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Kimberly-Clark Andean Region:

Creating a Winning Culture

SUMMARY

Kimberly Clark has hired Sergio Nacach to be the manager in the Andean Region. Andean region is consisted of five countries that are Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Columbia. Andean region is known much about their bad economic in that time. Kimberly Clark wants to aim at their people. The culture different in Kimberly Clark is somewhat differentiated. They come from many places and they are all different on the individual. Kimberly Clark run by their newly hired from Uniliver’s management, Sergio Nacach, have gone up in the rank in the business. Kimberly Clark have successful not only the business result, despite of the situation of the economic in the Andean region, they also awarded as the Great Place to Work Institute. In Ecuador and Peru 2007, Kimberly-Clark was ranked number one on the best place to work list, and number four in Columbia. Sergio Nacach implements a very attractive way of management style. He closes the gap between the employee and him. He is not the type to go away with the power. Employees of any rank can walk in his office and discuss. He will drop everything he worked on and talk. This type of the management style encourages the employees to come up with the ideas that somehow never showed up in the business world. This method also greatly reduces tension in the work. Getting scolded by the boss is an old scheme. Nacach believes that trial and Error makes you grow even stronger and smarter. It makes you and the job better and better. Kimberly Clark success doesn’t only come from their products package or design or their brand names. They are proudly to present that their employment policies are what make the internal factors fully optimized. Their most valuable assets, Human, is the key to the success.

Company Background Kimberly-Clark Thailand was incorporated in Thailand in 1966 and is now the number one tissue manufacturer both globally and in Thailand.

Together with its Safeskin operations in southern Thailand, Kimberly-Clark maintains four production facilities in Thailand with over 7,600 employees. Kimberly-Clark has been recognised as one of the top 10 "Best Employers" in Thailand.they have the best policy for employment as mangement and the employee gap is very little there is scope for both vertical and horizontal communications.

Products or ServicesKimberly-Clark locally manufactures and markets the well known KLEENEX® and SCOTT® brands for bathroom tissue, facial tissue, kitchen towels and paper napkins. Kimberly-Clark also distributes personal care products such as diapers, training pants and feminine napkins under the HUGGIES®, KOTEX® and WONDERSOFT® brands.

For the out of home environment (such as leading hotels, restaurants and manufacturing facilities), Kimberly-Clark brands include IMSOFT®, KIMWIPES®, KIMCELL, KIMTEX®, KLEENEGUARD® & OILSORB®.

SAFESKIN® rubber gloves are exported globally.

Kimberly are holding a significant market share of their choosen industry in the local market.

they are a global player with a good example of good working environment and employee motivation as each employee can get motivated through their intrinsic factors as well as external factors.Such work practice can show what a global industry should look like.

Questions:

1.) Describe some of the challenges facing Kimberly-Clark in the Andean region prior to Sergio Nacach joining the company.

-- The company was still a minor player in Latin America, just 20 years before Nacach joined the company their market share was in the lower single digits in many countries.

There was great diversity in management style and approach among the different country managers in the region and two previous attempts to integrate the Andean region had failed.

Since the company wasn’t really integrated enough between different markets or even between different units, it resulted in sub-optimization. Different units had different goals and they always agree on the same ways to measure these goals or how to reach them.

The company was stuck in a traditional way of operating with many employees without any college degree that weren’t necessarily motivated to achieve any high set goals. The challenge here was to get its people to set higher goals for themselves and for the company and make it possible for them to achieve. In order to change the company culture they needed to involve every employee more fully and completely in the company

2.) What did Nacach do to address these challenges?

-- To overcome the diversity problem, Nacach decided that the company culture comes first. They built the company to operate and feel like a community, where people would care about each other and the organization.

Another step was to coordinate on a local level, since differences existed between the five relatively small Andean countries, they needed to create competitive advantage by being more responsive and close to the customers. To do this K-C created tailored marketing campaigns and sales promotions to fit the local cultural variations. This decentralization proved to be a key dimension providing competitive advantage for K-C.

In order to renew the company culture and move away from the traditional, non-competitive structure, the company hired a great number of recent college-graduates who wanted and was ready for a challenge. They gradually replaced their workforce to fit with the new company culture.

3.) Describe some of the challenges facing Kimberly-Clark in the Andean region organizational culture. Are these cultural elements consistent with the Latin American culture? Why or why not?

-- According to the case study, Kimberly Clark Andean region has been growing and competing with many competitors in the market over time. They have become the leader of the market and adopted a suitable management style to the region. There are many possible elements which created strong organizational culture of the firm. First of all, they believe in culture-came-first, on the other word, a people-oriented culture. The company always takes care of its people first when they have a problem to deal with. As a consequence, the company in Ecuador and Peru were ranked as number one on the best places to work list in 2007. Secondly, Nacach is a person-centered leader. He is an excellent leader. He motivated his subordinates to achieve more than minimal requirements. Besides, he focuses on his people and work place rather than job accomplishment. Moreover he can be into people from different cultures and backgrounds. His style of leadership collapses the gap between himself and the other people in the company because of his characteristics; open, friendly, and caring. Lastly, the strength of the employees’ commitment has a great impact to the company. Freedom is allowed within the framework. The employees are encouraged to develop new ideas and make personal expression. The decision making is decentralized. Moreover, the company managed to eliminate the formality by, for example, dressing informally, and also improve the employees’ performances by providing an intern program that included PhDs and MBAs from the best schools. These factors altogether build the great community for the employees.

These cultural elements are absolutely consistent with the Latin American culture because of the mutual culture each country shares and the completely suitable leadership style to the characteristics of the people.

Power distance: moderate.

There is still a gap between the leader and subordinates. However, Nacach solved this problem by being open to his subordinates. They are invited to speak to him and encouraged to share ideas and make a decision. Thus, the subordinates have the strong commitment toward the company.

Uncertainty avoidance: low.

Latin American culture avoids uncertainty by seeking consensus, jumping into action, hiring family, and creating structure. They are what the company provided for them. According to people-oriented culture, the employees always come first.

Masculinity: high.

Women’s value differs very much among societies than men’s value. They tend to value male leaders and not many women have an important role in any industry.

Collectivism: high.

For Latin America, the group is more important than the individual. They prefer group performance and work quite well in teamwork. As written in the case study: there was definitely a spirit of continuous improvement in the management team.

Short-term oriented

These people live and work for a moment. Things that are a little more difficult for Latin Americans: punctuality, planning, evaluation, and teams. This is what the company tried to improve by developing their people and creating a community to feel like this is their best place to work.

4.) How easy will it be to transfer the organizational culture to other countries? What challenges do you see if, for example, the organizational culture were to be implemented in the U.K.?

-- The transfer of the organizational culture depends on

The level of cultural difference

What management style that worked out in Latin American seems not to do so in the UK because, as can be seen in the table, the comparison between Latin American and British is totally different.

The ability to adapt to and work with people with diversity background and another factors of a good leadership are very important.

The level of acceptance and contribution to new organizational culture of the employees.

How much the employees are willing to take part in the new organizational culture and accept the new management style.

Bias on woman leader which tends to be less in the UK.

They are more open to and can get along well with woman leaders.

|Dimensions |Latin American |British |
|Power distance |Moderate |Low |
|Uncertainty avoidance |Low |low |
|Collectivism |High |Low |
|Masculinity |High |Low |
|Long-term oriented |low |High |

5.) What role does organizational culture play in motivating employees of multinationals? How can such culture be established?

-- People-oriented culture which is about sincerity; anyone can say it out and show for anything they’ve thought, empathy and community; people getting close and took care of each other. This culture is used in motivating employees of multinationals and it was established through the celebrations and meetings. These kinds of event can help all staffs develop stronger social bonds and networks of relationships. It also helps various parts of the company come to know and understand each other better. It is an opportunity for a personal development in communicating and listening.

6.) What lessons do you learn from Kimberly-Clark Andean region’s efforts to build a new culture?

-- I’ve learned that the successful of the company is not only depends on the high quality of human resources the company have. Everyone should have the same goal which focuses on only the best thing they could for the company and have high motivation to reach that goal. Without good relationship between each employee from different departments, the company couldn’t have truly cooperative. Focusing on individual works make only one department successful. On the other hand, trying to help each other with empathy and kindness could make all the jobs from every department done perfectly and it leads to the successful of the company. On my opinion, the company is like our body. Without head and brain, we couldn’t have any innovation and making some decisions. Without arms and hand, we couldn’t do anything. Without legs and feet, we couldn’t move toward. Therefore, each function of the company has an equal importance. Reducing on power distance is the best way to create harmony.