個案總覽

Richard Evans, the newly appointed General Manager of the Siam Chemicals Company (SCC) returns to his Bangkok office after a two-week absence to find his in-box full of emails from his Thai team. Under time pressure he must first prioritise and then decide how best to respond to them. However, SCC is his first posting outside Europe and he has begun to realise that in this very different cultural environment, his previous managerial experience and assumptions are not applicable. If he is to gain the respect of his local managers and motivate them to increase SCC's productivity in a highly competitive regional market, then he must decipher what lies behind the requestions and problems in their messages and respond appropriately. Evans has one hour before he must leave to catch a flight to Basel to attend a Board meeting at SCC's parent HQ. There he is expected to report on his progress and future plans for improving the subsidiary's performance.

KTN is a Belgian-based logistics firm that over the last decade has successfully expanded throughout the world. Its growth strategy has been based on an innovative approach to organisational and HRM issues, and a business model that emphasises value-added, high tech services. The specific context of the case is KTN's recent entry into Thailand and the next logical place for expansion is China. But for how much longer can KTN continue to operate in this way?