Theresa Campana owns The Olentangy Group (named after a local river)—a manufacturer’s rep agency. The Olentangy Group sells similar products for noncompeting producers in the technology industry. She is deciding whether to add a new product line—serving another producer. She is very concerned because, although she wants more lines, she feels that something is wrong with her latest candidate.

Theresa graduated from a large Midwestern university in 2006 with a B.S. in business. She worked selling cell phones for a year. Then Theresa decided to go into business for herself and formed The Olentangy Group. Looking for opportunities, Theresa placed several ads in her local newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, announcing that she was interested in becoming a sales representative in the area. She was quite pleased to receive a number of responses. Eventually, she became the sales representative in the Columbus area for three local computer software producers: Accto Company, which produces accounting-related software; Saleco, Inc., a producer of sales management software; and Invo, Inc., a producer of inventory control software. All of these companies were relatively small and were represented in other areas by other sales representatives like Theresa. The companies often sent her leads when customers from her area expressed interest at a trade show or through the company’s website.

Theresa’s main job was to call on possible customers. Once she made a sale, she would fax the signed license agreement to the respective producer, who would then UPS the programs directly to the customer or, more often, provide a key code for a website download. The producer would bill the customer, and Theresa would receive a commission varying from 5 to 10 percent of the dollar value of the sale. Theresa was expected to pay her own expenses. And the producers would handle any user questions, either by using 800 numbers for out-of-town calls or by e-mail queries to a technical support group.

Theresa called on anyone in the Columbus area who might use the products she sold. At first, her job was relatively easy, and sales came quickly because she had little competition. Many national companies offer similar products, but at that time they were not well represented in the Columbus area. Most small businesses needed someone to demonstrate what the software could do.

In 2008, Theresa sold $250,000 worth of Accto software, earning a 10 percent commission; $100,000 worth of Saleco software, also earning a 10 percent commission; and $200,000 worth of Invo software, earning a 7 percent commission. She was encouraged with her progress and looked forward to expanding sales in the future. She was especially optimistic because she had achieved these sales volumes without overtaxing herself. In fact, she felt she was operating at about 60 percent of her capacity and could easily take on new lines. So she began looking for other products she could sell in the Columbus area.

A local software company has recently approached Theresa about selling its newly developed software, which is basically a network security product. It is designed to secretly track all of the keystrokes and mouse clicks of each employee as he or she uses the computer—so that an employer can identify inappropriate uses of its computers or confidential data. Theresa isn’t too enthusiastic about this offer because the commission is only 2 percent on potential annual sales of about $150,000—and she also doesn’t like the idea of selling a product that might undermine the privacy of employees who are not doing anything wrong.

Now Theresa is faced with another decision. The owner of the MetalCoat Company, also in Columbus, has made what looks like an attractive offer. She called on MetalCoat to see if the firm might be interested in buying her accounting software. The owner didn’t want the software, but he was very impressed with Theresa. After two long discussions, he asked if she would like to help MetalCoat solve its current problem. MetalCoat is having trouble with marketing, and the owner would like Theresa to take over the whole marketing effort.

MetalCoat produces solvents used to make coatings for metal products. It sells mainly to industrial customers in the Page 637mid-Ohio area and faces many competitors selling essentially the same products and charging the same low prices.

MetalCoat is a small manufacturer. Last year’s sales were $500,000. It could handle at least four times this sales volume with ease and is willing to expand to increase sales—its main objective in the short run. MetalCoat’s owner is offering Theresa a 12 percent commission on all sales if she will take charge of its pricing, advertising, and sales efforts. Theresa is flattered by the offer, but she is a little worried because it is a different type of product and she would have to learn a lot about it. The job also might require a great deal more traveling than she is doing now. For one thing, she would have to call on new potential customers in mid-Ohio, and she might have to travel up to 200 miles around Columbus to expand the solvent business. Further, she realizes that she is being asked to do more than just sell. But she did have marketing courses in college and thinks the new opportunity might be challenging.

Evaluate Theresa Campana’s current strategy and how the proposed solvent line fits in with what she is doing now. What should she do? Why?

The story

Huawei of China is the world’s second- largest supplier of telecommunications equipment. The company has been expanding into international markets since 1997 but its brand has until recently remained little known outside its native country. One reason is that Huawei is a business-to-business supplier rather than consumer-focused.

As part of its globalization strategy, Huawei decided to begin operations in India in 2000.

The challenge

In India, Huawei faced various difficulties. First, the company needed to build a strong and distinctive brand for non-Chinese markets. In India in particular, the telecoms equipment market was crowded. So Huawei needed to establish a reputation as a reliable partner and create a distinctive identity.

Its Chinese roots worked against it on several levels. An enmity still exists between India and China, with an unresolved border dispute in the north and a history of armed conflict as recently as the 1970s. Also, many Indians perceive Chinese companies to be closed rather than transparent. Thus, Indian businesses often find it difficult to establish relations of trust with Chinese partners.

Chinese companies also have a reputation – not always deserved – in India for producing low-quality goods. Similarly, Huawei was seen primarily as a low-price manufacturer, which meant its products were regarded as of low quality. The fact that the company spends 10 per cent of its profits a year, about $3bn, on research and development, was not widely known.

The response

Huawei realized that in order to compete in India it would have to invest heavily and get to know the market and its particular features.

With this in mind, it established R&D and service centers in India, and 90 per cent of the jobs created went to Indians. This helped to persuade sceptics that Huawei was interested in value creation in India, not just value extraction. Today, India is Huawei’s second-largest research base outside China.

At the company’s two production plants in Chennai, Huawei staff work with local companies to help bring the latter’s production quality up to international standards. The long-term plan is to source as many components locally as possible. Not only are such components cheaper, they also help local companies achieve higher- quality standards, making them more competitive, spreading skills and boosting the economy.

Huawei has also begun promoting consumer products such as smartphones. Recently the company established a link with a leading Indian English-language news channel to sponsor a contest that projected Huawei smartphones as aspirational products, contrary to the prevailing low-quality perception of Chinese brands.

To build an employer brand, Huawei has developed a strong culture of rewarding R&D talent and promoting Indian employees to managerial positions. The hope is that this will be an added boost to the company’s reputation in the country, which has a strong young talent base in engineering. Strengths in research and innovation in India could help Huawei to enhance its reputation worldwide.

The lessons

There is a tendency to think of cultural barriers as being strongest between west and east, and writers on strategy and marketing sometimes assume that there is a cultural affinity between China and India that greatly reduces such obstacles.

In fact, Chinese companies find market entry in India just as difficult as western companies. Huawei’s strategy is one that can be adopted by other foreign companies no matter what their origin: demonstrate trustworthiness, build relationships, commit to India and provide superior quality.

1. Explain the challenges faced by Huawei to enter Indian Market.
2. Based on the case study, explain the market entry strategy adopted by Huawei to enter Indian Market.

2) Explain two reasons why culture may play a role in a company repositioning its brand when entering a foreign market 3) Explain how and why the two different thinking styles (analytic vs. holistic) can be applied differently to explain country-of-origin effects.

In terms of leadership, answer the following prompts, please.

From the Book Learning Leadership

Put aside some time to reflect on your own Personal-Best Leadership Experience. Here are some ideas to guide your reflection and analysis:

1. Describe the situation. Who was involved, and what was your role?

2. Why did you take on this initiative, how did you experiment and challenge existing ways of doing things, and how did you deal with risks?

3. As you looked forward to the time when the project would be completed, what did you dream about, and how did you build a sense of enthusiasm and excitement for the endeavor and reflect the hopes and dreams of other people on the team?

4. How did you involve others in planning and decision making, foster cooperation, build trust, and enhance the competence and confidence of your colleagues?

5. What were the values that you held yourself and others accountable to, and how did you lead by example and keep yourself focused and not sidetracked?

6. How did you recognize individual contributions, celebrate team accomplishments, create a spirit of camaraderie, and generate genuine appreciation?

Dependence and Interdependence are two very important words for leaders to know, consider, understand, and be able to practice in reality. For this discussion, describe the distinction between dependence and interdependence multivariate techniques. Provide a description of each and how each would apple in a real life scenario. What are your thoughts on each?

Rent'R Cars is a multisite car rental company in the city. It is trying out a new "return the car to the location most convenient for you" policy to improve customer service. But this means that the company has to constantly move cars around the city to maintain required levels of vehicle availability. The supply and demand for economy cars, and the total cost of moving these vehicles between sites, are shown below.

a. Find the solution that minimizes moving costs using Microsoft Excel. (Leave no cells blank - be certain to enter "0" wherever required.)

You are a highly ranked Supply Chain Management executive in your company.

Choose one of these regions:

•Sub-Saharan Africa

•Eastern Europe

•South Asia

And describe how you might analyze risk when dealing specifically with:

•Engineering and Technology

•Procurement

•Logistics

•Customer Service

Think about variables that cause one student to perform better in a business class than another student. Propose a hypothesis that captures that relationship. Now, think of a third variable that might mediate that relationship. Propose a hypothesis for that effect. Explain.

What arguments can you make against trying to make gamification part of an organization’s culture? What examples can you give or create to justify your arguments?

Assess your value chain management needs and your supply chain strengths and weaknesses.

Prepare a brief analysis of the key value chain/supply chain strengths and weaknesses and the management decisions needed to minimize the negative impact and/or maximize the positive positioning of a beauty salon.

Describe the demographics, preferences, needs, buying behavior, as well as any competition for the market of cinnamon rolls. Explain the differences between this baked good compared to other similar products of competing bakeries.