Question One:
Evaluate Avon’s operations in global markets regarding the use of international cadre development and building company associates and independent representatives.
Answer:
International cadre development is
I believe Avon has been very successful in its international human resources management in global market. First of all, Avon’s first female CEO took charge of company and implemented efficient policies to make the company get out of debt problem and sluggish sales problem. Secondly, Avon also focuses on international market. It is stated that Avon has more than 5million independent representatives worldwide. In 2005, Avon’s revenues surpassed $8.5 billion and profit was $847.6 million. Approximately 70% of the
The company is also said to maintain high standards in areas of ensuring sales force productivity and future retention i.e. compensation, fringe benefits, professional development and workforce environment.
In hiring and retaining the best work force a multi-faceted cultural training program need to be rolled out. This will entail topics on:
Culture shock and strategies on how to minimize it.
Cultural influence on global compensation.
Staffing global operations and
Key reward trends in the 21st century
Staffing global operations
Since Avon Specializes in personal care products majorly targeting young and middle aged customers (learned middle class women) we would recommend the Geocentric/Global staffing approach. The management of Avon need to be trained on the merits of this approach
Provides a large pool of applicants from which to choose from.
Third countries nationals are used to manage subsidiaries bring along more cultural flexibility and adaptability to a situation as well as being bilingual and multilingual.
It can be cost effective to pay and transfer managers from some countries than others.
However other forms of staffing approaches e.g. ethnocentric, polycentric and region-centric could be applied depending on the structure and strategy of the organization
Availability of qualified managers from the host country as well as
Factors related to the host nation e.g. technological