International Human Resource Management Report: Danone's Expansion

This report examines the international human resource management practices of Danone MNC, UK, focusing on its expansion into the Asian markets of India and Singapore. It begins with an executive summary outlining the report's structure, which includes an analysis of complexities in entering global markets and the application of a joint venture strategy. The report then delves into the evaluation of the Singaporean business environment using Hofstede's cultural dimensions model, providing insights into power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation. Furthermore, it discusses the preparation and motivation of expatriate employees, offering recommendations for successful international assignments. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and references supporting the analysis.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following report deals with the expansion of the Danone MNC, UK in the Asian
Markets. The chosen markets in this case are the business environments of India and
Singapore. The report light on the various complexities that are involved in the matters
pertaining to the entry of the company in the global market. It further discussed the joint
venture strategy of international development that the company might abide by for the
expansion in the Asian countries like India and Singapore. The report also provided the
analysis of the Singaporean business environment with the help of the Hofstede model of
cultural dimension and further discussed some reward and compensations that might help to
prepare and motivate the expatriates who have been serving the organization at several
locations all over the world.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Task 1.............................................................................................................................3
Complexities involved in the entry to a global market..............................................3
International developmental strategies.......................................................................5
Task 2.............................................................................................................................6
Evaluation of Singapore using the Hofstede model of Cultural Dimensions............6
Preparation and motivation of an expatriate employee for taking up a new
assignment..............................................................................................................................8
Recommendations..........................................................................................................9
Conclusion......................................................................................................................9
References....................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Danone MNC, UK is one of the multinational companies that has been headquartered
at Paris, France. The company deals in the food items majorly the dairy items. The concern
was founded in the year 1919 in the city of Barcelona in Spain. The company had changed
the location of its headquarters in the year 2002 (Danone.com 2018). The major brands that
are endorsed by the company include both the local and the international brands. The
company tends to target the countries with the emerging markets for their expansion. This
helps the concerned company to deliver the mission of the organization. This also helps the
company to ensure the fact that there is a long-term growth in the business that the company
is involved in.
The following report attempts to throw light on the various complexities that are
involved in the matters pertaining to the entry of the company in the global market. The
report proceeds further to discuss an international development strategy that the company
might abide by for the expansion in the Asian countries like India and Singapore. The second
part of the report tends to focus on the evaluation of Singapore on the basis of Hofstede’s
model of Cultural Dimensions in order to help the company to prepare the expatriates of the
company to serve in the various business ventures that are located in this country. The report
also throws light on the measures that should be taken care of by the company while
preparing and motivating the concerned expatriates in serving the company at these foreign
locations.
Task 1
Complexities involved in the entry to a global market
The companies are advised to select the various factors that might be used to decide
on the ways in which the company might expand in the international markets. The companies

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are advised to carry out the researches in order to select the areas wherein the concerned
company might expand. The management of the concerned company is advised to take care
of the various needs that might have been observed in the concerned market scenario. The
concerned management of the company should look forward to identify the various area
where the customers tend to display a huge demand of a certain service or the demand for the
solution of a problem that they have been facing with regards to a particular product or
service (Forsgren and Johanson 2014). The company must identify the actual needs and
requirements of the masses of the market wherein the company has been intending to expand.
The company is advised to take care of the various needs of the customers that they tend to
serve. The researches that the company officials undertake must ensure that they have a
sound knowledge of the local businesses and the safety regulations of the concerned country.
This might help the concerned company to modify and refurbish the products, the name of
the product or the packaging of the product in compliance with the local cultural and legal
regulations.
The company might tend to resort to the various website that enable the online sale of
the products. This is considered to be beneficial for the company as this method would lead
the concerned business organization to incur low costs for the entry into the local market of
the region wherein they would like to expand. The concerned department of the company is
advised to put efforts in the designing of the website suited to the needs and the cultural
preferences of the concerned country. The company might also take the help of the various
distributors in order to make the target customers of the concerned company aware of their
market presence. The distributors help the concerned company to reach out to the target
customers in the chosen country but provide the company lesser control over the marketing of
their products. The companies might also choose to sell the products directly to the target
customers by the organizing the sales visits to the concerned countries wherein they might

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have identified the demand. The companies might also engage in the various joint ventures
with the local business partners in order to gain an entry into the selected market (Blackburn,
Hart and Wainwright 2013). This might help the concerned company to learn more about the
local markets and the preferences of the target consumers.
International developmental strategies
The various companies might look forward to expanding their business in the
international market through the opening of an operational house of the concern in the
concerned countries. The company might also export their products directly to the customers
through the medium of the online sales. The company might also tend to launch their
products in these Asian countries through the various agents or the distributors or by taking
over an existing business in the concerned country. Danone MNC, UK might attempt the sale
of their products in India and Singapore by collaborating with an existing business that deals
with the similar products in the chosen markets.
This international developmental strategy of joint ventures or the collaboration with
the existing businesses in the country has its own benefits. The various benefits of the joint
venture strategy are enlisted below.
 The joint venture helps the concerned company to gain insights into the concerned
target market.
 The joint venture might help the company to gain better resources in the concerned
target market.
 The joint venture might be used as a temporary arrangement by the company in order
to gain entry into the market in the concerned countries (Verbeke 2013).
 The joint venture allows both the companies to share the risks and the costs that re
involved in the business.

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 The joint venture allows the parties that are involved to sell their products in an
individual manner. The parties that are involved in a joint venture tend to build better
and long-lasting business relationships.
 The joint ventures of the international levels help the parties that are involved to
eradicate the risks involved in the discrimination.
This strategy of the joint venture might be considered to be disadvantageous for the
reasons that have been enlisted below.
 Vagueness of the objectives
 The restrictions of the flexibility
 The non-existence of the equality of the involvement of he involved parties.
 The cultural clashes and the difference in the management styles that exist among the
parties that are involved in the joint venture (Yan and Luo 2016).
Task 2
Evaluation of Singapore using the Hofstede model of Cultural Dimensions
The Hofstede model of Cultural Dimensions is a framework that is related to the
cross-cultural communication that exists between two different societal cultures (Tran 2016).
This model tends to put forth a description of the effects of the cultural activities that are
followed by the members of the concerned society on the various values of the members of
the concerned society. This framework also tries to put forth the relation between the
concerned values and the behavior that is depicted by the concerned members. The
framework uses a structure for the description of the same which has been derived from the
analysis of the various factors that are involved. The evaluation of the business environment
of Singapore based on the Hofstede’s cultural dimension framework is as given below.

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 Power Distance – This concept helps the concerned company to have an insight into
the relationships that exist between the employer and the employee (Wild, Wild and
Han 2014). In Singapore, the subordinates and the employees are comfortable with
the fact that they are instructed by their seniors and trust the decisions that are taken
by their superiors.
 Uncertainty Avoidance – The concept refers to the feeling of comfort or the
discomfort that is experienced by the concerned employee when treated with a
particular situation that is unstructured (Beugelsdijk, Maseland and Hoorn 2015). The
business environment in Singapore is observed to abide by the various rules that have
been set by the concerned management.
 Individualism and Collectivism – This concept deals with the extent of the
interdependence that is maintained by the concerned members of the society in order
to remain as a part of the concerned group (Hsu, Woodside and Marshall 2013). The
business community of Singapore is known to be a collectivist society wherein the
members maintain a cordial relationship among themselves with a strong bond of
interdependence.
 Masculinity and Femininity – This concept deals with the emotional roles and the
exchanges that take place between the members who belong to both the genders
(Mazanec et el. 2015). The Singaporean society tends to promote the softer aspects of
the culture that is prevalent in the society. The Singaporeans are observed to be
sympathetic and avoid conflicts.
 Short-term and Long-term communication – This concept deals with the maintenance
of the linkages to the challenges that were faced in the past days while dealing with
the challenges in the present times and in the future days to come (Venaik, Zhu and
Brewer 2013). The Singaporean business culture depicts the cultural qualities that

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uphold the long-term investments in the concerned fields like the sustained efforts that
are displayed by the employers as well as the employees.
Preparation and motivation of an expatriate employee for taking up a new assignment
A person who has been living in a foreign land or any country wherein the concerned
person does not a citizenship for a temporary period of time due to work related issues might
be referred to as the expatriates (Cerdin and Selmer 2014). The expatriates might also be the
people who have given up the citizenship of their home country in order to hold the
citizenship of some other country. The various business organizations that deal with the
international markets tend to employ the expatriates to the countries wherein they do operate.
The expatriates need to be prepared for the job that they have been assigned by the concerned
organization (Huff 2013). They also need to be provide with the needed motivation in order
to help them to deliver the work that they have been assigned in a proper manner.
The various measures that can be taken in order to prepare and motivate the
expatriates. The business organizations might tend to send the expats to the concerned
countries in order to help the employees, who have been serving the organization in the
concerned branches, with the knowledge that the company needs to deliver (Hbr.org 2018).
The expatriates are often assigned to various locations in order to transfer the concerned
knowledge or to generate the same among the employees of the concerned branch of the
company. The concern might also employ the expatriates in order to help them in the
development of the global leadership skills that they might need to portray in the concerned
business organization. The concerned business organization should offer certain benefits,
rewards and the compensations to the concerned expatriates in order to help them to continue
with their service in the country where they have been assigned (Yanadori 2014). The
benefits that might be offered to the expatriates are enlisted below.

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 The fair remuneration packages.
 The various international pay packages.
 The fair healthcare packages and the other insurance packages that might be availed
internationally (Agwu 2013).
 The social security of the concerned expatriate and the family of the concerned
expatriate.
 The hardship allowances that might take care of the crime rates and the political
situations of the concerned country.
Recommendations
The management of Danone MNC, UK might use the joint venture strategy in order
to expand in the Asian markets. The company might try to set up a collaboration with the
various other companies in the countries of India and Singapore in order to make an entry
into the markets. The company might try to introduce in these markets their popular products
as well as some new products in these markets in order to grab on to the target customers of
the company. The company might also tend to sell their products directly to the customers by
allowing the concerned customers to order the products of the company over the online
medium.
Conclusion
In lieu of the discussion above, it might be concluded that the business environment
that exists in the Asian Countries like India and Singapore are favorable for the expansion of
the companies like Danone. The company might employ the expatriates who might help in
imparting education to the staff that has been hired to serve the company in these countries.
The concerned management of the company might find it easier to expand in these countries
due to the high demand of the products that are manufactured by the company. Thus, it might

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be safely concluded that the company might venture into the Asian business environment
majorly with the purpose of expansion.

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References
Agwu, M.O., 2013. Impact of fair reward system on employees‟ job performance in Nigerian
Agip Oil Company Limited, Port Harcourt. British Journal of Education, Society and
Behavioral Science, 3(1), pp.47-64.
Beugelsdijk, S., Maseland, R. and Hoorn, A., 2015. Are scores on Hofstede's dimensions of
national culture stable over time? A cohort analysis. Global Strategy Journal, 5(3), pp.223-
240.
Blackburn, R.A., Hart, M. and Wainwright, T., 2013. Small business performance: business,
strategy and owner-manager characteristics. Journal of small business and enterprise
development, 20(1), pp.8-27.
Cerdin, J.L. and Selmer, J., 2014. Who is a self-initiated expatriate? Towards conceptual
clarity of a common notion. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 25(9), pp.1281-1301.
Danone.com 2018. Danone, world food company. [online] Danone.com. Available at:
http://www.danone.com/en/ [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
Forsgren, M. and Johanson, J., 2014. Managing networks in international business.
Routledge.
Hbr.org 2018. The Right Way to Manage Expats. [online] Harvard Business Review.
Available at: https://hbr.org/1999/03/the-right-way-to-manage-expats [Accessed 5 Mar.
2018].
Hsu, S.Y., Woodside, A.G. and Marshall, R., 2013. Critical tests of multiple theories of
cultures’ consequences: Comparing the usefulness of models by Hofstede, Inglehart and