Career Development through International Mobility: Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy - Case Study Example

Career Development through International Mobility Table of Contents Introduction 3 Strengths of the Case Study of LVMH 5 Weaknesses of the Case Study of LVMH 7 Application of the Relevant Theoretical Concepts 8 Conclusion and Recommendations 11 References 13 Introduction The conception of international mobility is considered as one of the critical elements of career development for many organisations. A large majority of the organisations firmly believe that the various advantages of international mobility lie in the facts that it raise and enhance the progression and development of the career within the organisations along with generating high potential workforce within the organisation (CIPD, 2005). International mobility possesses noteworthy effect upon the global economy as well as the society of various countries along with the career progression and advancement of the organisations prevailing in the countries. Thus, it can be stated that the contribution of international mobility in various nations is immense that eventually leads towards the overall development of the nations (Solimano, 2006). In the paper, an evaluation of various weaknesses and strengths relating with the case study of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) international mobility as a career development is taken into concern. Various aspects that include the identification and the explanation of the diverse weaknesses and the strengths in the career development strategy possessed by LVMH and the application of appropriate theoretical conceptions that are executed to defend the evaluation are also taken into deliberation in the discussion of the paper. “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) possesses an outstanding and a unique collection of over 60 impressive brands and is recognised as a world leader particularly in luxury commodities (LVMH, 2012). The mission statement of LVMH lies upon certain important aspects such as creativeness, uniqueness, innovation and their endeavour for product excellence (LVMH, 2012). Moreover, the business group of LVMH believes that their advancement should integrate the search for a superior standard of life for their customers, employees and shareholders (LVMH, 2012). In addition, the various brands of LVMH include leather and fashionable commodities, cosmetics & perfumes, wines and watches among others (LVMH, 2012). Strengths of the Case Study of LVMH The major strength of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) lay in the fact that the company possesses a collection of 50 impressive and prominent luxury brands. Moreover, the company is based upon a young group dealing with several enduring brands and accomplishments that ultimately generated a massive strength for the company. In addition, the company also recognised to be constantly growing and evolving along with attaining new businesses which eventually generated the strength of LVMH (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). The other noteworthy strength of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) is the group structure. The company is structured with various business groups and each business group is based upon the collection of numerous strong brands. Furthermore, the company realised that their management systems and methods must be based on multi-cultural facets which eventually raised the strength of LVMH (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). The conception of international recruitment of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) is recognised as one of the strengths of the company. By considering the fact that LVMH is a very striking company especially for French perspective, the company emphasises upon the international labour markets (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). Moreover, the company also intends to greatly focus upon the international recruitment along with progressing and advancing the global skills of the employees’. However, in order to support the growth of the international business, it has been observed that the number of employees of LVMH is increasing due to the international recruitment (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). The other crucial strength of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) is the international transfer policy. It has been identified that the international transfer policy in terms of international mobility is very much recent for LVMH. The establishment of this corporate policy of international transfer policy was laid at the time of the formation of the group of LVMH. Recently, LVMH possesses the important aspect of international transfer policy in which all the major aspects of international mobility relating with price and other related matters have been covered (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). However, this corporate policy of international transfer policy helps and supports LVMH by delivering various information and valuable advice to the company regarding governing the international transfers i.e. the labour laws of the company. Moreover, the international transfer policy also helps LVMH to determine the expatriate packages, supervise international mobility data, conduct and spread internal mobility policy, and thus these facets help LVMH to address definite issues regarding international transfer policies (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). Therefore, in brief, these are the various strengths of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) that have been identified in the case study. Weaknesses of the Case Study of LVMH One of the major weaknesses of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) lies in the conception of the expatriate package. It has been observed that the group of LVMH is striving for cost efficiency. In this context, the group believed that there lays a greater requirement for a good compensation package in order to achieve cost effectiveness (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). The primary balance sheet approach of LVMH for the compensation package is based upon the principle that the expatriates will not gain or loss anything from their initial move. However, this particular approach regarding the compensation package was adopted by LVMH and the group realised that the various estimates regarding the compensation package of the expatriates will be lesser than the cost that the group expected (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). The other major weakness of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH) has been the fact that LVMH continuously felt the pressure to prepare its expatriates for its international assignments for the purpose of facilitating and accelerating the cross-cultural regulations. The chief reason for the pressure is due to the lack of intercultural training that has been provided to the expatriates (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). The aspect of repatriation is the other important weakness point of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH). From the viewpoint of the repatriation aspect, LVMH always warned its business groups not to generate any permanent expatriates because these expatriates intend to lose contact with their home country which ultimately makes their repatriation difficult. LVMH always worried regarding the aspect of repatriation while conducting their business operations and thus the aspect of repatriation has eventually transformed into a major weakness for the group (Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). Application of the Relevant Theoretical Concepts According to Washingtin, progressing and advancing various multicultural facets into the management system or in any management group structure would deliver more valuable support as well as career development opportunities. Moreover, Washingtin also noted that the multicultural facets of a group structure of an organisation values the various contributions to all the members and actively presents deliberate efforts in progressing a multicultural organisation (Washingtin, n.d.). Thus, the application of Washingtin’s relevant theoretical concept of developing multicultural facets in an organisation can be used in order to defend the evaluation relating with the case study of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH). According to Lowell (2001), international recruitment is one of the important aspects of international mobility. The conception of international recruitment contributes significantly towards the career development practices of any organisation or any business firm. It progresses and advances the global skills of the employees’ that prevail within an organisation to a certain extent. It has been observed by OECD (2002) that the global skills of the employees’ of an organisation rise through international recruitment which has a remarkable affect upon the productivity of an organisation. Moreover, the skilled workers on the basis of international recruitment allow the organisations to lower their production costs and thus facilitates in them being more competitive. Thus, the application of Lowell’s and OECD’s relevant theoretical concepts of international recruitment can be used in order to defend the evaluation relating with the case study of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH). According to Abdallah (2004), international transfer policy is regarded as a process to quantify the available services or commodities that are required to transfer them from one foreign country to the other. The remarkable development of the organisations exploring more and more business opportunities especially in the foreign countries necessitated the idea of international transfer policy. Ladi (2005) noted that the various characteristics of the international transfer policy include the input process, corporate goals and output process which eventually raise the strengths of any corporate business organisations. Thus, the application of Abdallah’s and Ladi’s relevant theoretical concept of international transfer policy can be used in order to defend the evaluation relating with the case study of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH). According to Sims & Schraeder (2005), the deployment of expatriate workforce that are utilised by the organisations depicts a considerable investment. It has been observed that costs related with expatriate failures can reach to a significant level. Recent estimations suggest that the failure of an expatriate package can cost severely to an organisation that ultimately might generate major weakness within the organisation. However, it has been observed by Blonigen (1998), international business is developing rapidly and the essence of international mobility has been increasing day-by-day. There are many organisations seeking for advancing the compensation as well as expatriate packages due to their development in the international business. However, there are certain organisations where there have been found certain weaknesses especially in their expatriate packages to a certain extent. According to Tinder, the conception of repatriation has been widely executed by the organisations in order to maintain their simple and cost effective programs along with regularly sending their employees on global assignments. However, it has also been noted by Erkan (2011) that many organisations do not want to generate permanent expatriates because these expatriates intend to lose contact with its original country that ultimately makes their repatriation difficult. Therefore, collectively the above mentioned applications of the relevant theoretical concepts defend the evaluation relating with the case study of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH). Conclusion and Recommendations After acquiring considerable insights along with identification as well as explanation of the various strengths and weaknesses of the case study of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH), it can be stated that there lies immense scope of career development through the conception of international mobility. In this connection, after emphasising upon the various weaknesses of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH), it can be stated that the organisation can develop its business structures and operations through the execution of international mobility. In terms of the conception of international mobility, LVMH in order to develop their business structures and operations, has to be very much concerned and focused towards the expatriate packages for cost effectiveness. Moreover, LVMH should deliver more appropriate intercultural training in order to minimise the pressure to prepare its expatriates for its international assignments for the purpose of facilitating and accelerating the cross-cultural regulations. In addition, LVMH should make deliberate efforts regarding the aspect of repatriation while operating business functions in order to make more advancement in the financial market through international mobility. Thus, it can be stated that the above discussed suitable recommendations can provide better advancement of LVMH through the conception of international mobility. In this particular study, various theoretical concepts have also been presented in order to defend the evaluation relating with the case study of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH). Thus, it can be stated that the essence of career development through international mobility can be analytically portrayed by considering various aspects and theories while evaluating the case of “Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy” (LVMH). References Abdallah, W. M., 2004. Critical Concerns in Transfer Pricing and Practice. Greenwood Publishing Group. Blonigen, M., 1998. Managing Global Operations: Focus on Expatriates. The Challenge of Managing a Global Workforce. [Online] Available at: http://www.decisionsciences.org/decisionline/vol29/29_4/pom_29_4.pdf [Accessed March 12, 2012]. CIPD, 2005. International Management Development. 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[Online] Available at: http://www.lvmh.com/the-group/lvmh-group/group-mission-and-values [Accessed March 12, 2012]. LVMH, 2012. The Group. Commitment. [Online] Available at: http://www.lvmh.com/the-group/lvmh-and-the-environment/commitment/lvmh-environment-charter-a-shared-benchmark [Accessed March 12, 2012]. LVMH, 2012. The Group. LVMH Companies and Brands. [Online] Available at: http://www.lvmh.com/the-group/lvmh-companies-and-brands [Accessed March 12, 2012]. OECD, 2002. International Mobility of the Highly Skilled. OECD Publishing. Sims, R. H. & Schraeder, M., 2005. Expatriate Compensation: An Exploratory Review of Salient Contextual Factors and Common Practices. Career Development International, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 98-108. Solimano, A., 2006. The International Mobility of Talent and Its Impact on Global Development. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://www.wider.unu.edu/stc/repec/pdfs/rp2006/dp2006-08.pdf [Accessed March 12, 2012]. Tinder, G, No Date. Repatriation-How Companies Can Protect Their ROI. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://www.livingabroad.com/shared_files/spouse_school/REPATRIATION.pdf [Accessed March 12, 2012]. Washingtin, No Date. Developing Multicultural Organisations. Stage 4: Affirmative Action Organization. [Online] Available at: http://www.colorado.edu/studentaffairs/initiatives/sadiversity/resources/Stages%20in%20the%20Development%20of%20a%20Multicultural%20Organization.pdf [Accessed March 12, 2012]. Read More