TCT manufactures a variety of small office equipment in nine different countries. It distributes and sells products such as copying machines, dictation units, laser printers, and paper shredders worldwide. TCT reported sales in more than 70 countries. TCT has sold and serviced products in India since the early 1980s even though it lacked its own in-country manufacturing facility. Originally, it hired independent importers to sell its products. It soon realised that generating higher sales required setting up its own operations. In 1992, it opened a sales office in New Delhi. Today, TCT is poised to expand its Indian operations. Local sales have been increasing at double-digit rates, powered by a boom in the Indian information-technology sector. Forecasts saw this trend accelerating over the next decade. Headquarters projected TCT India evolving into a key element of its global value chain and, ultimately, the center point of its Asian operations.

Shaping TCT India's expansion plans is the ongoing improvement in India's transportation infrastructure. Improvements in highways, railways, and seaports increase the efficiency of product movement both in and out of the country. Management envisions making the local subsidiary, a vital link in TCT's increasingly sophisticated supply chain. Presently, TCT's supply chain integrates input suppliers, production, and wholesalers in the United States and Europe. Long-term plans outlined integrating supply points throughout Asia.

India's independence in 1947 institutionalised strong democratic norms of accountability, transparency, and freedom. Progress on the economic front had been even more dynamic. From 1947 through 1990, India's decision to have a centrally planned economy led to the infamous "License Raj," a situation marked by elaborate licenses, regulations, and bureaucracy that were required to open and run a business. In 1991, India began a transition toward a free market economy with the intended demise of the License Raj. This transition, an ongoing process, has helped stabilize the economic environment and boost India's attractiveness as a manufacturing site.

In late 2009, TCT began building a factory in Bengaluru, the center of India's Silicon Valley. The plant will make a full range of laser printers, from entry level to high end. The first production run has been set for June 2010. Logistically, TCT plans to supply the factory with components from its manufacturing facilities in Europe and the United States. Eventually, management plans to find local suppliers or backward integrate into the local production of those components.

TCT enlisted a U.S. engineering firm to supervise construction of its plant in Bengaluru. Upon completion, TCT will "turn over the key" to the on-site factory director, a U.S. expatriate sent to run the operational plant. This director reports to TCT's U.S. headquarters on production and quality-control matters. He or she will report to TCT India's managing director in New Delhi on all other matters, such as accounting, supply-chain logistics, finance, and labour relations. The managing director of TCT India, in turn, will report to the Asian Regional Office at TCT's U.S. headquarters. A selection committee has been formed to nominate the new managing director for TCT India. The committee identified six candidates:

TCT prefers to fill executive vacancies by promotion from within the company. TCT uses a mix of home-, host-, and third-country nationals. In addition, TCT rotates its managers among its foreign and U.S. locations. Headquarters sees international experience as an important facet of executive leadership.

Tom Wallace: 30 years with TCT, experienced in the technical and sales aspects. Presently, Wallace supervises a U.S.-based operation that is about the size of that in India. However, the merger of Wallace's unit with another TCT division will eliminate his current position within six months.

Brett Harrison: 15 years with TCT, both running line activities and supervising staff. For the past three years, he has worked in the Asian regional office and has regularly toured TCT's Southeast Asian operations. Both he and his wife have traveled to India several times in the last 20 years and are well acquainted with its geography, politics, customs, and outlooks.

Atasi Das: Das joined TCT 12 years ago after earning her MBA from a university in New England. At 37, she has successfully moved between staff and line positions, with broader responsibilities in strategic planning. For two years, she was the second in command of a product group that was about half the size of the Indian operations. She speaks Hindi and is unmarried. Her parents, who live in the United States, are first-generation immigrants from India. Several family members and relatives live in Kashmir and Punjab, northern states of India.

Ravi Desai: Desai, 33, is currently an assistant managing director in the larger Asian operation. He helps oversee production and sales for the Southeast Asian markets in Singapore, Malaysia, and China. A citizen of India, he has spent his 10 years with TCT working in operational slots throughout Southeast Asia. He holds an MBA from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management.

Lau Ban Seng: Seng, 38, is the managing director of TCT's assembly operation in Malaysia. A citizen of Singapore, Seng has worked in either Singapore or Malaysia his entire life. However, he did earn undergraduate and MBA degrees from leading universities in the United States. He is fluent in Singapore's four official languages Malay, English, Mandarin, and Tamiland sees himself learning other languages as needed.

Saumitra Chakraborty: At 31, Chakraborty is the assistant to the departing managing director in India. He has held that position since joining TCT upon graduating from a small private university in Europe four years earlier. Unmarried, he consistently earns a job performance rating of competent in operational matters and excellent in customer relationship management. Although he excels in employee relations, he lacks directline experience. Still, he has successfully increased TCT India's sales, somewhat owing to his personal connections with prominent Indian families and government officials, along with his skillfulness in the ways of the Indian business environment. Besides speaking India's main languages of English and Hindi fluently, Chakraborty speaks Kannada (the local language of Bengaluru).

Adapted Source: Daniels,J.D. et al.(2011), International Business, Environment and Operations, Pearson, Pp 827.

1. Discuss the challenges each of the following candidates may face in the job. Saumitra Chakraborty Lau Ban SEng Tom Wallace

2. Who should the committee nominate? Why?

3. Is there a possibility to nominate more than one candidate? How to make this option works?