With Suresh gradually taking the reins of the company, Saman decided to take his first long vacation in years and go to India for a month in January 2009. What he found surprised him. While he spent much of the time in India and was surprised at the shortage of cleaning stores, particularly considering the amount of air pollution in some cities. As his drawback to home he began to think about whether it is advisable to consider expanding his stores into India. Quite aside from the possible economic benefits he had liked what he saw in the lifestyle in India and also attracted by the idea of possibly facing the sort of exciting challenge he faced 20 years ago when he started this business.
As he drove home to have dinner with Suresh he began to formulate the questions he would have to ask before deciding whether or not to expand abroad.
Questions:
1. Assuming they began by opening just one or two stores in India what do you see at their main HR related challenges he and Suresh would have to address?
2. How would you go about choosing a manager for a new Indian store if you were Saman or Suresh? For instance, would you hire someone locally or send someone from one of your existing stores? Why?
3. Present a detailed explanation of the factors you would look for in your candidate for expatriate manager to run the stores in India