ABSTRACT
Success in the global marketplace depends on the ability of an organization and of its managers to provide effective leadership. The difficulties, and often highly visible failures, faced by many multinational organizations, small and large, to adopt and execute uniform strategic objectives and policies across their global operations testify to the magnitude of the challenges facing the modern corporation. This chapter presents a case study that compares two French companies, one large multinational with global operations in heavy industry and one small, but rapidly growing company in services that is expanding in new international markets. It focuses on how best to deal with the challenges of globalization and cultural misalignment. A process of change management is evolutionary, one cannot go from Negate to Commit directly, they must pass first from the stages of Oppose and Experiment.
