CASE $2\mathrm{.}1$ ? FERGUSON TRAINING ACROSS CULTURES

In March of $2016,$ ?Andrew Ferguson, development associate at Ferguson Training Across Cultures in Kingston Ontario, had just returned to his office following the weekly coordinators $$ ?meeting. The meeting had focussed on the coming launch of Ferguson $$ s largest marketing effort in the company $$ s $12$ ?year history. It was Ferguson $$ s responsibility to ensure that the campaign would be a success. Ferguson, had little experience in this area, yet he was responsible for selecting the most appropriate method to launch this campaign, and more importantly, to monitor its success. Ferguson $$ s written promotional plan was due on the president $$ s desk in four hours.

FERGUSON TRAINING ACROSS CULTURES

Company Background

Founded in $2004,$ ?by Dr $.$ ?Angus Ferguson, a retired university English professor, began as a home $-$ based business that provided English $-$ as $-$ a $-$ Second $-$ Language $($ ESL $)$ ?training, with Angus Ferguson as the president and sole employee. However, as Ferguson drew the attention of larger clients, the breadth of the services grew to meet the clients $$ ?demands. By $2014,$ ?Ferguson employed $10$ ?full time employees and had established a data $-$ base of approximately $65$ ?consultants. These consultants were hired as needed, depending on the specificity of the clients $$ ?requests.

By $2014,$ ?Ferguson was a leading provider of language, culture and diversity training in south eastern Ontario. The business offered two major services, language training and cultural diversity training. The language training component involved specific programs geared towards developing the employees $$ ?ees $`$ ?English or French oral and written communication skills. The cultural diversity training services focussed on solving human resources problems through the education of the client $$ s employees in teambuilding, mentoring, managing diversity, and understanding inherent cultural differences.

Although language training still represented $60$ ?per cent of the revenues, much of the firms focus had turned to the more lucrative and growing cultural diversity training, in fact, this part of the business had grown $70$ ?per cent in fiscal year $2015.$ ?The average cost to the clients was $ $1,750$ ?per day for either the language or cultural diversity training. Ferguson earned revenues of $ $1\mathrm{.}6$ ?million and realized a net income of $ $200,000$ ?in fiscal year $2015.$

GROWTH

The growth of the business had been due mainly to the hard work and exceptional networking skills of Angus Ferguson. The business $$ s dramatic growth had severely strained the resources that Angus could dedicate to all activities of the business; consequently, Andrew Ferguson, Angus $$ s grandson was hired in the summer of $2014$ ?to lead the new $$ business development $$ ?department. This new area of the business was designed to alleviate many of the marketing and selling activities that were performed solely by Angus Ferguson and to spark corporate growth that would allow the company to enter new geographic markets in the United States. Andrew Ferguson $$ s first nine months on the job were spent improving his understanding of the business and fundamental marketing skills. It was anticipated that he would begin marketing activities towards the end of his first year, once he had a thorough understanding of what strategies would be effective in this industry.

THE CROSS $-$ CULTURAL CONSULTING INDUSTRY

Like most professional services industries, cross $-$ cultural consulting firms were most successful once they had developed a strong awareness for their services. Thus, reputations were of extreme importance and it was not uncommon for firms to advertise their client lists and to provide client testimonials to demonstrate the practicality of their services. Relationship management and earning referrals proved to be the key success factors in this industry.

The clients of cross $-$ cultural consulting firms could be divided into two groups: governments and private firms or organizations.

Government

Government departments, based primarily in Ottawa, required extensive text $-$ intensive training programs in both English and French. Contracts were usually awarded through a bidding system. Although price was an important factor among the criteria listed, it was not paramount, the public client also considered the experience and reputation of the consulting firm when deciding on a successful bid. Ferguson $$ s public clients included, Human Resources and Development Canada $($ HRDC $),$ ?the Department of National Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Private Firms

Ferguson $$ s other group of clients consisted of private corporations interested in improved efficiency of their workforce and team dynamics. Several high $-$ tech firms in the Southern Ontario region had begun to hire many non $-$ Canadian engineers

Management at these firms believed that training in cultural diversity would heighten the confidence of these newcomers to Canada and would provide