The Top Salesman in West Coast District - Assignment Example

Q.1 Identify the cross cultural differences that may be apparent in this situation. The cross cultural differences that is apparent in the case is the differences between the business cultural practice in Los Angeles, California and Buenos Aires – the capital city of Argentina. Even though Ray Cisneros is fluent in speaking the Spanish language, this was not enough to enable him as an excellent salesman to develop a strong business relationship with the Argentinean executives and the vice president of the foreign company. In general, Hofstede (1996) explained that majority of the business people in Argentina are very reluctant with accepting organizational change aside from strongly avoiding taking any risk of uncertainty. With regards to the high uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) values for 74 countries, Argentina scores 86 ranking between 17 to 22 (p. 166). Since business people in Argentina fear having to face uncertainty in business dealings, they tend to come up with exuses trying to avoid or cancel business transactions that makes them feel uneasy. Uncertainty avoidance index is “not only related to anxiety but also the need for a strong security and dependences upon the experts” (Hofstede, 1984, p.110). As explained by Hofstede (1996), uncertainty avoidance is totally different from risk avoidance. Risk avoidance based on the term used means that business people are intentionally avoiding having to face risk of losing either profitability in business or losing the trust of its valued customers. For instance: Given that the Argentinean Executives that their final judgement with regards to Ray’s marketing presentation is ineffective, the business team would simply reject the proposed marketing strategy because of the fear of facing the risk of going through the consequences of implementing it. Unlike risk avoidance, “uncertainty avoidance leads to reduction of ambiguity” (p. 172). As explained by Hofstede (1984), uncertainty avoidance rituals within the business organization can be considered as good ritual since uncertainty avoidance can prevent social cohesion aside from relieving stress (p. 116). It simply means that the prevention of uncertainty could strengthen the possibility that Ray would end up being successful in his marketing presentation with the Argentinean executives. Social rituals within the organization such as handshaking during the first meeting or setting an appointment prior to a business meeting is known to have “their own liturgy, sacred language, and taboos”. (Hofstede, 1984, p. 116) The problem with Ray Cisneros was the fact that he did not exert any effort in trying to get to know the Argentinean executives better during the two days rest time the company has given him. By not taking time to learn more about the cultural background and business practices of the Argentineans’, Ray failed to develop trust with the group of people he was trying to make the marketing presentation with. One way to prevent uncertainty among the Argentinean executives is for Ray to learn more about how Argentinean business people perceive business appearance, behavior, the proper way of communicating and doing business in Argentina. For instance: Argentinean executives consider it polite to ‘handshake’ during the first meeting aside from addressing people as: (1) Mr. / Senor; (2) Mrs. / Senora; or (3) Miss / Senorita. (Nicol, 2009) Likewise, it is equally important for business dress code should also be observed. Since the Argentinean executives do not personally know the background and qualifications of Ray back in Los Angeles, the vice president of the company had decided to keep on delaying the meeting with him. The fact that Ray became increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of business negotiation since the time he has arrived at Buenos Aires is a clear sign that he is not aware about the business culture and practices in Argentina. As one of the common business practice in Argentina, it is but polite for anyone to arrange a business meeting or appointment with the local business people and executives before one can personally meet the top management officials (Nicol, 2009). Q.2 What risk does culture present to this situation, what can go wrong and why? Because of the cultural differences between Ray and the Argentinean executives, there is a higher probability that Ray will not be able to achieve success in his marketing presentation unless he tries to examine the impact of cultural differences with the way the Argentinean executives have been trying to accommodate him including his marketing proposals. Basically, the inability of Ray to establish a strong business relationship with the Argentinean executives made him unable to arouse the interest and curiosity of his target audiences (the Argentinean executives). The fact that the vice president announced the re-schedule of the meeting is already a sign that they are not so keen on knowing what Ray is about to tell them. Even though each individual has their own personality that can significantly affect their individual behavior, the social system has been established in order to enable men to behave within the collective culture that has been set within a business organization (Sakwa & Stevens, 2000, p. 254; Hofstede, 1984, p. 14 – 16). When we talk about organizational culture, we are actually referring to the patterned ways on how employees think, feel, or will react collectively to a given business situation. (Trompenaars & Turner, 2000; Hofstede, 1984, p. 21) In other words, culture within a business organization is a ‘collective programming of employees’ mind’ (Lewis, 1999, p. 25). For this reason, values and culture that is set within the business organization guides the employees to behave in certain ways when dealing with business issues that they find uncertain. (Hofstede, 1984, p. 18) In line with this contect, it is possible for Ray to at least be able to determine the expected collective values among the Argentinean executives even though he does not personally know these people. Basically, the three theories behind the assumption of rational behavior includes: (1) theories of decision-making under uncertainty; (2) contingency theories; and (3) theories of strategic behavior. (Hofstede, 1984, p. 112) Among these three rational behavior theories, the contingency theory which view “uncertainty as an input which must affect the structure and functioning of the organization” applies in the case of Ray. Because of the high level of uncertainty among the Argentinean executives, the executive team within the organization functions as collective rather than individualistic. In other words, the final decision of either the president or the vice president is enough to dictate the success or failure of Ray’s marketing presentation in Buenos Aires since the business organization in Argentina follows a top-down hierarchial structure. Q.3 If you were Ray's manager, how would you suggest improving this situation and what would you do differently? People in each society have been trained to adopt certain way of thinking and values based on their cultural background. (Lewis, 1999, p. 9) Eventually, the cultural values that were used in conducting business transaction form the business ethics (Jacobsen, 2003; Lewis, 1999, p. 11). When analyzing cross-cultural studies, there is a strong need for Ray to use multidisciplinary approach (Hofstede, 1984, p. 26). Basically, the study of culture can either be within the national or international context (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009; Lewis, 1999, p. 11). When studying culture within the national level, it is necessary to consider ‘individual, group, organization, and society as whole’ whereas there is a need to compare the national culture of a country with another when studying cross-culture. In case I have been appointed to become Ray’s manager, I would strongly suggest that he take a little time trying to make a quick research with regards to how businesses in Argentina are being done successfully. Among the common sources of cultural information that Ray can utilize includes: (1) watching TV or listening to radio; (2) carefully examining family and friends who are Argentineans; (3) reading a wide-range of reading materials including reports, newspapers, books; and (4) going out with work colleagues. (Lewis, 1999, p. 50) We already know that Argentinean business people and executives are among the few groups of people with high uncertainty avoidance score. Therefore, Ray should be advice to develop strategic moves on how he can effectively lower down the level of uncertainty between himself and the Argentinean executives. For instance: Given that it is normal for Argentinean business people to have a business meeting starting 8 p.m. onwards (Nicol, 2009), I would tell Ray to try setting a dinner business appointment with either the vice president of the company or anyone of the Argentinean executives to enable him to learn more about their personality and outlook with regards to how they do business. While having dinner, Ray will have the opportunity to learn more about the personal opinion of the Argentinean executives with the local consumers’ preferences on the type of materials used in manufacturing vinyl floor coverings. By knowing exactly the product preferences of the Argentinean consumers, Ray will be able to have enough time to make some necessary changes in his marketing presentation. Likewise, he will have a better idea with regards to the market distribution and market channel that the company is using to deliver the vinyl floor coverings to its target consumers. It is given that the customer preferences in the United States may not be the same as the customer preferences in Buenos Aires. For this reason, having a better idea with regards to the local consumers’ preferences would increase Ray’s chances of being able to deliver a better marketing presentation based on the company’s target consumers. Likewise, knowing the basic marketing information regarding the Argentinean market will have something to do with Ray’s success and ability to convince and persuade the Argentinean executives to consider implementing Ray’s marketing plan. Q.4 If a representative from your culture was in Ray's position, which intercultural points are likely to cause difficulties? Among the common intercultural points that may hinder the progress of intercultural business transaction includes: (1) the use of language in intercultural communication (Lewis, 1999, pp. 94 – 98); (2) values and cultural differences (Hofstede, 1984, 13 – 38); (3) uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 1984, pp. 110 – 147); (4) organizational authority or power (Hofstede, 1984, p. 72); and (5) emotional adaptation (Marx, 2001, p. 22). Among these common intercultural points, Ray’s lack of knowledge with regards to the values and organizational culture of Argentinean executives and the lack of organizational power or authority hinders Ray’s ability to successfully present his marketing plan to the group of Argentinean executives. Basically, organizational values and cultural differences has a lot to do with the success or failure of a businessman to successfully close a deal with a foreign company (Schneider & Barsoux, 2002, Ch. 5). In the case of Ray, his lack of concrete information with regards to the values and business culture of the Argentinean executives made him unable to do his marketing presentation within the shortest time possible. Developing a strong business relationship with the Argentinean executives is very important since it could narrow down the chances that this group of business executivs would develop uncertainty with regards to Ray’s marketing proposal plan. As a common knowledge, building trust between Ray and the Argentinean executives would increase Ray’s chances that his target audiences would become curious regarding his capability to effectively present the marketing plan. The ability of a salesman to use a language can either enable him to make or break a business project. Becoming familiar with the Argentinean culture is not enough to close a business deal with them. Since the official language of Argentineans is Spanish (Nicol, 2009), communication gap due to language barriers is likely to occur in case a representative from my culture was in Ray's position. Even though some Argentineans are able to speak English, Italian, and other languages, the ability of the salesperson to speak their official language would be an advantage in terms of being able to come up with a win-win negotiation with them. As a result of not winning the audiences’ trust, the group of Argentinean executives are likely to develop an increase in uncertainty avoidance. Between Ray Cisneros and the group of Argentinean executives, it is the Argentinean executives who have more power in judging whether or not the marketing presentation of Ray would become successful or not. For this reason, Ray should consider it a challenge to win the trust of the Argentinean executives by developing a two-way communication with them. Eventually, it would be easier for him to determine exactly what his target audiences are expecting from his report. Since Ray is not so familiar with how things work in Argentina, he could be experiencing culture shock. Therefore, he needs to face the challenge of being able to emotionally adapt with the new business environment (Marx, 2001, p. 21). *** End *** References Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture’s consequences - International differences in work related values. Sage Publications, Inc. Hofstede, G. (1996). Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind: Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival . McGraw-Hill. Jacobsen, L. F. (2003, April 30 - May 2). Global Entrepreneurship 604: Managing Across Cultures. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from A paper submitted for The Fourteenth International Conference - The Academy of Entrepreneurial Finance. DePaul University. Chicago, Illinois: http://www.aoef.org/papers/2003/jacobsen.pdf Lewis, R. D. (1999). When cultures collide - Managing successfully across cultures. Nicholas Brealey Publishing . Marx, E. (2001). Breaking through culture shock - What you need to succeed in international business. Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Nicol, J. (2009). Retrieved April 26, 2009, from Argentina: http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/argentina.htm Sakwa, R., & Stevens, A. (2000). Contemporary Europe. Palgrave Macmillan . Schneider, S. C., & Barsoux, J.-L. (2002). Managing Across Cultures. FT Prentice Hall . Trompenaars, F., & Turner, C. H. (2000). Business Summaries. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from Book Summary Preview : Riding the Waves of Culture. "Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business (Second Edition)" Nicholas Bradley Publishing: http://www.bizsum.com/2page/b_ridingthewaves.php Vecchi, A., & Brennan, L. (2009). Quality management: a cross-cultural perspective. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal , 16(2):149 - 164. Read More