Selecting Global Managers

International organizations have a need for global managers that maintain abilities to handle the complex cultural and operational functionality of larger organizations. Global managers are highly sought after as navigators of international context and become bridges between the different cultural perceptions to foster achievement of organizational objectives.  A paper by van de Vijver (2008) helps executives better understand on how to select global managers for recruitment or development and the skills such manager’s hold. 

Success in finding the right global candidate requires understanding how the person views the world by assessing their personality. Nearly all personality assessments have flaws with some having bigger flaws than others. Few practitioners would rely on a single assessment in much the same way as a hiring manager should not look at only one aspect of a person to making an important decision. 

In the global context concepts like cultural empathy, cultural distance, and intercultural abilities have a positive impact on one’s ability to work in a multi-cultural world. Global managers who use these skills typically do so when functioning in multi-cultural teams, operating from another country, or work in an international cultural context. 

Managers who function successfully in international environments don’t often prescribe to a single ethnic identity (Ashmore, et. al., 2004). They take on varying cultural perspectives, adopt a multi-cultural identity, and are skilled when working in a multiple cultural environment. Because of their ability to understand self in different contexts they are able to function in those contexts with greater effectiveness.

The paper finds that the performance of global managers is determined by multiple characteristics. The global manager should have intercultural competence to work with people from different cultures and backgrounds. They should also have the intellectual capacity to understand a complex world in which they exist.  Their ability to use both their intellectual capacity and cultural understandings make them more effective than domestic managers in navigating ambiguous environments. 

The global manager is not a person who has lost their birth culture but is a person who has adapted that culture to the needs of the business community and the world at large. They learned and developed to a point that they understand and share cultural identities with people from various parts of the world. They are open-minded in effectively dealing with and managing perspectives that are different from their own. 

The same intellectual ability that allows them to take on new cultural perspectives is the same intellectual ability that allows understands complex operations that span across different continents. Each organization is a collective of people, policies, resources, values, cultures, supply networks, financial arrangements, and interconnected vines of related networks. To understand how the tangible business operations work within the difficult to define cultures is a life time in the making. 

Ashmore, R., et. al. (2004). An organizing framework for collective identity: Articulation and significance of multidimensionality. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 80–114.

Van de Vijver, F. (2008). Personality assessment of global talent: conceptual and methodological issues. International Journal of Testing, 8.

Wine Review: Apothic Red Wine 2012

You have been invited to a dinner party and need to pick up a quality wine for supper. No need to walk up and down the aisle to find the right wine that meets both the quality and cost criteria you had in your head when you first stepped into the store. Apothic Red 2012 is a blend of Syrah, Zinfandel, and Merlot that balances the different wines for a high quality outcome.

It contains mostly sweet flavors that include raspberry, cherry, vanilla, mocha and some boysenberry. It is a smooth wine with a hardy body and a pleasant aftertaste. This would be the type of wine you would pick up for just about any social affair. Most drinkers will be satisfied with the quality, taste, and consistency of their product.

Apothic Red Wine Maker’s Blend is a winter wine by style and complements a variety of winter related foods. Meat dishes, heavy soups, and wild game regularly pair with a heavier red wine. Room temperature wine also complements hot dish foods more commonly in the cool months. 

Red wine is generally considered healthiest choice among wines. Studies have shown that red wine compounds in the form of polyphenols play a role in inhibiting lipid peroxidation, free radicals, platelet aggregation, and strengthens anti-inflammation (Natella, et. al, 2011). A glass of wine every once in a while has positive supporting effect on overall health. 

http://www.apothic.com/

Natella, F., et. al. (2011). Drinking guidance for red wine: to be taken with meals: red wine prevents post prandial increase of plasma oxidized lipids. Journal of Wine Research, 22 (2).

Does Improvements in Consumer Sentiment and GNP Indicate Future U.S. Growth?

The University of Michigan recently announced improvements in consumer sentiment from 80 in March to 84.6 in September (1).  Consumers who have been frugal with their pay checks over the past may now be willing to open their wallets. Increased consumer spending matched with improvements in Gross National Product (GNP) could be a good sign for the economy. 

Consumer sentiment and sales are two different things but certainly positive impressions today can lead to increased sales tomorrow.  According to Gelper, et. al. (2007) positive consumer sentiment is followed by increased purchases of products and services in the trailing 4-5 months. They argue that consumer sentiment maintains some predictive power over consumer spending. 

Another complementary announcement by the Commerce Department posted a rise in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 4.6% (2).  Positive GNP numbers were realized from personal consumption expenditures, exports, private inventory investment, state and local government spending, nonresidential fixed investments, and residential fixed investments.  

Consumer sentiment does have an impact on GDP. Negative consumer sentiment can lower GNP and positive consumer sentiment can raise GNP even though they are not associated with traditional market fundamentals (Matsusaka & Sbordone, 1995).  Contrary to popular opinion, consumer sentiment is strong enough to influence a 13 to 26 percent variance in GNP. 

Together these numbers support the idea that growth in consumer spending is more likely over the next few months. A short lag is not necessarily a bad thing if consumer spending also prompts American manufacturers to invest more in their operations to fulfill consumer needs and further strengthen GNP. It is possible that long-term exports could rise as U.S. based companies find parity with low cost foreign providers. 

Gelper, et. al. (2007). Consumer sentiment and consumer spending: decomposing the Granger causal relationship in the time domain. Applied Economics, 39 (1). 

Matsusaka, J. & Sbordone, A. (1995). Consumer confidence and economic fluctuations. Economic Inquiry, 33 (2).

Moving Beyond Service-Dominant Logic to Include Change

Service related add-ons can raise the value of products while encouraging higher levels of customer satisfaction. A paper by Lusche & Spohrer discusses the service-dominant (S-D) logic as a science that encourages systems-level thinking and provides greater value propositions. The development of service related products alleviates many human-oriented problems in business and government entities.  Thinking about service requires moving beyond the obvious to incorporate difficult to account for complexity.

Improvement comes with a level of chaos as we learn that we are interconnected and influenced by a complex system of people, events, and actors. S-D logic helps us understand how the underlying principles that foster growth and creation are not readily apparent. They are part of the fabric of our environment but when taken together create the totality of our economic system.  

Innovation changes the environment in a way that can encourage higher levels of functioning and interaction between business and customers. Sometimes this innovation is complex and at other times it is small and adjustable. Change is the process of generating new solutions to existing processes and enhancing smooth business functioning through continuous adjustment. 

Current institutional logic works well when the market is simple and stable. Business and marketing management is focused heavily on analysis, planning and control but are not optimum when the environment changes. The process of strategizing is based upon fixed market assumptions that don’t regularly leave enough room for unexpected adjustments. 

It is important to consider the adjustments in business development as the business changes and adapts to its environment. When new products and services make their way onto the market they naturally create change among the economic actors who seek to maximize their earning potential. We can see this occur in the development of stronger and more reliable cell phones that incorporate apps to enhance their functionality. 

All service development should think about strategy beyond the here and now and leave enough flexibility within the strategic decision-making process to adjust to changes and new developments as they occur. This requires openness to new information that can help a strategy adjust as that new information becomes relevant. Providing for some level of contingency planning of most likely change scenarios can be beneficial. 

Lusch, R. & Spohrer, J. (2012). Evolving serve for a complex, resilient, and sustainable world. Journal of Marketing Management, 28 (13-14).