Hr Manager for American Electronics Business

Who is the-Best ?

Assume that you are the human resource manager for a large American firm in the electronic business. The head of your company’s operation in Japan has just resigned unexpectedly to take a job with another firm. Japan is an important country. It accounts for 15% of the sales turnover. Moreover, you have five joint-ventures in Japan that contribute greatly to the financial bottom line and the innovation process. In the last ten years many new products have been originating from Japan. However, during the last three years sales have not increased much. There are also increasingly conflicts with three joint-venture partners on intellectual property rights issues.

Some human resource management-related issues are also worrying. You have lost three very promising young local managers the last twelve months. The main reason they left is that you do seem to have lost some of your previous dynamism and they complained about the lack of new challenges. They also believe that their promotion is too slow and reward does not fully reflect their individual performance. Another important reason they left is that local managers did not like the management style of the head of the subsidiary (the man who just left). He had a strongly top-down approach and did not seem interested in listening to the input coming from them.

You must decide on a replacement as quickly as possible, and you have listed up potential candidates for the job:

Jack Henderson 62 years old – a lawyer by training Henderson is a senior vice president based in your Chicago headquarters. Jack has a long and distinguished career with your firm, is well regarded by every one, and plan to retire in 3 years. He has never worked outside the USA but is strongly and visibly lobbying for the job in Japan. However, his wife thinks that it is too late to start an international career and she does not want to move from Chicago.

Takeo Takahashi 43 years old - Takahashi is the number two manager in your Japanese operation now, although he has only served in that role 3 months. He was born and raised in Japan. After attending college in electronics engineering in the US, he returned to Japan and went to work for your firm. Takeo is considered an emerging star in the company but is also relatively young and inexperienced. You are not sure that conservative elder managers in Japan can accept a Japanese of his age as leader. Your CEO also prefers to appoint someone for the Japanese job with at least 15 years of company experience, and Takeo has only 8 years experience. He was being groomed to eventually take over the operation, but the just-departed top executive had been expected to serve until he reached retirement age in another 7 years.

Jane Yamaguchi 46 years old - Yamaguchi is a Hawaiian-born female American manager currently heading up a major division for your company in the US, A dual economics and Asian studies major at University of Hawaii, for the last several years she has been studying Japanese market and become a true expert on that country. She enjoys traveling, and spends as much as time in Asia as possible. You also know that she would be very interested in this job if it were offered. She is aware of the difficulties of change management in a country such as Japan. She thinks that rocking the boat would be counterproductive. So, she is adept of the proverb: Do in Rome as the Romans do’. The problem with her is that you are concerned that her husband and 2 high-school-age children may not share her enthusiasm about living in Japan. In addition, you also worry that if she is not offered a new challenge soon, she might start looking for another position,

Jacques Moine 56 years old - Moine is your most experienced international manager. An electronic engineer originally from France, he has held senior management position in your firm’s operations in Germany, Spain, Canada, Argentina, and Mexico. Moine appears to be quite satisfied with his current posting in Mexico. That operation is both stable and very efficient. Therefore, it should be possible to find out a manager, even with less experience, who could replace him. He is free on short notice and has no family-related problem that could impede his move to Japan. During his long career he has shown that he can handle difficult issues of the same nature as those currently confronting the Japanese subsidiary. Although he has never worked in Asia he is very practical-minded and can adapt his management style easily to fit with the circumstances.

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