Managing International Expansion into Chile and China

Building a Management Team for International Expansion

There are several factors that must be taken into consideration when building a management team capable of handling expansion into Chile and China. The two countries are geographically distant and have vastly different cultures, so it will be necessary to have people on the ground in both locations. What the company wants to achieve in these countries will dictate its needs with respect to a management team. For example, does setting up an operation in China mean exporting to China, or is the company going to seek out a vineyard there? The company will need a CEO, CFO, Chief Technology Officer, and personnel to address new marketing and production demands — a CMO and COO respectively. These roles will all need to be filled before expansion begins.

Any managers located internationally will need to be subject to controls to ensure they are making a strong contribution to the company's objectives in their roles (Entrepreneur, 2012). Establishing clear lines of accountability from the outset will help the company avoid the coordination failures that often accompany rapid international expansion into culturally and operationally distinct markets.

Centralized Control and Organizational Structure

If these businesses are to incorporate all aspects of the company — operations and marketing, for example — then a plan should be in place to split off some tasks from corporate headquarters. The leadership team in each country will need its own human resources and marketing functions in particular. Headquarters will also need someone whose role it is to oversee everything across all countries. This could be the CEO or the COO, but some form of centralized control is essential if the company wishes to have operations that work together toward a common goal (No author, 2010). Without that coordination mechanism, subsidiaries risk pursuing incompatible strategies that undermine the overall enterprise.