Global Talent Management - Case Study Example

Global Talent Management Introduction The world economy has greatly been globalized and there are several companies that have expanded their markets internationally for greater profits. Almost every big company today operates with teamwork and cultural diversity. Not only multinationals that have their factories in other countries, but also the local companies face diversity since people travel to different places for work. Thus, it is the duty and responsibility of the management to ensure effective management and the development of people. In a global context, this cultural diversity often leads to conflicts and greater challenges for the managers. In order to operate successfully in a global context, the managers must be efficient in solving conflicts, responding to challenges, and ensuring effective policies for human resource development. There are several multinational companies across the globe. These companies establish their factories and plants in different countries and then recruit local workers. However, the employees that are hired belong to different cultural backgrounds that have different values and beliefs. There are several problems that can be reported as the cultural diversity increases in these organizations. This paper will assess a case study on the international brand Coca Cola’s cultural issues in India. India is a multicultural country while Coca Cola is a multinational brand for soft drinks. The organization has a huge set up in India with extremely large amount of sales and high profits. However, cultural issues can be problematic for the organization and can hinder its growth; thus this paper will analyze the problems, propose recommendations, and prepare an action plan for the organization. Discussion Coca Cola is the world’s largest soft drinks brand which dominates the international market. It has been strongly established across the globe since 1886 and it was the first brand for soft drinks to enter India in the 1970s. They operated successfully in the Indian market till 1977 after which they left. However, they returned in 1993 and till today they dominate the market with their products. This case study refers to the cultural issues that the organization has to face in India regarding its quality, market exploitation, and resource exploitation. There were several issues reported such as the huge amount of waste polluting the fresh water, the exploitation of the water resource, and the conflicts between the employees belonging to different cultural backgrounds (Dutt, 2006, p. 10). Not only the government, but the people of India and the consumers of Coca Cola also protested against the abuse to the Indian culture that Coca Cola was doing. The brand was challenged for the abuse of water resources and was criticized for causing pollution in the nearby fresh water and soil which resulted in water scarcity for the local farmers. Internally, the organization faced issues with the growing conflicts between employees from different cultural backgrounds. Despite these issues, the strong reputation and name of the brand kept it on top in the soft drinks market. The Indian market has always faced immense competition in the refreshment drinks industry. Coca Cola has been the world’s largest manufacturer in the soft drinks’ industry. It entered the Indian market as a part of the Globalization program where it became easier for multinationals to enter India. Globalization reduced the trade barriers and enhanced communication because of which the whole world centralized into one market. However, many multinationals have failed in the Indian market mainly because of the lack of knowledge about the Indian culture and the country in general. When a multinational enters a country for operations, they must have knowledge about the people, the environment, the culture, and the consuming behavior. The culture of a country does play an important part in consuming behavior trends (Lury, 2011, p. 163). Coca Cola is facing some issues with the Indian culture, but it does have a good market. The youngsters have accepted the drink and they are the main target customers. The company must give importance to the culture of India as it is an essential element which tends to decide the consumer behaviors and purchase patterns. India has always been one of those countries which are essentially sensitive about their culture. The people of India are rather keener towards their culture. They have been living with their culture since thousands of years; that’s why it becomes difficult for them to adopt frequently occurring changes. These Indian people have avoided uncertainty in their culture since decades which shows that they are emotional and sensitive towards invasion and exploitation of their culture by other people. Hence, before entering the Indian market, the Coca Cola Company should have also studied the market and the people to avoid the cultural issues that also hinder their progress. Culture not only separates values and beliefs, but ways to look at things and human behavior. Moreover, the Indian and American cultures are widely different making it more complicated for American or Western companies to operate in the Indian market (Berger, 2002, p. 91). India is the country where not only cultural diversity is present, but also lingual differences are present. The Coca Cola Company faced issues with both these differences making it complicated for them to understand how they will pull off their product in the market. The Company did not realize that Indian culture promotes trust, quality, and value much more. This means that more importance and attention is needed towards quality and price as consumers would buy those products that are of high quality but low prices. There must be no price quality trade-offs entertained in the Indian market. There are many strengths of the Coca Cola Company in the Indian market which include high brand recognition, reputation, brand image, technological advancement, good marketing techniques, efficient management system, and bottling system to attract customers. However, on the other hand, the company has several weaknesses too which contributed in creating bigger issues for them. These weaknesses were the lack of knowledge about the culture of India, the uncertainty avoidance, and they used hazardous waste, by-products, and created health issues, lack of expertise in marketing according to the Indian culture, and exploiting the water resources. These differences resulted in bigger problems for the company in the form of challenges and criticism (Lury, 2011, p. 163). These issues were the socio-cultural related to the environment and the culture of the people of India. However, the Coca Cola Company also faced cultural diversity issues within the organization. The employees working in the organization belonged to different cultures and spoke different languages which ignited another major problem for the company. The internal conflicts began which affected the production even though the market share, reputation, and sales volume remained unchanged to a great extent (Dutt, 2006, p. 10). Problems began when managers were unable to respond to conflicts quickly and wisely, when discrimination against the minority groups started, and eventually employees at large lost their motivation to work. In India, labor is cheap and mostly belongs to Southern minority groups or small villages. This created greater differences amongst the employees as they would not work together or sit with one another believing it to be against their religious practices. Other than that, many of the workers were also illiterate which hindered their communication and understanding skills. However, the Coca Cola Company is known for being a socially responsible company. It has initiated several policies and strategies which are to protect the rights of employees and give them a healthy life at work. The Coca Cola Company has several strategies to overcome the cross-cultural, social, and ethical issues within the organization that have occurred due to the operations in the international market. These strategies include introducing employee rights, trainings, fair and just working conditions, and taking actions as a socially responsible company. The employees in the Coca Cola belong to several different cultures and countries throughout the globe. The company has certain programs and operations for the rights of its employees. Some of the most prominent and important programs are regular workshops and trainings for the employees, compliance in all the workplaces and locations, strict abundance of child labor, a detailed workplace code of rights is issued called the Workplace Rights Policy 2007 for all its factories throughout the globe, and the Company has also introduced a virtual university for the employees to educate them for the business operations (Berger, 2002, p. 91). Coca Cola has also initiated several procedures and strategies to ensure effective management in order to solve internal conflicts. The managers know that the workforce they are dealing with come from several different backgrounds and cultures; hence conflicts become unavoidable. The managers are trained to be prepared for such conflicts and to deal with them efficiently. Even in the company based in India, the strategies and policies of workers’ rights are protected and the managers try efficiently that the conflicts are solved as much as possible. The managers are less successful because they have lack of knowledge about the Indian culture which prevents them from understanding the conflicts in a better way. Coca Cola needs to focus on many aspects and prepare an action plan in order to earn the respect of the Indian community and retain its position in the market. Since the Indian culture is very complex, the brand image will not be enough for a sustainable position. Indians have a generally different approach towards the businesses and they take it rather very seriously when it comes to consumer habits and purchasing patterns. Thus, some of the actions that the Coca Cola Company needs to take to develop its trust in Indians are discussed below. The first and major solution that the Company needs to implement is the ability to improve its public relations and openly communicate with the constituents including media, public, employees, government, and suppliers. The company needs to prepare and plan an open communication session as it is the best method to reach to the people in general, stakeholders, government, and other constituencies. Through communication, the consumers and government can have a clearer picture about the strategies, approach, policies, and regulations of the company. Enhancing public relations will eventually make the consumers buy products and change their behaviors; and behavior is directly linked to culture (Livermore, 2010, p. 15). The second major action that has to be taken is to enhance the relationship with the local government. Especially in India, it is important for the company to have a close relation with the government. This is possible through active participation in the events and operations led by the government for instance infrastructure development program or save the environment program. Indians would always appreciate efforts done for their country development and thus the company would be able to gain the confidence of the community. Next, the company must launch effective marketing campaigns as they are the best way to reach the audience and retain a place in the market. Such campaigns would contribute in creating awareness and making the sales easier. The Indian people love to have details about the products that they love, and Coca Cola is a product which is already loved. Marketing campaigns should use all types of mediums to reach the public as far as possible (Livermore, 2010, p. 15). Next, the Company must listen to the customers and take care of their demands and needs. In order to find out what their tastes and demands are, they must listen to the consumers through different techniques including surveys, feedbacks, suggestions, and comments. By listening to the customers, the company can identify the areas where improvement is needed and can know what is expected from them. Through this, the consumers start feeling valued and so they come back to the product and form brand loyalty (Nelson, 2012, p. 670). Next, the company must enhance the managing style. Managing style is one of the most important things which are needed in a business. In India, there are so many issues internally and externally that an efficient management system is greatly needed to solve the issues. Multinational companies always need a strong management system to manage the international operations and organizational culture. Coca Cola needs a strong management to take care of the internal conflicts and manage the cultural diversity in the organization. A strong management is one which is tailored with the cultural and social values of the hosting country (Livermore, 2010, p. 15). Having a management which is alienated to the culture and values of the local employees can create severe issues in the long run such as the case in India. Thus, Coca Cola needs to hire managers that are aware of the Indian culture and are dedicated towards the wellbeing of the company. The action plan mentioned above is important for the company to focus on the Indian market and sustain its position in the competitive industry. This action plan will help the company to gain the trust of the local community, enhance its public relations, and retain for a long time in the market. Recommendation and Conclusion It is recommended that the Coca Cola Company must take immediate actions in India in order to retain its position. Efficient management is one of the basic tools that would prevent that future cultural issues to arise thus it is recommended that the company not only ensures an effective management but also uses different styles of management. There are different characteristic ways of managing the employees and the business strategies. In this case, there can be a number of different management styles that can be implemented according to the different tasks and the nature of the work. Management styles vary from the business and the nature of activities thus the company should hire skilled managers for each type of task for example for the public relations meetings or for solving conflicts. Another recommendation is that the company must plan long-term orientation as it has been seen before that Indians do not like sudden changes and they avoid uncertainty. Thus, the company must ensure that their policies and strategies are long term so that they can match with their culture and tastes. This would require a detailed analysis on the consumer tastes and behaviors. This is essential because India is the place where culture and values are rather more important hence the company should start with the analysis of the market and consumer behaviors. The company is also recommended to give more importance to price-quality trade-off issues. This is because Indians are keener towards quality and value and so they prefer products with high quality and lower prices. For them quality is more valuable than price so the company must also reinforce their pricing strategy and set it according to the expectations and values of the consumers. These recommendations are for the company which should be followed to ensure that the action plan and strategies are successful. Conclusively, this paper shows the several issues and problems which are associated with cultural diversity. With the help of this cross-cultural case study about the socio-cultural problems of Coca Cola in India, the paper assesses the action plan, recommendations, and strategies that the company has taken and must take in the future to avoid such issues. Cultural diversity issues can have a very severe impact on the business growth and profits, thus it is important to handle them quickly and wisely. It is not easy for multinationals to operate in culturally diverse conditions but with the help of efficient management, and other actions mentioned in the paper, the company can run smoothly. References Dutt S. 2006. India in a Globalized World. UK: Manchester University Press Lury C. 2011. Consumer Culture. UK: Polity Press Berger P. 2002. Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World. UK: Oxford University Press Livermore D. 2010. Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success. USA: Amazon Nelson D. 2012. Organizational Behavior: Science, The Real World, and You. USA: Cengage Learning Read More