1. How would you plan to manage working capital between operations in Asia, the US and Europe? What would be important to you?
2. A very big issue for most global companies is NIH (not invented here). The resistance of subsidiary management can create all sorts of problems for the company. Anyone have any good ideas as to how to foster subsidiary cooperation and reduce the natural level of resistance?
3. Folks significant issues seen between strong western cultures and Asian cultures can cause difficulties for leadership. I work with a Chinese company with Chinese management. The biggest problem I have with them is their inability to clearly say no because it can generate confrontation. I have seen many cases where no is the right answer but the process is not to say yes and draw out the process for weeks and even months. There are times I even have to jump in with our female Chinese General Manager and look at people and tell them. "what you just heard is a polite version of no."
If you are confronted with a no answer in a case such as this how would you deal with it?
4. I agree with both of you regarding the diversity of an organizations staff. At the same time would you agree that too much diversity can cause undo hardship and delay an organizations growth? The reason why I ask this question is due to personal experiences with totally diverse groups consuming more time to come to similar conclusions that are less diverse.
5. I agree that developing effective strategies to be use in an organization's value and culture. Do you believe that the employees should have an input in the development part of strategies for the company? Why or Why not? Should employees and how should be compensated for the strategic efforts?