Mini Assignment 1 – McCain Foods Limited 1. If you were in charge of the Asian operations for McCain, how would you recommend the company overcome the challenges in the Chinese market?
If I were in charge of Asian operations for McCain, I would take an advertising approach to overcome challenges in the Chinese market. The most effective way is to have famous figures/celebrities as the face of McCain. This method has been proven successful in other advertising campaigns, such as Yao Ming in the anti-shark fin consumption campaign and Jay Chou/Kobe Bryant in Sprite commercials. In both cases, the awareness of both campaigns was widespread and well known. In the shark fin case, the appearance of NBA legend Yao Ming has led to more awareness of the dwindling shark population. Likewise, when Sprite faced the likes of singer sensation Jay Chou and NBA star Kobe Bryant, the popularity of Sprite increased. It can thus be concluded that the use of celebrities or famous figures will lead to popularity in a product. As well, the price of McCain products will have to initially be very low, as a conservative society will not want to spend a lot of money on an unknown item. 2. Drawing from Hofstede’s work on global cultures, what challenges might Canadian managers at McCain face when interacting with their Chinese business colleagues?
Hofstede’s works on global cultures are masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism, and power distance. The Canadian managers at McCain might end up with different point of view on individualism and collectivism when working with their Chinese business colleagues. The Canadian managers have lower collectivism than the Chinese business colleagues, because the Chinese colleagues are expected to work collaboratively compared with Canadian managers who look more after themselves. On the other hand, the Canadian managers might also face different power distance challenge when interacting with their Chinese colleagues. Since the Canadian managers are more resourceful and democratic and the Chinese are more autocrat. Moreover, the Chinese have femininity than the Canadian. The Chinese colleagues care more about others comparing with the Canadian manager who focuses more on material success.