments without cultural training or coaching, for which the company believed it had no time or money. Without this support, the vast scope of operations and dealing with unfamiliar work cultures became frustrating for the managers. When their assignments ended, the company had to scramble to find jobs for them back in headquarters. Most of the new roles did not take advantage of the knowledge or skills that the country managers developed on assignment.

Over 80% of the expats felt their assignments hurt their career prospects in Company C, while 95% believed their assignments made them more attractive to other companies. Over 40% of the expats resigned either during their assignment or shortly after returning home. With nearly 100 expats of various levels on assignment at any given time, and an average investment of nearly $1 million in each assignment, Company C had a substantial amount of money at risk in addition to losing international leadersits .

Our Approach:

We:

• designed an international assignment process that integrated with the company's existing talent management and talent matching programs
• designed a leadership support process and materials for all phases of the assignment: selection, preparation, on assignment, and repatriation
• expanded the company's coaching program to include coaches for leaders on international assignments
• helped the company build knowledge-sharing processes to enable the company to benefit from their assignees' experience through mentoring and advising other new-country teams.
  
  

The Results:

• Improved international leaders' morale and loyalty, reducing attrition on and after international assignments
  
• Reduced "firedrill" in returning expatriates to meaningful careers upon repatriation, enabling HR staff to better plan and work on value-added activities
• Strengthened strategic partnership between HR and the business
• Improved the company's ability to use "lessons learned" in entering a new country, reducing costly strategic mistakes
  
  

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