After having email exchanges with his Mexican counterpart over several weeks without getting the expected actions. End results. Johan van den Bosch was getting. Tongue lashing from his British MNCs client. Who was furious at the lack of Progress Vanden Bosch , In the. Rotterdam office of Big 5 firm and his colleague in the Mexico city office. Pablo Menendez, were both seasoned veterans, and van den Bosch could not understand the lack of responsibilities.

A weak earleir, the client, Malcolm Smythe-jones, had visited his to express his mounting frustration. But this morning he had called with a stream of verbal abuse. His patience was exhausted.

Feeling angry himself, van den Bosch composed a strongly worded message to Menedez, and then decided to cool off. A half hour later, he edited it to stick to the facts, while still communicating the appropriate level of urgency. As he cllicked to send the message, he hoped that if would finally provoke some action to assuage his client with the reports he had been waiting for

He reread the email, and as he saved it to the mounting record in Smythe-Jones file, he thought. Im going to be happy this project is over for another year!

Message for Pablo Menendez

Subject: IAS 1998 Financial Statements

Author: Johannes van den Bosch Rotterdam)

Date: 10/12/99 1:51 p.m

Dear Pablo

This morning I had a conversation with Mr. Smythe-Jones (CFO) and Mr. Parker (Controller) re: the finalization statements Mr. Smythe-Jones was not in a very good mood.

He told me that he was very unpleased by the fact that the 1998 IAs Financial statement of the Mexican subsidiary still has not been finalised. At the moment he holds us responsible for this process. Although he recognises that local managements Is responsible for such financial statements, he blames us for not being responsive on this matter and informing him about the process adequetly. I belive he also recongnizes that we have been instructed by Mr. Whytee (CEO) not to do any handholding, but that should not keep us from monitoring the process and inform him about the progress.

He asked me to provide him tommorow with an update on the status of the Ias report and other reports: pending

Therefore I would like to get the following information from you today

1. What has to be done to finalise the Mexican Subsidiary a IAS financial.

2. Who has to do it (local government B&FF Mexico, client headquaters, B&FF Ratterdam).

3. A timetable when things have to be done in order to finalise within a couple of weeks or sooner.

4. A brief overview why it takes so long to prepare and audit the IAS f/s.

5. Are there any other reports for 1998 pending (local gaao, tax). If so the above is also applicable for those reports.

As of today I would like to receive an update of the status every week. If any major problems arise the finalization process. I would like to be informed immediately. The next status update is due january 12,2000.

Mr. Smythe-Jones also indicated that in the future all reports (US GAAP, local GAAP and IAS) should be normally finalised within 60 days after the balance sheet date. He will hold local auditors responsiblemfor monitoring this process.

Best regards and best wishes for 2000

Johannes

The case above illustrates the challenges facing global Managers.

1. In brief list the problems / challenges facing the international manager in the situation described above?

2. What would you propose to solve this type of problem?