Revision Project 4 Step 8
Please see attached memo that need to be revised. and see steps and teacher revision notes below
Belinda Lee, the CEO, has requested that your team investigate and report back to her about a recent dispute between three of her direct reports: the VP of manufacturing, the VP of marketing and the VP of product design.
Belinda has asked you to write a memo with your findings and recommendations for how Phone and Build should handle this situation. Take notes and create an outline for your memo as you consider each of the following questions:
Was the Chinese supplier ethical in shipping more than 300,000 cases made of real leather instead of the requested faux leather material, even though the supplier was not charging Phone and Build anything extra for the higher cost of real leather? Explain why or why not.
When the manufacturing VP contacted the Chinese supplier to complain, the supplier could not understand why Phone and Build was not pleased about receiving a real leather case, given that Phone and Build was still paying for the less expensive faux leather one. Is there a cultural difference between customer expectations and business transactions in the West and in Asia? Explain.
The decision of the manufacturing VP to accept the shipment containing real leather cases without first consulting the marketing VP is also somewhat problematic. By the time the marketing VP received the memo, it was too late for the cases to be returned. If you were the marketing VP and received the same memo, would you do anything different? Why?
All the senior personnel at Phone and Build should have been well aware that a significant proportion of their African and Asian customers were very sensitive about using phone cases made of pig leather. As an organization, what strategic errors did you observe in the decision making by various individuals in this situation? By the design VP? By the manufacturing VP? By the marketing VP? Could more training in ethical decision making and cultural sensitivity for senior management have helped in this situation? Why or why not?
Gather information about the cultural factors that are in play in this situation, including Managing in a Global Environment and Cross-Cultural Ethical Business Decision Making. You will need to research cross-cultural differences in decision making and recommend a course of action to the CEO. You should start in the UMUC Library.
Back up your responses with information about relevant differences in cultural expectations in China, South Africa, and the United States. In order to support your views, it will be useful to conduct some additional research on cultural differences and their impact on global business transactions.
write your memo.
Revision Notes:
09/16/17) Project #5 — Culture Clash (Comments on Second Submission)
Hello again Group 1, this message acknowledges receipt and review of the Culture Clash resubmission. Thank you for your continued efforts. I have one last set of comments to guide the work your team will do to revise this memo. Please use what is offered HERE to help you meet the competency requirements for this portion of the project.
OVERALL
Overall, you are beginning to have a memo that offers Ms. Lee good advice. However, there are technical points that may distract her as she reads your document.
First, note that your memo does not meet the naming requirements Ms. Lee gave you for this assignment; she is quite a particular record keeper (not to mention that the naming protocol must be followed in order to meet expectations for the competency). Second, do not forget that this is a group project; there is at least one “I” reference that should be deleted. Lastly, as you will see from the notes below, the use of scholarly sources to inform your thinking is necessary in your revision; please do the research and, when you write the next version, properly cite your sources both in-text and in the accompanying reference list.
Supplier Ethics
Ms. Lee began by asking you about the ethics of the supplier in his fulfillment of a PHONE CASEORDER that, though of higher quality than the order, still was contrary to the contract. Here, you did not describe the ISCT method, or any other framework we have studied this semester, in arriving at the ethical outcomes you express in the memo. Revision is necessary so you can show how ethical principles actually can be used to reach an outcome here.
The issue of cultural differences between Asia and the West was a second matter of concern. In this part of the memo you spoke only generally about the two cultures, but there was no scholarly evidence provided to support your thinking. Please revise.
Marketing Perspective
Ms. Lee is attempting to understand the perspectives of her executives, and especially the VP of MARKETING. She asked you to consider what this person may have done differently regarding the phone case situation and why. Your insight here could have been more effective by not just presenting your thoughts about communication, but also by walking Ms. Lee through other appropriate actions that could have been taken by a marketing professional faced with a problem (and also by outlining the decision-making approach used in your thought process).
Strategic ERRORS and Training
The last matter for consideration was the range of strategic ERRORS committed by this group of executives and whether training would be helpful for the future. The response you provided did not look at all three of the executives. Also, the issue of training was raised only in the recommendations, and it only addressed ethics. Why is that your training choice, and is that all that would benefit this team? Try this section again.
