Case Incident- Boss I Think We Have a Problem Universal Steel Door Corporation has been in business for about 20 years, successfully selling a line of steel industrial-grade doors, as well as the hardware and fittings required for them. Focusing mainly in the United States and Canada, the company had gradually increased its presence from the New York City area, first into New England and then down the Atlantic coast, then through the mid-west and west, and finally into Canada. The companys basic expansion strategy was always the same: choose an area, choose a distribution center, hire a regional sales manager, and then let that regional sales manager help staff the distribution center and hire local sales reps. This method has been very success for the company. Unfortunately, the companys traditional success in finding sales help has not extended to its overseas operations. Edward Hodges, president of Universal Steel Door, decided to expand its company abroad, into Europe. However, the expansion has not gone smoothly at all. He tried his traditional approach for two weeks to find a sales manager by advertising in an international Steel Magazine which is read by businesspeople in Europe and by American expatriates living and working in Europe. Although the ads placed in the magazine also run for about a month on the magazines Internet web site, Mr. Hodges so far has received only five applications. One came from a possible viable candidate, whereas, four came from candidates whom Mr. Hodges observed were rolling stones people who seem to have spent most of their time travelling restlessly from country-to-country. When asked what he had done for the last 3 years, one told Mr. Hodges he had been on a walk about. Other aspects of his international HR activities have been equally problematic. Hodges alienated two of his sales managers by sending them to Europe to temporarily run the European operations, but neglecting to work out a compensation package that would cover their relatively high living expenses in Germany and Belgium. The sales manager from Canada ended up spending the better part of the year, and Mr. Hodges was rudely surprised to be informed by the Belgian government that his sales manager owed thousands of dollars in local taxes. The managers had hired about 10 local people to staff each of the two distribution centers. However, without full-time local European sales managers, the level of sales was disappointing, so Hodges decided to fire about half the distribution center employees. Thats when he got an emergency phone call from his temporary sales manager in Germany: Ive just been told that all these employees should have had written employment agreements and that in any case we cannot fire anyone without at least 1 years notice, and the local authorities here are really up in arms. Boss, I think we have a problem.

REQUIRED

Explain how you would have gone about attracting/sourcing managers for the European sales managers positions. Justify how your recommended approach will yield better results than that achieved by Mr. Hodges.