Mba 530

Global Staffing Paper

The following report is an overview of Dell Company as it expands its computer business into the Indian market. This paper identifies the challenges facing Dell as it expands into India, including the cultural and regulatory factors involved. In addition this paper will identify the staffing strategies employed by Dell including the recruitment and selection process of its business managers.

This paper will discuss the changes to Dell's organizational structure as it expands into the Indian market. A competitive analysis is also made, which shows the strategic alternatives and choices for the future. [This paragraph is too short: either add more detail or join it to another that deals with the same/similar topic. Remember that a paragraph is a series of sentences that relate to a particular point that you want to make. They usually consist of four or five sentences "bunched" together around one idea.]

Industry Identifications

During this century it is estimated that Economic and political world power is will shift eastward toward China, Japan and India. These countries are expected to challenge the centuries-old dominance of Europe and America. The worldwide PC industry may be one of the first industries to feel the presence of the new eastern rivalries. The challenges that will no doubt befall other industries will be felt first through the PC market as the expanding Asian PC industry provides an early and substantial threat to the companies of Europe and America.

In both manufacturing and consumption, Asia/Pacific represents the most dynamic region of the worldwide PC industry. The U.S. market remains robust, but growth will slow as saturation approaches. In contrast, the short-term, high-growth regions are Asia/Pacific, Japan, and Latin America. On the manufacturing side, U.S. PC companies depend on Asian suppliers. The Asian foundry has enabled U.S. players to gain and maintain substantial market share on the world market, however tested and confident Asian manufacturers are now gearing up for expansion across the Asia/Pacific and into the United States. Soon U.S. PC suppliers will be competing with aggressive Asian companies in both regions.

(Indent paragraphs) Asian players, primarily Japanese and Korean corporations, are not strangers or novices in the U.S. market. Toshiba has been a perennial leader in the laptop market. NEC has enjoyed mixed results. Many others tried to compete in the United States in the late 1980s, predominantly as IBM clone suppliers. That initial foray was short lived and largely unsuccessful, but a second, better-planned, assault is imminent. The new waves of Asian suppliers are not just me-too players scrambling for low-end market share. Instead, manufacturers are looking for strong, early positions in the race to provide the next-generation personal computing devices that are project as such a huge opportunity in the consumer market.

The people at Dell believe that their continued successful will require teamwork and continuous learning on the part of each team member in order to develop and grow. Dell focuses on building a pipeline of talented, diversified individuals in order to meet current and future staffing needs in order to develop Dell's leaders of tomorrow. They focus on attracting top candidates with the skill sets they require by working on the basis of early recruitment and full utilization of their pipeline program. This strategy has supported their mission statement fully until now. But if Dell plans to take a large amount of the market share in India, it will have to change its mission and strategy according to the needs of these customers.

Dell's new mission statement: To be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in the markets we serve and providing special service and support to the markets that are highly differentiated on terms of cultural and demographic basis.

This statement shows that the customers in the region of Asia-Pacific, China and India to be precise have special needs that have to be satisfied. Since it is known from business practice that every market has different characteristic and different customers with their own needs to be satisfied, Dell has to give special attention to the markets of China and India.

Until now Dell has had success with its applied business model, but in order to gain the trust of customers in the Asia-Pacific region it will have to change its model according to these markets special needs and wants in order to gain customer satisfaction and loyalty. For example, the people in this region are not used to surfing on the Internet and making purchases of the products they need. People in Asia-Pacific are used to going to a specific retail chains where they can visually obtain the information, product or service they are looking for. Dell does not offer this option, so in order to gain customers in this region Dell will have to partner with retail chains in this region in order to offer its products to its customers.

Organizational Effectiveness

When a company hires experience they hire habits, both good and bad. With this in mind, any organization looking for good employees should not use experience as the only hiring criterion. Indians are as diverse in their cultural orientations and work habits as they are in the regions in which they are raised (Valanju, 2006). Any organization that is interviewing a prospective employee, should keep in mind that employees that have spent a significant part of their lives in one particular region of India may have certain generic attitudes inherent in those regions that living or being raised for a long period in one specific region will have a significant impact on his or her ethical outlook. Living in one region of India can also have a marked impact on work ethics such as attitude, dedication, initiative and acceptance of responsibility. For these reasons foreign companies will usually consider including an Indian national when conducting an interview thus preventing the employer from missing any subtle cultural nuances.

Probably the most restrictive issues facing companies that are expanding in India are the regulations. Manish Sabharwal of TeamLease, who campaigns for their reform, feels that, for much of Indian industry, "they are a thorn in the flesh, not a dagger in the heart." The labor laws have become an extra cost--for example, in bribes paid to inspectors--but not a huge barrier to business.

Yet in most conversations with manufacturers, labor laws still loom large. The most notorious is Chapter 5B of the 1947 Industrial Disputes Act, which bars establishments