...International Management – Siemens Case Study Group Coursework Presentation Question 2 Introduction Klaus Kleinfeld took over as CEO of Siemens in 2005 from Heinrich von Pierer and was at the helm of the company until his resignation on the 25th April 2007. During his time he was seen as an enigmatic premier who transformed the company. The stock had grown by 39% since he took over (Global Business 07/05/2007). He streamlined the organisation by cutting costs, boosting innovation and expanding abroad. He even maintained a rise in the company’s share price during the bribery scandals publicity. Was the board right to accept his resignation? This was a highly sensitive decision at the time because the bribery scandals came to light whilst Kleinfeld was CEO but he had worked magic at Siemens in a very short amount of time, in only two years he had transformed Siemens and their share price had grown exponentially as a result. Based upon his track record at the company he did not deserve to be released in that manner. The bribery came to light during Klienfeld’s tenure but most of payments were made during von Pierer’s time as CEO. Kleinfeld pushed Siemens employees to make faster decisions and put as much emphasis on the customers as on the technology. He sold off the unprofitable mobile phone production to BenQ and fostered a JV between Nokia and Siemens to merge their mobile and fixed line phone equipment businesses to create one of the world’s biggest network firms. In...
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...INTRODUCTION Background of Siemens Siemens is a Germany-based company that established in October 12, 1847. It is one of the world’s largest electronics and industrial engineers firms. The products produce by Siemens includes industrial controls, lighting products, power generation equipment and transportation systems. Siemens operates in 190 countries worldwide with recent annual revenues exceeding $100 billion. Opening Case The case started when a senior executive at Siemens Company received a phone call from their business partner in Saudi Arabia. The person who made the call blackmailed Siemens to pay $190 million in U.S currency otherwise he will disclose the corruption made by Siemens in order to win contracts in Saudi Arabia. Since then, the series of events started whereby there are police raids, forensic investigations and arrests top of executives in Siemens. Based on the case, the investigators believed that Siemens has a culture of corruption, that endorsed by senior managers in order to win contracts. The way of bribe used is by the managers will bring the money in their suitcases with confident that they are doing “business as usual”. Case Chronology Started in 1970s until 2007, Siemens has being alleged for a series of scandal include accusation of bribery given to government officials in numerous countries around the world. The actions included one of the former executive of Siemens was accused for handling $77 million in bribes while another situation...
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...Jan 10, 2013 Case Study 1 – Siemens 1. In our opinion bribery is an unethical practice but through the eyes of Siemens and many other countries temporally the opinion of what constitutes unethical practice is in the eye of the beholder. Different countries over the long history of Siemens have added, removed, and modified their bribery policies. But, Siemens obviously hid the fact that they were bribing to obtain business so through the very act of hiding they are deemed unethical. If Siemens took the money they spent on bribery, lower the bid on the contract, show quality and build a loyal relationship over time then they could have invested the same amount and not had to face the burden of the image issues and the fines. In addition, they could have also leverage equity in their company for business in other regions. 2. We feel that the board was right not to extend his term as CEO. Because under his leadership employees were able to find loopholes to bribe businesses that led to the scandal. In order to move forward with a better image and remove itself from the scandal Siemens would have to show a change in leadership. The positive impacts of his departure on the company were a stronger internal compliance and controls and corporate governance. The greatest negative impact would be his knowledge and his clout within the German business world. We believe that Siemens is at fault. They and a large amount of employees...
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...few international countries believe in corruption. Corruption can consist of bribery and nepotism. Bribery is more common in underdeveloped countries that are looking for additional income to bring in. Bribes are expected in many countries, the United States’ 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits payments made to foreign government officials with the aim of gaining or maintaining business (Here Comes the Bribe). The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was updated in 1998 after bribery was banned from Germany. Now the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act applies to foreign firms and persons who cause an act in making such a corrupt payment within the United States territory (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). Bribery is another way of saying extorting money from someone. Bribery is when money or something value is promised to, given to, or taken form an individual or company in attempt to sway someone decisions. Nepotism is more of a government corruption. Government will use their powers for dishonest gains or illegal means. German engineering conglomerate Siemens, rocked by the worst bribery scandal in the country’s history, they won a court ruling reversing a $56 million fine against the Munich-based company (In Germany, Bribery Doesn’t Always Mean Corruption, and Siemens Finds). Former manager pleaded guilty to paying bribes to win the contract from Italian Enel Group. A small court ordered Siemens to pay back millions of dollars in profit but the...
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...Research Methodology • Title A study of the effect of bribery and corruption with lack of censorship in the governmental institution There are various reasons why corruption takes place and takes hold. Sometimes it is due to the fact that officials are simply not paid very much and so they need to supplement their salaries with money from bribes. Sometimes the bureaucratic system is set up in such a way that officials simply refuse to carry out their duties unless they are ‘encouraged’ by being offered bribes. In other cases it is actually part of the tradition and culture of a country to give and receive ‘gifts’ in order to get anything done. In some cases companies from less corrupt countries allegedly engage in bribery in order to do business in countries where corruption is the norm, otherwise they would not be able to operate successfully in those countries. It can be argued that if such companies did not bribe officials in the necessary countries then the economies of those countries would suffer because fewer companies would invest in them, thus making them poorer. On a smaller scale corruption is often just a result of people’s natural desire to ‘beat the system’. Mostly, corruption occurs in environments where it is tolerated and where the temptation is too strong to resist. In the following paragraph there are some examples of how bribes take place in each and every one of them. • Problem Statement Main Problem: A person gives some money to officials...
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...EAST WEST UNIVERSITY EMBA Program MKT502/EMBA_591: International Business /Business in the Global Environment Spring-2016 Group Assignment: Analysis of Selected Case Studies Instructions 1. Each group (six students, max.) will analyze the four cases attached herewith by answering the cases related questions. 2. Students are advised to apply relevant concept available in lecture materials, textbook, and/or any related sources while answering case related questions. 3. Length of each case analysis must be 2-5 pages including explanations, related charts, and images, if any. 4. The deadline of submission is April 05, 2016. Don’t miss the deadline. However, early submission is acceptable. 5. Each group must submit both hard and soft copies of the assigned work. 6. Please make sure that all group members’ names and IDs are on the cover page. Nevertheless, group leaders are advised to exclude the particulars of the group members who are free-rider in nature. 7. Last but not least, be cautious about plagiarism!!!!!!! 1/9 Case study 1: The Globalization of Starbucks Thirty years ago, Starbucks was a single store in Seattle's Pike Place Market selling premiumroasted coffee. Today it is a global roaster and retailer of coffee with some 16,700 stores, 40 percent of which are in 50 countries outside of the United States. Starbucks set out on its current course in the 1980s when the company's director of marketing, Howard Schultz, came back from a trip to Italy enchanted with the Italian...
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...Recovery of Trust: Case studies of organisational failures and trust repair BY GRAHAM DIETZ AND NICOLE GILLESPIE Published by the Institute of Business Ethics Occasional Paper 5 Authors Dr Graham Dietz is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at Durham University, UK. His research focuses on trust repair after organisational failures, as well as trust-building across cultures. Together with his co-author on this report, his most recent co-edited book is Organizational Trust: A cultural perspective (Cambridge University Press). Dr Nicole Gillespie is a Senior Lecturer in Management at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her research focuses on building, repairing and measuring trust in organisations and across cultural and professional boundaries. In addition, Nicole researches in the areas of leadership, teams and employee engagement. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the contact persons in the featured organisations for their comments on an earlier draft of this Paper. The IBE is particularly grateful to Severn Trent and BAE Systems for their support of this project. All rights reserved. To reproduce or transmit this book in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, please obtain prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Recovery of Trust: Case studies of organisational failures...
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...Paper 5 The Recovery of Trust: Case studies of organisational failures and trust repair BY GRAHAM DIETZ AND NICOLE GILLESPIE Published by the Institute of Business Ethics Occasional Paper 5 Authors Dr Graham Dietz is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at Durham University, UK. His research focuses on trust repair after organisational failures, as well as trust-building across cultures. Together with his co-author on this report, his most recent co-edited book is Organizational Trust: A cultural perspective (Cambridge University Press). Dr Nicole Gillespie is a Senior Lecturer in Management at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her research focuses on building, repairing and measuring trust in organisations and across cultural and professional boundaries. In addition, Nicole researches in the areas of leadership, teams and employee engagement. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the contact persons in the featured organisations for their comments on an earlier draft of this Paper. The IBE is particularly grateful to Severn Trent and BAE Systems for their support of this project. All rights reserved. To reproduce or transmit this book in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, please obtain prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Recovery of Trust: Case studies of organisational failures and...
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...A special CBI court on Thursday sentenced B Ramalinga Raju, his two brothers and seven others to seven years in prison in the Satyam fraud case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on Ramalinga Raju, the Satyam Computer Services Ltd's founder and former chairman, and his brother B Rama Raju and Rs 20-25 lakh each on the remaining accused. HT presents a lowdown of the country's biggest-ever corporate accounting scandal . What is the Satyam scam about? It is about corporate governance and fraudulent auditing practices allegedly in connivance with auditors and chartered accountants. The company misrepresented its accounts both to its board, stock exchanges, regulators, investors and all other stakeholders. Is this an accounting fraud, a market manipulation/fraud or both? It is a fraud, which misled the market and other stakeholders by lying about the company’s financial health. Even basic facts such as revenues, operating profits, interest liabilities and cash balances were grossly inflated to show the company in good health. Who is to blame here? The promoters? The promoters are primary culprits, although it is almost impossible to misrepresent such facts without the connivance of the auditors and some executive board members. Independent directors, it seems, were kept in the dark about the actual books of accounts. What about the auditors? The role of external third party auditors, who were tasked to ensure that no financial bungling is undertaken to carry...
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...1. Introduction 2 Types of strategy Corporate strategy Diversification Vertical Integration Takeover Entry into new business segments Disinvestments Role of headquarter Competitive strategy Product strategy Advertising measures Price strategy Make of buy Innovation strategy Building up market entry barriers Usage of economies of scale Building up alliances Competitive advantages 1. Company 2. Competitor 3. Customer Unique Selling Proposition The unique feature of a product, which enables to have a competitive advantage over other providers. The marketing concept of the unique selling proposition facilitates the successful promotion of products. Highlighting of an outstanding product feature supports the company in positioning their products and helps to convince consumers of its benefits. Different ways of value of the headquarter 1. Stand-alone Influence Separate influence on the strategies and the performance of the particular business fields 2. Linkage Influence Creating synergies by taking advantages of existing relations between business fields 3. Central Functions and Services Avoidance of redundancies by providing cost-efficient centralised services 4. Corporate Development Design of the business portfolio through purchase, sale and restructuring of business fields Business design The totality of how a company selects its costumers, defines and differentiates its offerings, defines the tasks it will perform itself and those it will outsource, configures its resources, goes to market,...
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...# 03 / 2009 © Irum Shahid Strengthening Corporate Governance to Combat Corruption ‘I call on member countries to work urgently with us to address major corporate governance failures. This will be a vital step to reinforcing market integrity.’ - Angel Gurría, Secretary-General, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The collapse of global financial markets in September 2008 has ignited a debate on what caused their quick undoing. As captured in the comments of the OECD Secretary-General, there is a growing sentiment that poor corporate governance is one of the forces to blame. It allowed the transparency, accountability and integrity of companies to be compromised and for abuses to go unchecked, particularly on matters of corruption. w w w. t r a n s p a r e n c y . o r g Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. Why is corporate governance critical? What is covered by corporate governance? Aligning corporate governance and anticorruption 4. 5. Recent reform efforts Moving the agenda forward Strengthening corporate governance to combat corruption What is Corporate Governance? For TI, corporate governance is understood to mean the “procedures and processes for how private sector organisations are directed, managed 4 and controlled”. This includes the relationships between, responsibilities of and legitimate expectations among different stakeholders (Board of Directors, management, shareholders, and other interested groups). Laws and regulations provide the...
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...Section 2.3 : Credit Ratings MERGERS & ACQUISATIONS Section 3.1 : Legal Structures Section 3.2 : Documentation Section 3.3 : Business Valuation TAKEOVERS Section 4.1 : Types Of Takeover Section 4.2 : Financing a Takeover Section 4.3 : Mechanics Section 4.4 : Strategies Section 4.5 : Agency Problems Section 4.6 : Pros & Cons Laws & Codes used during takeover Section 5.1 : City Code on Takeovers & Mergers Section 5.2 : Competetion Law Section 5.3 : Takeover Directives Section 5.4 : Companies ACT 1985 BLACKBERRY TAKEOVER REGULATORY APPROVAL COMPETETION COMMISION FOR TAKE OVER FCPA Section 8.1 : Provision & Scope Section 8.2 : History Section 8.3 : Requirements Section 8.4 : Application UK BRIBERY ACT TAKEOVER MECHANICS OF BLACKBERRY TAKEOVER CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES ACKNOLEGDEMENT I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my guide Prof. Deepak Dayal for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course of this thesis. The blessing, help and guidance given by him time to time shall carry me a long way in the journey of life on which I am about to embark. I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to Mr. Krishnamurthy, Director, Institute of Management Technology, Dubai for his cordial support, valuable...
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...r The ‘real’ reasons behind Corporate Social Responsibility Management Summary With this thesis I would like to contribute on the on-going CSR discussion. I attempt to investigate the real motives why multinational corporations engage in corporate social responsibility activities. The debate in CSR is nowadays still focused on the link between CSR and financial performance. Research lacks real proof of this link and corporations are failing in formulating a business case. So why is it that MNCs are willing to engage in CSR activities. In the following thesis I would like to give an answer on this question. Inhoudsopgave 1. Introduction 5 1.1 Research Purpose 6 1.2 Problem Statement 6 1.3 Sub questions 7 1.4 Structure 7 2. Theory 8 2.1 Definition CSR 8 2.2 Definition Multinational Corporation (MNC) 9 2.3 Theoretical Framework (Garigga & Mele (2004)) 10 2.3.1 Instrumental theories 10 2.3.2 Political theories 12 2.3.3 Integrative theories 13 2.3.4 Ethical theories 14 2.3.5 Propositions 16 3. Methods 18 3.1 Research approach 18 4. Results 19 4.1 Instrumental motive 20 4.2 Political motive 20 4.3 Integrative motive 21 4.4 Ethical motive 22 5. Conclusion & Recommendation 24 5.1 Conclusion 24 5.2 Limitations & Recommendation 27 6. References 28 1. Introduction Corporate social responsibility is becoming more and more important for companies. The last few years there is an increase of interest from companies...
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...This page intentionally left blank Lut12575_fm_i-xxvi.indd Page i 2/10/11 2:28 PM user-f494 /203/MHBR222/Lut12575_disk1of1/0078112575/Lut12575_pagefiles International Management Culture, Strategy, and Behavior Eighth Edition Fred Luthans University of Nebraska–Lincoln Jonathan P. Doh Villanova University Lut12575_fm_i-xxvi.indd Page ii 2/11/11 2:35 PM user-f494 /203/MHBR222/Lut12575_disk1of1/0078112575/Lut12575_pagefiles INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT: CULTURE, STRATEGY, AND BEHAVIOR, EIGHTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous editions © 2009, 2006, and 2003. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States. This book is printed on recycled, acid-free paper containing 10% postconsumer waste. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 QDB/QDB 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 978-0-07-811257-7 MHID 0-07-811257-5 Vice President & Editor-in-Chief: Brent Gordon Vice President, EDP/Central Publishing...
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...PART 2 The Global Marketing Environment CHAPTER 2 The Global Economic Environment Case 2-1 The Global Economic Crisis I n his 1997 book One World, Ready or Not, William Greider described the United States as “the buyer of last resort.” Greider explained that, for many years, the United States was the only nation that was willing to absorb production surpluses exported by companies in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Greider asked: “Who will buy the surpluses when the United States cannot?” The conventional wisdom has long held that strong spending by consumers in other nations would keep the world economy humming. However, by 2008, Greider’s question was taking on a new urgency and the conventional wisdom was being tested. An economic crisis that had its roots in lax subprime mortgage lending practices began to spread around the globe. In the United States, where the crisis began, economic misery was widespread: The housing market collapsed, real estate values plummeted, credit tightened, and job growth slowed (see Exhibit 2-1). As the price of oil passed the $100 per barrel benchmark, the average price of a gallon of gasoline rose to $4. American consumers were, indeed, less willing and less able to buy. However, the crisis was not confined to the United States alone. Consumer-goods exporters in Asia, which Exhibit 2-1: The bursting of the global real estate bubble was only one aspect of the worst recession in decades. The ripple effects from the economic...
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