Product Overview

The case deals with Axel Motor’s expansion into India and the clash between expectations and communication styles of the Indian subsidiary and Headquarters. While the subsidiary wants to follow a responsive, market-driven approach to product design and marketing strategy, the top management is driven by the strong belief that the group’s core values are universal and no tweaking is needed for particular locations. Anil Mishra, Head of Sales, and the team at the corporate office of Axel Motors India have received an email from Maximilian Klotz, Head of Strategy at Axel Motor’s Headquarters. Klotz has expressed complete dissatisfaction with the performance of Axel Motors India. Mishra and the team have to decide how to handle the challenge of getting their input - based on an understanding of the local environment - valued at Headquarters.

Learning Objectives

The case is meant for use in an MBA programme for courses focussing on International Business and Intercultural Communication. It would help students to examine how international expansion without adaptation to the local environment may cause difficulties and even jeopoardise the existence of the business and how differences in values, assumptions, priorities and practices across cultures – whether national or organisational – lead to miscommunication and conflict within the organisation. The case would help to illustrate the need to adapt to differences in cultures within the workforce as well as the customers when expanding to other parts of the world. Looking at the situation through the cultural dimension would be useful to see the problems in communication resulting in conflict and stress for the managers of the Indian subsidiary. The case would be useful in illustrating cultural dimensions such as Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long Term Orientation, and direct and indirect communication styles and how such differences lead to miscommunication and conflict. The case would be useful in highlighting the need for adequate attention to cultural differences in internal processes such as decision making, consultation, conflict resolution, and communication channels and timelines.