Case study-5
Leading across cultures at Michelin
Khanjanben Patel
King graduate school, Monroe college
In 2004, French business manager and leader Olivier Chalon was approached by Michelin which is the French tyre manufacturing company in the France, which works all over the world. Its headquarter is in Clermont Ferrand, in France. Chalon accepted managerial position at Michelin in USA, located in North Carolina state. He had very good work record in the corporate world, and he was known for achieving results as a competent, skillful and experienced leader of the Michelin. He had eighteen years of experience in his field and achieved top level position in six countries including being fluent in four languages. He enjoyed …show more content…
He was hired to lead 4,000 employees in a division which needed to change in strategies because of challenges faced by north American division of the Michelin. The challenges included low sales, poor financial results and was trailing competitors in the aftermarket aspects of their products. Chalon knew that he needed to make changes to achieve results and was also aware that there would be some initial obstacles in the implementation of his approach. However, he was confident that like all his past experiences, he would able to muster everyone in his current project and motivate his team members to achieve desired results. But to his surprise, when he was approached by the head of human resource department regarding his complaints about criticizing his leadership style, skills and his interaction with all …show more content…
Although, Olivier Chalon had international managerial experience in other countries at top level management positions where he could achieve results he was still not equipped to undertake the task of turning around and win the trust of American employees. Cross cultural issues can put significant effect in relationship between the French manager and American employees. I suspect that Chalon should be aware of American culture before he went in North Carolina Michelin project. I also think that he should attended seminars on cross cultural issues affecting business strategies and style and employee behavior in American and French cultures. I believe that Michelin itself should take responsibility to set up seminars for both Chalon and American employees so that trust and loyalty could developed between both sides and both could be aware of cultural differences and sensitive to each other and not mislead cues as they did before. Also, I think Chalon should have good American cultural intelligence, so he can understand different culture people in a better way and can eradicate unnecessary obstacles in business environment (Groves et al,
Leading across cultures at Michelin
Khanjanben Patel
King graduate school, Monroe college
In 2004, French business manager and leader Olivier Chalon was approached by Michelin which is the French tyre manufacturing company in the France, which works all over the world. Its headquarter is in Clermont Ferrand, in France. Chalon accepted managerial position at Michelin in USA, located in North Carolina state. He had very good work record in the corporate world, and he was known for achieving results as a competent, skillful and experienced leader of the Michelin. He had eighteen years of experience in his field and achieved top level position in six countries including being fluent in four languages. He enjoyed …show more content…
He was hired to lead 4,000 employees in a division which needed to change in strategies because of challenges faced by north American division of the Michelin. The challenges included low sales, poor financial results and was trailing competitors in the aftermarket aspects of their products. Chalon knew that he needed to make changes to achieve results and was also aware that there would be some initial obstacles in the implementation of his approach. However, he was confident that like all his past experiences, he would able to muster everyone in his current project and motivate his team members to achieve desired results. But to his surprise, when he was approached by the head of human resource department regarding his complaints about criticizing his leadership style, skills and his interaction with all …show more content…
Although, Olivier Chalon had international managerial experience in other countries at top level management positions where he could achieve results he was still not equipped to undertake the task of turning around and win the trust of American employees. Cross cultural issues can put significant effect in relationship between the French manager and American employees. I suspect that Chalon should be aware of American culture before he went in North Carolina Michelin project. I also think that he should attended seminars on cross cultural issues affecting business strategies and style and employee behavior in American and French cultures. I believe that Michelin itself should take responsibility to set up seminars for both Chalon and American employees so that trust and loyalty could developed between both sides and both could be aware of cultural differences and sensitive to each other and not mislead cues as they did before. Also, I think Chalon should have good American cultural intelligence, so he can understand different culture people in a better way and can eradicate unnecessary obstacles in business environment (Groves et al,