Richard was a 30-year-old American sent by his Chicago based company to set up a buying office in India. The new office's main mission was to source large quantities of consumer goods in India: cotton garments, accessories and shoes as well industrial products such as tent fabric and cast iron components.

India's Ministry of Foreign Trade (MFT) had invited Richard's Company to open this buying office because they knew it would promote exports, bring in badly needed foreign exchange and provide manufacturing know-how to Indian factories.

This was in fact the first international sourcing office of Richard's company to be located anywhere in South Asia. The MFT wanted it to succeed so that other Western and Japanese companies could be persuaded to establish similar procurement offices.

The expatriate manager decided to set up the office in the capital, New Delhi because he knew he would have to meet frequently with senior government officials. Since the Indian government closely regulated all trade and industry, Richard often found it necessary to help his suppliers to obtain import licenses for the semi-manufacturers and components they required to produce the finished goods his company has ordered.

Richard found these government meetings frustrating. Even though he always phoned to make firm appointments, the bureaucrats usually kept him waiting for hours before they met with him. Not only that, meetings would be continuously interrupted by phone calls and unannounced visitors as well as by clerks bringing in stacks of letters and documents to be signed. Because of all the waiting and the constant interruptions it regularly took him half a day or more to accomplish something that could have been done home in 20 minutes.

Three months into this assignment Richard began to think about requesting a transfer to a different part of the world - "somewhere where things work". He just could not understand why the Indian officials were being so rude. Why didn't the bureaucrats hold their incoming calls and sign those papers after the meeting to avoid the constant interruptions?

After all, the Government of India had actually invited his company to open this buying office. So didn't he have the right to expect reasonably courteous treatment from the officials in the various ministries and agencies he had to deal with? (Source: hbr.org)

Questions:

1. Please discuss what kind of training should be given to the expatriates of this company before they start the assignment in India? You may use any well-known MNCs as the example (10 Marks)
2. Identify what kind of training should have been given to Richard with respect to the culture of India and justify your recommendation with knowledge / theories learnt from your lecture. (5 Marks)
3. If Richard returns pre-maturely to his own country, what would be the reason of expatriate failure? Why? And what costs will the organization have to bear for the failure to finish his assignment? (10 Marks)