MANAGERIAL LEADERSHIP From Regional to Global Bayer Crop Science is a division of Bayer, a leading global company based

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MANAGERIAL LEADERSHIP
From Regional to Global
Bayer Crop Science is a division of Bayer, a leading global
company based in Leverkusen Germany. The Crop Science division’s
main goal “is to be able to produce enough food, feed, fiber and
renewable raw materials for a growing world population on the
limited land available.” It has been involved in many of the latest
innovations in agriculture, such as developing apps for farmers to
help them understand their crops, climates, and so on and
developing the ability to use drones to assess crop quality.
One of Bayer Crop Science’s units is the Global Public and
Government Affairs (GPGA) division, which is in charge of
monitoring and proactively complying with local government
policies. In 2012, Bayer Crop Science had a large number of
independent country GPGA divisions that acted independently,
thereby limiting collaboration and cooperation. As a result of this
regional strategy as described earlier, critical information about
policy priorities from different regions was slow to reach
headquarters, and Bayer Crop Science was not able to quickly
address policy challenges worldwide.
In 2013, Bayer Crop Science hired Lisa Coen to implement a more
global strategy in the GPGA division. Her main task was to make the
GPGA division a truly global organization. To accomplish her task,
she first travelled extensively around the world to meet with the
business unit leaders and the public affairs team members. Through
this process, she wanted to engage with the key stakeholders to
prevent any resistance to change from building up. During these
meetings, she discovered that the various local and regional GPGA
units had deep knowledge that would greatly help Bayer Crop Science
face and manage public policy issues all over the world. The
meetings also allowed her to come up with the best strategy to turn
the various regional units into a global unit.
To build a more collaborative organization, Coen had to move
from a traditional and hierarchical organization based on regions
to a globalized network of units. To demonstrate the need for such
a system, Coen invited key individuals to a global meeting to work
collectively on public policy issues. Through this exercise, she
was able to show the group the critical importance of a network
organization. Through team-building exercises, Coen showed how the
entire group had to move around to meet with the key people in each
region. This interaction allowed the group to commit to a network
model that would support and build a global organization.
Questions to be answered in the submission of the Case Analysis
. Please answer these questions utilizing and
applying your practical application.
1. Why did Bayer Crop Science decide to move from its original
regional organization of units to a more global network of units?
What were the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?
2. How did Coen build support for the change? Do you believe
this was an appropriate way?
3. What challenges do you anticipate as Coen continues to build
a network organization?**
Summary
Companies choose international strategies based on their
capabilities and skills as well as on the structure and nature of
the industry in which they operate. Companies choose regional
strategies if they feel that the regions have differences
significant enough to justify such an approach. In contrast,
companies elect a global strategy if they believe they have global
products that can satisfy global consumer needs.
It is important to note, however, that companies rarely adopt
the pure forms of strategy as they have been described. Many
companies adopt hybrid structures, where some functional areas may
be approached globally while other activities may be approached
more regionally or locally.
CONCEPT CHECK
4. How and why do companies take various approaches to global
operations? Please answer these questions
utilizing and applying your practical
application.