Intl Trade

Case Analysis of

“From Regional Star to Global Leader”

From HBR Case Study

Introductory and summary of the incident

Yang Jianguo was recently promoted from country manager for China to global head of product development at a French perfume maker named Deronde. He had been country manager for the China operations, having been promoted from his job running a lab that had produced two hit scents in the Asian market. The company’s CEO, Alain Deronde had chosen Jianguo over three other rising stars. Yves Saurac, one of the three rising stars, was the vice president of the company who everyone had assumed to get job instead of Jianguo. Yves was also close friend with the CEO’s family but Jianguo succeeded in the competition. Jianguo was eager to succeed in his new role in Paris. There were several issues to deal with in the first place. The company’s best prospects were in emerging markets, yet consumers in China and many other Asian markets found the Western scents unpleasantly strong. Sales were weak in Latin America as well. Given that after decades of double digit growth, Deronde’s market share was also sliding. Jianguo had no doubt that he had some winning ideas, but they seem to be falling on deaf ears. During the Jaingguo’s pitch at the board meeting, everyone at the meeting felt unease about Jiangguo’s idea pitch. Members of the executive team, for their part, find Jianguo to be largely indifferent to their input. Those other board members, including the three rising stars kept opposing to Jianguo’s ida pitch. He was getting nowhere. Jianguo’s first pitch to board members turned out to be very disappointing. Those three are competitor, but they had known each other for years and as a result, they also shared degree of trust. When, three of them had a moment to connect privately, Yves expressed his earnest concern about company’s future and how Jianguo avoid talking to him about the issue of connecting Eastern and Western culture.

Problems at hand...