Question 2 (15 marks) Chapter 10 Agents are individuals located in foreign markets who work for your company on commission to help bridge substantial language, cultural and customer-access barriers. They typically have no infrastructure for distribution and may even work out of their home office. They are best deployed when you need to reach a handful of high-dollar-value accounts and are most frequently used in businesses that have long selling cycles (e.g. defense procurement, large government acquisitions and large corporate accounts.) Although agents work for long periods of time with no pay (in anticipation of earning a significant percentage commission when a sale ultimately concludes), it is not uncommon for agents to secure millions of dollars of sales in a year and then get paid anywhere between 5 and 20% commission (depending on the industry). Given this very basic explanation of how agents work, join together in your groups and develop: a) A list of hiring criteria for an agent to be used to make sales of computers to the government of another country b) What combination of skills, personal attributes and experiences would constitute an ideal agent? Note as well that Canada has laws that specify that Canadian business cannot be involved in bribery of foreign officials (for more information google the Corruption of Foreign Public Official Act). Nevertheless, when an agent stands to earn a considerable amount of money, there is always a risk of corrupt dealings between your agent and that government and your firm can be implicated if this occurs. c) Discuss this issue by demonstrating that you understand how bribery works. Offer suggestions of strategies that your firm might employ to ensure that you are not intentionally or inadvertently involved in such a scheme.