IBA304
Mapping
Bridging
Integrating
EXCELL Cultural Scenario Map
Preparation:
Review cultural information on Finland and Spain
Prepare an MBI analysis on the situation.
get persuasive so that delta foods can adopt new startegies
Culturally satisfied business solutions
The first managing director of blue ridge spain avoided to grow the company because he was from catalonia and Madrid people have regional ties that are strong in spain. It is important to embrace different cultures in different socities for business to thrive. The company should appoint management from the towns that they want to set business in for expansion so that the locals can feel comfortable when dealing with managers from the same cultural orientations.
Restaurant industry is very sensitive and hence understanding restaurants culture in spain is one advantage that having a joint venture provided (Lane and Maznevski, 2014). The acquisitions preffered by delta would only have worked for snacks because they did not need a personal link to the environment locally. In the long term joint ventures would be most profitable because the spain culture allows people to think about long term effects.
In spain good business relationships can make a business thrive compared to terms signed in a contract. Delta foods should culturally consider the way of life of people in spain before going ahead with forcing the acquisition. The Spanish community would not take lightly the management of foreigners and this could lead to the fall of the whole business venture. Good business relationships are key in every business and this is a very important aspect in spain. The locals live like one big happy family and that is why they are very suspecting of foreigners.
Understanding creates compromise and chance to a business. The two companies could have agreed on a short term goal for the joint venture to see if the new strategies could work.The display of cultural differences between the two organizations created cross cultural conflict that led the joint venture beween terralumen and delta get dissolved. In a meeting held by the board of directors the Spanish American business partners could not agree and work together on policies and goals.It is important to have a clear sense of understanding of what every aspect of a business, because wee see in these case the delta food company was dictating to terralumen and hence terralumen felt that they deserved bargaining power because they had helped with the expansion of the joint venture. It is important to exercise business ethics so as a business can do well especially in a foreign market. We see delta foods company scheming against terralumen so that they could defauslt on a loan hence force them to sell out. It is damaging to a business reputation when business is conducted unfairly. Besides terralumen had really spearheaded the growth of the joint venture.
The company should have promoted Costas to the vice president position because he had worked long enough in blue ridge spain to strengthen the brand and he had enough knowledge and experience to handle the expansion that delta foods wanted. It is important to continue with an existing management team during a new ownership position and change the management later if issues arise of slowed growth and profits . The sudden change in management was not good for the joint venture because delta foods employed mangemnt persons who were not conversant or did care about the cultural orientations and traditions of the business relationships and partnerships.
The delta company should have hired a person with lots of experience and humiliate Costas who have taken great strides to grow the joint venture by putting him under a person who had low experience . Sondegran and Costas did not share the same ideas of conducting business due to cultural differences. Costas got referred to as a traitor when he discovered about the unethical business undertaking that had been put in place. Terralumen company would most likely thrive after the dissolution compared to blue ridge spain restaurant (Dorfman & Mobley, 2003). Employee retention is a good business solution that could help the cultural differences experienced. Some employees quit due to change in management that do not support their cultural beliefs. Having to train new staff could be very expensive for delta foods. The interaction between management and their staff should be cordial and there should be no great differences between the two. Individualism does not yield better business profits compared to working as a group or team.Sodergran was very anti social and a sabotaguer.Terralumen has a careful management that has ensured that blue ridge brand has thrived. Terralumen trusted the actions of the business partners in joint venture but not in the new superiors they had acquired.
Employee expectations should get met. Costas expectations were shattered and he lost the will to expand the business because his ideas got put aside and suddenly he relaised that he had nothing to contribute because American culture was being adopted which was for short term use only. His hard work of above ten years was about to pay off due to culturally investing for long trem to benefit the community longer.
Personal reflection
It is important to have good interpersonal skills such as problem solving skills. In these case study because personal feelings showed to create a lot of disagreement based on cultural orientation of every person at Blue Ridge Spain. Also, having proper communication skills is important because so much can get misunderstood when one partner does not listen and understand the business concept well enough. My approach to solve the situation between delta foods and blue ridge spain, would have to urge delta foods to conduct a market survey to determine what is best for the business venture. It is important to know what the shareholders and consumers have to say about the business ventures. This is because spain is home to diverse regions all of which have different wants. Spain is distrusting of foreigners and creating of new relationships take time to build. Spanish business orientation is concerned more about family and its provision and not so much about the shareholders. If i were Costas I would have been patient and listened carefully at delta foods to see where their point of business acquisitions were coming from. It is important to get flexible to change and see what the results are. Even though delta foods had set high expectations it is important to consider business risks. The new model for change introduced could eventually work in spain and acquisitions would benefit the shareholders as much as the family provisions, because with time the products could get tailor made to suit the Spanish market. Lack of proper communication skills shuttred the relationship between delta and Terralumen because delta was forcing the issue and not giving in for negotiations. I would definetly give room for negotiations to improve the working relationship if any was going to become after an acquisition. Close knit networks socially involve important people who can develop meaningful and lasting partnerships. I am concerned however about the lack of growth on terralumen joint venture, but I realize that the joint venture has over provided a steady revenue (Lane and Maznevski, 2014). I realize that terralumne has desire for growth, and they believe that they have played part in growing the business venture to the allowed capacity by the Spanish market. I feel that terralumen sees blue ridge as indebt to them because it was risky to start a fast food business chain. Terralumen sees that the ideal business relationship should be relaxed and both parties should show mutual respect.
References
Beamish , P. (2008). Joint Venturing. New york: Cengage Learning.
Dorfman, P., & Mobley, W. (2003). Advances In Global Leadership. Chichester, UK: Wiley and
Sons.
Hedgren, M. (2007). The cornerstones of international collaboration. Retrieved from
<http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/63906.pdf>
Kerzner, H. (2013 ). Project management:case studies. New York: Routledge.
Lane, H. W., & Maznevski, M. L. (2014). International Management Behavior: Global and
Sustainable Leadership, 7th Ed. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Appendices
Cultural information on Finland and Spain
Kluckhohn&Strodtbeck
