Mahendra Heda 02/20/14 Individual Essay 2

Dr. Olabisi Cross Culture Management

1. According to me, Rex Lewis should not increase the price of the product just for the sake of increasing the profit margin or making business more profitable. Though company might make a huge sum of profit before the competitors enter the market, but it will not be a good thing towards the humanity. The cost of SUPALL is already taking up the 25% of the earning of a person. Which means it is really not affordable for the parents to buy, as they also have to feed the remaining large family. Also, the recent droughts have made the situation worse. The SUPALL product is also economic with respect to the food so parents must be relying on the SUPALL for the basic nutrition for their children. If Rex Lewis increases the prices of SUPALL, the parents might not be able to afford buying it. There will be two consequences of it: 1. Parents will not be able to feed their child with the proper nutritional food, as the agriculture sector is not doing well and also the earning of the parents is also not high. This might increase the malnutrition problem among the children and hence for the future of the Matinea. So as a corporate social responsibility, Rex should not increase the price for the sale of profit. 2. Sales will go down tremendously. Though after increasing the price, ICS Corp. may not make the profit equal to they are making right now because of the low sales.

As the SUPALL is inexpensive in production and is very basic need for the children health, on the ground of corporate social responsibility, Rex Lewis should not increase the price. As the ICS Corp is making 50% return on the product, if Rex Lewis` decreases the price of product, sales might go up, as more and more parents will be able to afford it. Which will directly affects the profit in positive sense. Another plus point of this will be the good will towards SUPALL will be created if they portray the reduction in price as the corporate social responsibility. The revenues from the SUPALL are already able to support the Research and development of the ICS, so the company is able to make such huge revenue from the one country. Thats why the company should not greed for the more profit on the morale ground. 2. As the managers from the United States and Europe will be working on the global level, they must be aware of this fact or artifact. Though, if they are not, I would suggest going with the written communication. There are many positive aspects of the written communication such as no one cant deny that he didnt say that as there are written proofs available. US managers should also be taught to value the relationship and make more efforts towards it. So that the European managers wont feel low and think that the US managers are very professionals. 3. Mind Stretching questions A. Does your culture tell you how to communicate and behave? If so, what are the messages that you feel are consistently reinforced? Culture definitely affects the communication and behavior of a person. Culture certainly has its impact on the both. As in few culture, the few words or few

gestures might be considered as the bad word or gesture but t might be fine in any other culture. B. How do you prefer to communicate? Directly? Indirectly? I prefer to communicate directly as it avoid the chance of confusion and miscommunication. C. In your personal life, do you have many friends who are different from you? How are they different? In personality, ethnicity, culture? Or are most of your friends from your own cultural background? Why? My friends have different cultural background. Everyone behaves and think differently than the other. Cultural differences make them think in a different way. For example, one of my friends gives the priorities to do the work of other friends first rather than his own. While I have another friend from different cultural background who will always think of his own work first. The culture of my first friend taught him to help others first while for other friend it imposed to do his own work first. D. How much time do you spend tying to understand another persons perspective? Or do you prefer to try to persuade others to change and adopt your own perspective? I try to learn and understand perspective of other in real time. To maintain a relationship rather a healthy relationship, one must understand the viewpoint of others, rather than always imposing own thoughts. Most of the time, I choose to adopt the changes rather than imposing my own view. 4. As a VP, I should take the stand against the questionable payments in a company, whenever I come to know about it. This payment is against the international business ethics and could be considered as bribe. So whenever I came to know about this payment, first of all I will report this to the company management of the purchasing manager first of all. Will ask

the company to hold the bid again and will either ask the area manager to resign or will demote him. This will help the company to build a reputation and gain the publics attention, in terms the brand marketing and loyalty.