Reference no: EM133031526
Sarah completed her education at a business college in June 2020, majoring in Sales & Marketing, and on August 1, 2021, was appointed Sales Manager at Toronto by a Bangladesh company, Apparel International (AI). This company intends to sell textile garments to Canada. The GM Sales of the company based in its headquarters at Dacca, Bangladesh, Abdul Rehman (AR), has asked Sarah, in pursuance of the company's long-term objective of becoming a global company, to achieve the following goals in 2021:
- assess the needs of Canadian customers
- meet Canadian garment importers
- set up a small office and team
- make a project plan for sales in Canada.
Sarah grew up in Bangladesh and came to Canada in 2016 with her parents. Her father, a mining engineer, got a job in a remote mine about 200 kilometers north of Winnipeg, while she stayed with her mother in Toronto pursuing her education. A very intelligent and energetic student, Sarah obtained an A grade at the business college, majoring in Marketing, and was ranked in the top 10th percentile of her class. However, Sarah has a very aggressive, dominating, proud, ambitious and impatient personality.
Sarah is not fully aware of the needs and specifications of garments being imported into Canada. She does not understand the garment industry, their procurement and management methods, the technical details of garments, the import procedures and how to price the products. She spent a whole month trying to understand the requirements of the large chain stores in Canada, the main potential buyers of AI, and has so far only met 5 out of the 30 major importers.
As this is the first time for AI to look at the Canadian market, the company is also unaware of the lifestyles, culture, the exact garment needs of different age groups, fashions, designs, sizes of clothes, warehousing, distribution, pricing and sales methods. During her stay in Canada, Sarah herself has been wearing the clothes she got from Bangladesh.
AI's previous garment sales have been to the Middle East and some African countries. AR visited Canada for three days for the first time in June 2021 when he interviewed Sarah for the position.
Sarah is facing communication problems in her meetings with Canadian buyers who think that she is young, inexperienced, somewhat headstrong and rude, unfamiliar with Canadian ways and its open, multinational, diverse work environment, the procurement procedures in the garment industry, the buying habits of consumers, etc.
On the advice of AR, Sarah has appointed two Canadian professionals to assist her in the new office that she rented from August 15, 2021. One is a Textile Technologist who has 5 years' experience with a textile buying firm in Toronto. The other is an Accountant who has previously worked in a large clothing retail chain, also in Toronto. As Sarah has not had many Canadian friends since she came to Canada, and has not travelled and met many people here, only focusing on her studies, she is facing some difficulty in managing these two professionals who do not follow her decisions fully and it seems do not respect her as their team leader. They are not engaged on their jobs and seem to be unclear of their duties, responsibilities, and targets. No performance targets have been given to them; neither have their annual rewards been explained; and they are feeling stressed and demotivated. Interaction between the three people in the office is also poor. Besides, Sarah's own personality is also not helping in making a cohesive team.
Despite the above issues, AR is patient and is not expecting immediate sales. He just wants Sarah to achieve the company's 2021 goals mentioned above, and most importantly, make a project plan. He knows that achieving sales in Canada will take time. Selling garments to Canada is not like selling garments to African countries where the social, political, cultural, commercial and technological environments are very different. Both Sarah and AR have to first understand and learn about Canadian people, their personal and professional attitudes, behaviors, habits, culture. They also have to understand the garment industry in Canada, the business environment, purchase and import procedures, negotiating styles, etc. AI would probably have to upgrade its manufacturing technology also in Bangladesh in order to meet the higher specification garments demanded in Canada.