“BOSS, I THINK WE HAVE A PROBLEM”
Central Steel Door Corporation has been in business for about 20 years, successfully
selling a line of steel industrial grade doors, as well as the hardware and fittings required for
them.129 Focusing mostly in the United States and Canada, the company had gradually
increased its presence from the New York City area, first into New England and then down
the Atlantic Coast, then through the Midwest and West, and finally into Canada. The
company s basic expansion strategy was always the same: Choose an area, open a
distribution center, hire a regional sales manager, and then let that regional sales manager
help staff the distribution center and hire local sales reps. Unfortunately, the company s
traditional success in finding sales help has not extended to its overseas operations. With
the introduction of the new euro European currency in 2002, Mel Fisher, president of Central
Steel Door, decided to expand his company abroad, into Europe. However, the expansion
has not gone smoothly at all. He tried for 3 weeks to find a sales manager by advertising in
the International Herald Tribune, which is read by businesspeople in Europe and by
American expatriates living and working in Europe. Although the ads placed in the Tribune
also ran for about a month on the Tribune s Web site, Mr. Fisher so far has received only
five applications. One came from a possibly viable candidate, whereas four came from
candidates who Mr. Fisher refers to as lost souls people who seem to have spent most of
their time traveling aimlessly from country to country, sipping espresso in sidewalk
cafés.When asked what he had done for the last 3 years, one told Mr. Fisher he‘d been on a
walk about. Other aspects of his international HR activities have been equally problematic.
Fisher alienated two of his U.S. sales managers by sending them to Europe to temporarily
run the European operations, but neglecting to work out a compensation package that
would cover their relatively high living expenses in Germany and Belgium. One ended up
staying the better part of the year, and Mr. Fisher was rudely surprised to be informed by
the Belgian government that his sales manager owed thousands of dollars in local taxes. The
two managers had hired about 10 local people to staff each of the two distribution centers.
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However, the level of sales was disappointing, so Fisher decided to fire about half the
distribution center employees. That’ s when he got an emergency phone call from his
temporary sales manager in Germany: I ve just been told that all these employees should
have had written employment agreements and that in any case we can’ t fire anyone
without at least 1 year’s notice, and the local authorities here are really up in arms. Boss, I
think we have a problem.
Questions
1. Based on this chapter and the case incident, compile a list of 10 international HR
mistakes Mr. Fisher has made so far.
2. How would you have gone about hiring a European sales manager? Why?
3. What would you do now if you were Mr. Fisher?
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