Culture Clash Memo Revision

TO: The CEO FROM: Group 1 DATE: 9 September 2017 SUBJECT: Culture Clash

The situation presented in the case is an outcome of lack of timely communication between the Vice Presidents for Marketing, Manufacturing, and Design departments. I believe the Chinese supplier was unethical in shipping over 300,000 cases made of real leather as opposed to shipping cases made of the requested faux leather material. The root cause of the fallout presented in the case is as a result of unethical conduct of the supplier through shipment of the product that were not as per the specification. The supplier should have provided a timely communication of their intention to ship cases made of real leather and only shipped the product upon approval by the organization.

It is a significant lapse in judgement from the manufacturing vice president to accept the material that was not adhering to the stipulated specification. Quality checks provided a clear indication that the material was not as per the stipulated specifications, so the manufacturing vice president should not have received the material and should have rejected the unspecified material instead. In addition, the lack of communication between the manufacturing vice president and the marketing vice president as well as their resort to make decisions without consulting the design vice president was another significant unethical conduct.

Once the marketing vice president received the memo regarding the receipt and acceptance of cases made of real leather instead of synthetic faux, he should have communicated to the design vice president for conformance as well as evaluation of its impact on the product. A change in material could have long-lasting negative effects on the product due to cultural differences. The marketing vice president should have been aware of the cultural considerations and beliefs prior to making the decisions regarding shipment of the leather cases to Africa and Asia. The decision could harm the reputation of Phone and Build for going against the religious beliefs of the target market, considering the market was comprised of Muslims and Hindus, and could lead to huge losses as a result of loss of reputation and business.

In case I was the marketing Vice president and issued with the same memo, I would have done things differently. Consultation with the design vice president was not made in the entire process, and the design vice president was not even informed about changes in the specification. As a marketing vice president, I would have communicated with the design and manufacturing vice presidents about the change in specification and the possible impact that the change would have resulted in for the organization. The change in specification would have resulted in other effects such as overheating, in addition to adversely impacting the performance. Therefore, I would have recommended a recall of all the products that are made of leather cases and replaced them with synthetic cases. Even though the process would result in significant overhead costs but is necessary for fulfilling customer expectations and providing a product that does not result in a culture clash.

The senior personnel at Phone and Build made strategic errors by not performing a comprehensive analysis of their market. Through a comprehensive market analysis, the senior personnel would have understood the cultural dynamics of their market, particular the composition of the market considering that the population was comprised majorly of Muslims and Hindus. Considering that a significant proportion of African and Asian customers were sensitive about using products made of pig leather, the senior personnel would have revisited their decision to manufacture and distribute phone cases made of real pig leather. Also, the design, manufacturing, and marketing vice presidents made another strategic error by failing to effectively communicate about the in material and evaluation of the possible moves that would have been made to address the situation.

Therefore, Phone and Build needs to arrange for a press release for recalling the product and state the reason(s) for the recall, in addition to giving the consumers an assurance that the organization care about their religious practices and beliefs and is willing to go an extra mile to ensure they are fully satisfied. The organization should also organize training for its senior management on the significance of ethical conduct and ethics in organizational practices. Additionally, such training should be compulsory for senior management. It is also recommended to take appropriate action against the supplier for shipping leather cases that did not meet the needed specification.