Curses, Foiled Again in France

A U.S. manufacturer of kiosk photo printers with an affiliate in Dijon, France, decided to create the position in "international liaison." This person would spend about five days per month in Dijon in the role of home-office representative. The liaison would offer some advice to European operations and function as the intermediary between the home office and Dijon.

Erin Barker, a product development manager, was a logical choice for the new position. In addition to being technically competent, Baker had good interpersonal skills and spoke French. She had studied French in high school and college and had spent one semester in France as part of her college program. In recent years, she had taken two vacations in France. Erin still retained her position as product development manager. She planned to work at her new position about half time. Some of her responsibilities as product development manager were delegated to two specialists in the product development department. Erin was somewhat skeptical about occupying a liaison position, because it was by nature nebulous. The Dijon group would have to respect her authority because she represented company headquarters. However, the Dijon group really reported to the company CEO, not to her.

Erin prepared herself mentally for her first trip to Dijon. She gathered relevant facts and figures about the company's European business headquartered in Dijon, and listened to French language-learning CD's for two weeks. With a dry throat and determination in her heart, Erin walked into the Dijon conference room one Monday morning for her first meeting with the French group.

Barker greeted the management team at the plant in French: "Bonjour. Je suisenchance` de faire votreconnaissance. Mon se`jour sera pour plusieursjours. Je voudraisapprendrevotreope`ration. Aussi, je voudraisexpliquer les ope`rations du sie`ge et re`ponder a` vos questions." [Hello, It's a pleasure to meet you. My stay will be several days. I would like to learn about your operation. Also, I would like to explain the operations of headquarters and answer you questions.]

"Oh, how nice, you speak a little French," said plant manager Gilles Naulleau, in English. Erin was taken aback that Naulleau and the other French managers seemed intent on speaking English. She interpreted it as a sign of their not taking her interest in them seriously. Erin also thought that her first few days in Dijon were strictly ceremonial. She felt more like a visitor on a plant tour than an executive conducting business. When Erin touched on business topics such as sales and production forecasts, the Dijon representative would typically shrug and change the subject.

The following month, Erin revisited Dijon and again met with Naulleau and Pierre Chevalier, the sale manager for France. She opened the meeting with these words: "Ma dernie`revisite chez vous `etaittre`sagre`able. J'aiappre`cieI'opportunite` a connaitre les cadres de Dijon.Maintenant je voudraisdiscuter les projects lie`s au succe`s de notreentreprise." [My last visit here was very pleasant. I appreciated the opportunity to get to know the Dijon managers. Now, I would like to discuss projects linked to the success of our business.] Again, Naulleau talked mostly about superficial topics, but he did respond in a few words of French. The other managers spoke among themselves in French in her presence but held back on talking about serious business issues. Back at headquarters, Erin met with the CEO. She discussed her seemingly slow progress in getting down to serious business with the Dijon managers. The CEO then asked whether she would like the company to assign somebody else to the job. Erin responded, "I'm not willing to say goodbye to Dijon quite yet. Give me more time to prove myself."

Questions

1. How should Erin conduct herself in her future visits to the Dijon operation in order to get down to business?

2. Should the company replace Erin with another person for the position of international liaison? Explain your answer.

3. What message or messages about global business relationships do you extract from this case history?