CRM and Strategic Account Management

In my earlier article on CRM and Sales, I had written about the different levels of customer relationships that exists between vendors and customers - and how these levels affect sales. Customer relationship is vital in business-to-business sales. Having worked in several large organizations which sold products & services exclusively to other businesses, I have seen how important it is to manage these relationships, how to build relationships, when to invest in a relationship and when to end a relationship. In this article, I will briefly write about how a sales person can go about evaluating the existing relationship.

Customer is the most vital asset

The basic tenet of B2B sales is this: "Existing Customer is the most vital asset for the company". The company lives & thrives on the cash given by the customer. Every sales person knows that the customer is important - once this realization sinks in, the next thing to do is to manage the customer relationships.

( CEO & all managers may say "Our employees are our most valuable assets". But the salesman knows better - Employees exist because of customers. I am not saying that employees are not critical - they are critical for success, but a business exists only because of customers)

Every businessman knows that customers are important, but most of them make a mistake in managing customer relationships. The common practice of thinking that your biggest customer is your best customer is a fundamentally flawed concept. Most companies classify customers based on the revenues generated from them - banks have "Platinum", "Gold", "Silver", "Bronze" and "Lead". This type of classification helps in allocating resources for customer service - but this does little to building customer relationships.

Therefore a salesman should have a different classification of customers which is independent of the revenue. In my earlier article on levels of customer relationships, I had explained how customers see their relationship with the vendor. This implies that to be successful, a sales person should at least classify customers into two broad categories - Strategic & Tactical.

Who is your strategic customer?

In most companies, the largest customers are also the oldest customers. But they need not be your strategic customers. In today’s dynamic business world, the strategic customers are those who can give you a huge business advantage or a competitive advantage or those who help you innovate or those who will ensure your success in the future.

To understand this concept, consider this example. For Intel, Lenovo is a big customer. But HP and Apple are strategic customers. Lenovo sells lots of PCs: desktops & laptops but for Intel microprocessors which are used in these products are not what it plans to sell in large numbers in the future. Intel’s plans to sell different products in future - low power high density blade servers, cell phone based computing devices, Home entertainment servers etc. These products are not what Lenovo is selling today - nor does Lenovo has a road map for such products.

Therefore Lenovo, though is an important customer, is not a strategic customer for Intel. HP & Apple on the other hand have a very interesting road map. HP leads in mobile computing and servers. HP already has a planned road map for the future products - a complete home entertainment/computing server, a mobile cellophane which doubles as a mobile computer, low power high performance computing servers etc. Therefore Intel can develop new products by working closely with HP - and that will give Intel a strategic advantage in the future. Intel & HP have collaborated extensively in the past - which led to the development of a 64-bit server chip - Itanium. Itanium has helped Intel gain a valuable market share in high end server markets - where it had no presence before.

Similarly, Apple & Intel can collaborate to develop exciting products in home entertainment & computing platforms. This collaboration may help Intel gain a strategic advantage over AMD.

Another example: For Crisco, British Telecom is a vital strategic customer. Though today, British Telecom contributes less than 1% of Crisco's total sales volume - and in terms of volume British Telecom may not be that important in terms of revenue. But in terms of the future technical advantage, British Telecom’s 21CN program (21st Century Network Program) and BT’s Global Services division which offers IP network solutions to Fortune-1000 companies, British telecom offers tremendous strategic advantages to Cisco. If Cisco can work closely with BT and develop unique set of products to meet the future demands of On Demand IPTV, Dynamically configurable secure corporate networks, Fiber to home etc., then Cisco will gain immense market share in these products - thus secure a strategic advantage over its competitors. Thus for Cisco - BT is a strategic customer.

Levels of Customer Relationships

As mentioned earlier, relationship between buyer and seller can be identified in 6 distinct levels.
Level-1 being the lowest level of relationship and level-6 being the deepest level of relationship.

Level-1: Utility Need
Level-2: Convenience Need
Level-3: Comfort Need
Level-4: Personal Recognition Need
Level-5: Self-expression Need
Level-6: Co-Creation Need

From a strategic marketing perspective, the importance of any customer over the lifetime of the relationship lowest at level-1 and is highest at level-6. And this is independent of the revenue or sales generated from a customer. Customer with whom a company enjoys the highest level of relationship, Level-6, will also be the most strategic customer because in this level of relationship, the customer will be co-investing in creating new products for the future. It is therefore in the vendor’s best interest to have very deep relationship with such customers.

Strategic Account Management

The concept of strategic customer leads to the idea of Strategic Account Management. Though, the term "Strategic Account Management" was coined by Miller Hieman, the meaning of ‘Strategic Account Management’ I am referring to is entirely different. Strategic account management implies managing the relationships with the strategic customers - i.e., customers who can help the vendor gain competitive advantage in the future. In other words, managing customer relationship at level-6.

Level-6 customer relationships are personal and rational. At this level of relationship, the customer loyalty & trust is very high. Customers are willing to invest for joint development of products/service. Customer feel closely bonded to the vendor - to the point that the customer seeks a joint destiny with the vendor. I.e., some aspects of customer’s interests merge with that of the vendor’s interests.

Strategic account management requires two major changes in the typical corporate mindset:

1. Think about Customer first
   
   Earlier account planning used to be all about ‘us’ and ‘ours,’. In other words account management policies were driven by internal compulsions such as improving products & services, maximizing revenue, profits, needs, improving operations etc. But at level-6 of customer relationships, the account management means to focus on customer’s future strategy, customer’s products & services and how the vendor can capitalize on the upcoming opportunities.
   
   
2. Think about Solving customer’s problems
   
   Theodore Levitt, a famous Harvard Business School marketing professor and the former editor of the Harvard Business Review, is widely quoted as telling his students that customers don’t want a quarter-inch drill; instead, they want a quarter-inch hole. In other words: They’re not shopping for products; they’re shopping for solutions. Think about the problems that must be solved. Understand the problems and issues at least as well as your customers do, if not better. That requires more than just knowing what your customers need. In strategic account management, successful firms help their clients run their businesses and not just purchase supplies or utilize services. The overall goal of any good strategic account management process is to ensure better business returns for the targeted key customers.

Closing Thoughts

CRM is all about managing the relationships with your customers. It starts with developing an understanding that not all customers are equal and a few customers are of strategic importance to your success in the future. Once a strategic customer is identified, and the customer feels comfortable to invest in co-development, the account management policies has to be crafted such that the vendor now becomes an integral part of the solution to a problem that the customer is trying to solve. Care must be taken to ensure that both the vendor and customer maintain their independence and have equal rights over the new products which are being developed. This will not only enable the customer gain significant competitive advantage and that advantage is also shared with the vendor - albeit in different market segments.

Also Read:
Customer Relationship Management & Sales

Improving communication with Indian Engineers

"Today, India is one of the most exciting emerging markets in the world. Skilled managerial and technical manpower that match the best available in the world and a middle class whose size exceeds the population of the USA or the European Union, provide India with a distinct cutting edge in global competition." Discover India

Today India dominates the world of IT services. Indian software engineers are now working on various projects for different clients - mostly international clients. Being an engineer myself and having worked in the USA and currently in the UK, I have seen engineers communicate - especially Indian engineers. Based on these experiences here are some tips for foreigners, mainly customers of Indian IT services, to communicate effectively with Indian Engineers.

Tip-1: Be Explicit

Almost all engineers who go abroad have few things in common: They are smart, intelligent and lots on new ideas. They carry considerable experience and have certain assumptions of the host country and its people from their past experience and other sources. If you are dealing with them for the first time, then you will also have certain assumptions and impressions about Indian Engineers.

The first essential step is then to check if those assumptions are correct. Both parties must quickly pick up clues on what aspects of their assumptions are wrong and what needs to be corrected. As a foreigner, the engineer may not be aware that you, as his customer, may be assuming things. It therefore helps to explain rather than imply about what your expectations are.

Remember that you are the customer or the collaborator - and your success is also dependent on their success. This means that you need to be explicit in all your communications with Indian engineers. It helps if you ask the questions:

"What does he understand about the business requirements?"
Engineers in general start working with a set of assumptions & guess works. They may not necessarily have a deep understanding of the customer’s requirements. It is therefore essential to ask the question and listen to the answers - And correct them where ever necessary.Never Assume that the other party understands.

"What do they (Indian engineers) need to be successful?"
Indian Engineers in particular do not have a habit of demanding things - if they do not have access to a particular resource, they will either find a work around or just ignore the problem. Rarely they demand for resources or information. It is therefore to your advantage to explicitly ask them of what they need during all phases of the project.

Document and explain your requirements in plain simple English. Often times I have seen American and British managers send a diplomatic statements. These diplomatic statements maybe misread by Indian engineers - it therefore helps to be straight forward when it comes to setting expectations or establishing the requirements.

Use templates for all reports and communication. As a customer, you can setup the template in which the project reports have to be submitted. I would encourage use of templates for emails as well - especially for routine emails such as weekly status, transfer of responsibilities, change requests, etc.

Tip-2: Time Management

Any visitor to a new country or on a new assignment will initially take more time than the locals to produce the same amount of work. It will be much better if you can tell the important dates and the expected deliverables on those dates. In addition, tell them how they might use your time - Give your office timings, what's the best time to reach you, and how to reach you. In short set the rules as to how your IT engineers can utilize your time.

Tip-3: Increase your cross-cultural sensitivity

Remember that both you & Indian Engineers are likely to start with certain assumptions. Some of these assumptions will be rooted in standard stereotypes based on the person’s nationality, religion & culture. Stereotyping a person tends to lead you into false assumptions - and can be dangerous. While stereotyping has its benefits, it is always better to know about the person’s culture and behavior instead of relying on stereotypes. Asking questions and listening to the answers allows you to check out assumptions and generalizations and to increase your cultural awareness.

Exploring what others think and do will help you to identify your own rules, assumptions and conventions. Because our own cultures are so implicit in all we do and think, we can only become self aware by getting to know how others’ cultures deal with the same matters. This will help you to be explicit in the way described in Tip-1.

Tip-4: Teach ‘Western’ business communication skills

Most Indian engineers that you meet might have been working in your country before - and few will even have substantial work experience as well. But if you are managing a large IT project, you will see several engineers who are either fresh out of college and are traveling abroad for the first time. It is in these situations, you need to play the role of a "teacher" and help them learn the standard business communication techniques when dealing with you, your colleagues and your company.

In my experience, I found it to be mutually beneficial. As a teacher, you will learn their communication styles - and also help you know them better & overcome the drawbacks of stereotyping. And for engineers, they will learn to communicate better - thus saving time & efforts for everyone.

Some of the key points Indian engineers must know are:

• Expressing their personal opinions
• Ability to paraphrase and summarize others’ words and ideas
• Use of referencing rules and conventions in business communication
• Structure and order an Business/Technical argument
• Analyze and evaluate different arguments and positions

Note: Do not be over-enthusistic and impose a strict learning regime either. Use your judgment and don the "teacher" role only when required. At the same time do not shy away from teaching others the basics of business communications - as it will cost you in terms of wasted time & wasted efforts due to miscommunications

Closing Thoughts


A normal trend in Indian IT companies is to train their engineers on certain business etiquette before they are sent abroad. But often times, engineers skip these training sessions due to various compulsions. And even when these training are held, the training program is inadequate - Usually a half-day session is provided. So I recommend American & European managers not to assume things and take a proactive role in improving their communication with Indian engineers.

Also See:

Teaching an Engineer how to Write

Nature of Virtual Teams

In my earlier article I had written about Managing Virtual Project Teams. Few people asked me a question - "What is a virtual team?" , " How do you define a virtual team?". This set me off to write about the nature of virtual team and what are the characteristics of a virtual team.

Virtual team is a recent phenomenon. The mega factor which led to raise of virtual teams is globalization. Globalization meant that companies must coordinate their global activities in order to compete effectively. For example, Accenture developed a globally integrated marketing communication strategy to orchestrate the name change from Anderson Consulting to Accenture. ( Read "Globally Integrated Marketing Communications" )

The need to compete & collaborate globally led to the creation of virtual teams. But with the advent of low cost telecommunication technology, and discount air fares has enabled widespread use of virtual teams in almost all organizations. Companies - both large & small, even startups have virtual teams. ( Read "Global R&D Network ")

In addition, shortage of talent has forced companies distribute their resources globally, and also collaborate with other agencies, companies, individual contractors, consultants etc. This has created a new version of virtual team - which spans across the globe, across cultures, and across multiple organizations. This loosely knit team is also very dynamic in terms of its team members, and even its objectives. ( Read "Virtual Scale - Alliances for Leverage ")

As a result, Virtual teams can be found everywhere. Organizations have learnt to master collaborative work in a dynamic work environment. The new virtual team can be characterized by:

1. Dynamic Team Membership
   
   The team members - both in terms of numbers & members are constantly changing. Members move into a team & move out of a team based on the business requirements. Members rarely remain in the same team from the start to finish. In a virtual team, a member is expected to his/her bit of the work for that project/task - and once the task is accomplished, they move on to another team & perform another task.
   
   Even the team leadership will change hands in the process. A complex project requires different type of leadership skills at different stages of the project. This implies that even team leadership will have to be dynamic.
   
   All this implies that the team is always in a continuos state of formation. The old theory of team forming, norming, storming, performing, and disbanding do not hold good anymore. Today in a dynamic virtual team - all the stages of team formation (forming, norming, storming, performing, and disbanding) happen simultaneously.
   
   
2. Team members can include people from outside the organization
   
   Today’s virtual team consists of members from other organizations as well. For example in my earlier company, we had to collaborate with multiple vendors, partners in order to deliver to the client. So the team consisted of members from multiple organizations and from multiple countries.
   
   In one of the projects, we had members from US, India, Israel, & Taiwan & members were from six different organizations.Today there is an IT project being implemented at BT. For this project, Accenture, Tech Mahindra, Converges, TCS, Siemens, and HP are involved. Members of this team are dispersed in UK, USA, Spain, Germany, and India.
   
   
3. Members of the team are also members of other teams
   
   In an era of ultra specialization, members of the team need not dedicate all their time on one project. This means that their time will be divided among multiple projects. For example, a DBA ( Database Analyst) would work 1 day a week for team-1, 2 days a week in team-2, 1 day a week for team-3 etc.
   
   This implies that members of the team will have multiple reporting relationships with different parts of the organizations at the same time. Typically there will be multiple project managers, his line manager, and other managers to whom a person would report to.
   
4. Teams are at the center of the organization.
   
   Organizations have transformed the way they work. Projects have a definitive goals & objectives, which makes it easier to manage. As a result, work in any organization has been divided into series of projects - even routine manufacturing has been split up into projects. This implies that the old pyramid of organizational hierarchy is slowly coming apart. Instead of the earlier hierarchy based command-and-control based management style is being replaced by "collaborate-and-cooperate" management style.
   
   
5. Soft-skills is the key for success of a virtual team
   
   For a virtual team to succeed, team members should have excellent soft-skills. In a virtual team, members are ever changing, the reporting structures is unclear, members may even be from other organizations, members may have different culture (both work culture & organizational culture), and members may not even have enough time to build a rapport.
   
   To collaborate in such a dynamic work environment, team members need to have excellent soft-skills: communication skills, persuasion skills, negotiation skills, cross-cultural sensitivity and work etiquette. Technical skills alone are not enough for the team to succeed.

There are several types of virtual teams too.

1. Executive teams
   
   Executive teams are made up of managers who are on the team because of their position in the organization. These teams are usually semi-permanent teams with responsibility for specific divisions or functions in the organization. Executive teams do not work on any specific project - instead they will be involved in multiple projects.
   
   
2. Project teams
   
   Project teams are created for a task. Members of the team are selected based on their role and expertise in relation to that task. Membership of such teams will be dynamic based on the roles the members are expected to play. Once their role is over, members move on to other project teams.
   
   
3. Support Teams
   
   Members of support teams work on common tasks and support other teams in the organization. The team members are based on skill sets and members are interchangeable i.e., if one is absent on one day, the other can take up his/her tasks. Members in such teams usually have identical skill sets and are in the same professional field. These teams do not have any specific end targets - instead their role is on a continuous ongoing basis. For example, IT support teams, On-call customer support teams, nurses in a hospital, etc.

Closing Thoughts

Virtual teams are everywhere today. Managers of small and large organizations have learnt the importance virtual teams, but most are still grappling with the issues of team facilitation and issues of trying to manage teams that are disconnected by distance, cultures, and time.

Increasing use of modern communications systems (Internet, Intranets, telephone, video conference, groupware , etc) has helped to manage these virtual teams. But the real success of a virtual team depends on soft skills: Communication, negotiation, cross-cultural sensitivity, persuasion, and work etiquette.

PS: This article is all about defining a virtual team. In the coming series of articles, I will talk about various soft skills needed to succeed in a virtual team.

Also See:

1. Globally Integrated Marketing Communications
2. Global R&D Network
3. Virtual Scale - Alliances for Leverage
4. Managing Virtual Project Teams
5. Global Product Development Teams
6. Global Dimension of Project Management
7. E-Dimensions of Project Management
8. Role of Leadership in Teambuilding
9. Managing Outsourced Projects

Motivating Employees when business is down

Recently I read a message on Yahoo groups from a HR professional had posed the following question:

What is the role of HR professional if the organization is not doing well on marketing and sales front, not getting enough projects, work and top performers are not getting enough job satisfaction, challenging work & cant see their career growth? How to maintain the morale of the employees in above situation? How HR professional shall convey the management about this situation?

This question resonated with my earlier writings on retaining employee, branding to attract talent, how marketing can help avoid revenue roller coaster, creating a learning culture, sales funnel etc. Being a marketing professional with deep interests in HR, I decided to put my thoughts on paper right away.

Being an VLSI enginner working at Intel & IDT in Silicon Valley, I have seen a prolonged business downturn, I have worked through the dot.com bubble burst, the recession that followed and also worked at a startup where ups & downs in the sales cycle were to be expected. These experiences taught me several important management lessons. And these lessons are what I am writing down below.

Nature of Business

One has to understand that the nature of the business is such that there will be times when orders/sales will be very good and there will be down/slow times as well. The cyclical nature of business should also be accounted in the resource planning. If HR knows that the business will be cyclical, then one must avoid building excessive capacities to meet the peak work load. Instead, try and use contract labor to meet the increased demand. Retail stores (Wal-Mart, Target, Macy's Dillards etc) have long used temporary/part time workers to meet the Christmas rush. Technology companies can use contractors/consultants in the similar manner.

Startups also face this problem of revenue roller coaster and the associated lack of work - overwork cycles. But if this is cyclical in nature, the solution lies in having a better marketing plan to avoid such a roller coaster. (see: Avoid Revenue Roller Coaster Trap )
In addition to cyclical nature of business, startups also face a bigger problem of "Crossing the Chasm". A chasm is period when company suddenly sees a drop in business - and can be a very dangerous trap. Here again the solution has to come from marketing department. I recommend everyone to read the book "Crossing the chasm" By Geoffery A. Moore.

There can also be an industry wide recession. If there are lack or sales due to a recession, then the top management should get involved in the HR issues. I will talk it about later in this article.

What can HR do?

The first task is to understand the nature of the business. Everyone in HR department should have a clear understanding of the nature of business & the business cycles of the company is involved in.

During a down cycle, employee morale is bound to be affected. Therefore HR should take a lead and explain the business cycle to all employees. HR should also involve marketing when reaching out to employees. A part of this exercise has to do with internal marketing, internal brand positioning and a part to keep employees motivated.

First thing HR along with marketing is to explain their sales funnel. Sales funnel is a prediction of the future work. The more prospective customers in the funnel, the more likely that there will be more customers in the future. It is therefore important to see the activities in sales funnel to estimate future work. This implies that if the sales funnel is strong, then share those details with the engineering team. The engineers should see the kind of work and challenges they will see in future. This will motivate them.

A note of caution: Explain the sales funnel only if the funnel is strong. If the funnel is weak, exposing the sales funnel to employees will further demotivate them.

Build for the Future

If the current projects are not enough to keep the employees motivated, then it implies that they have some free time. The plan for HR is then to use that free time to do something useful - i.e., get the employees involved in PCMM/CMM activities to get a better level of PCMM/CMM certification etc. Alternatively, use the free time to train the engineers in new skills: These skills may be technical or managerial - depending on their rank/grade. Project leads/Project mangers may be encouraged to do PMI certification, or CSQA or Six Sigma etc., while engineers may be encouraged to take technical training.

Next thing to do is to use senior engineers & highly skilled engineers in Sales/Marketing activities. This will improve the strength of the sales funnel and will also motivate employees. Organize technical seminars or Webinars targeting potential customers, get people to write white papers, case studies etc. Use people's time to generate additional sales collateral.
The basic idea is that during such down times, use the spare time usefully to build for a better future.

What to do in a true recession?

Lastly, But most importantly HR should know what the top management intends to do in the future in view of the current slow period. If the management thinks that there is a true recession in the industry, then management has two options: Layoff people and operate the business in a smaller scale, or build for a better future. The final decision will be based on the confidence level of the top management.

If the top management has plans to layoff people, then the role of HR must be geared towards identifying the key talent and retaining them. If layoff are being planned, then the top performers must be intimated about the possibility - but given enough assurances that it will not affect their jobs etc. Take steps to prevent attrition of key people.

Another possible reason for employee demotivation may be that the projects they are getting to do may not be challenging enough. This implies that either the employees are being underemployed. In such circumstances, best thing to do is to change the marketing strategy and focus on getting more challenging & high paying challenges. For example, instead of getting application support work, aim to get application development work. In other words: Aim to move up in the value chain.

Note: I have written the above for an IT/ITES company in mind, but similar ideas can be applied to other firms as well.

I have written in detail about the things I mentioned here. If you have time please read the following:

• Marketing & Sales Funnel
• Hosting successful Seminars
• Marketing - Avoid Revenue Roller coaster Trap
• Successful Marketing for a Mid-sized Organization
• Retaining People in Technical Jobs
• Retention of top managers
• Use Marketing to Hire and Retain Talent
• Branding to Attract Talent
• PCMM & Creating a learning culture

Power of Choice

Hello Everyone,

Let me introduce you to Maria Sortino Gillette. Maria Sortino Gillette is an expert on American Culture and an independent trainer/coach. She trains expat and professionals on American culture, American business, and improving business communication with Americans. To know more about her work, visit: http://www.americanculturecoach.com. You can read her blog at http://americanculturecoach.blogspot.com

Today's article is written by Maria Sortino Gillette. This article gives a deep insight into the American working style and American business culture. In this article, Maria has brought out the need for one to be assertive in order to be successful in the USA.

*******************************
The Power of Choice

I recently read a blog entry from Arun Kottolli about the failed expatriate assignment of one Indian family in America. Here is the story:


T. Subramanian Iyer, a highly successful sales manager from Chennai in India was asked by his company - Prestige products to work as regional sales director in San Antonio, Texas. Prestige regarded T. Subramanian Iyer (TS) as its finest young executives and promoted him to sales director for this new assignment. When offered the opportunity, TS was excited and looked forward for this new assignment and the new challenge. Top management was also confident about its decision of sending TS.

TS is a deeply religious man and had never went abroad. He and his family - wife and two children were exited of this opportunity. On arriving to US, the family's excitement slowly turned into uneasiness. Adjustment to American life proved difficult. His wife was unhappy - and apprehensive of her children education - The public school where TS had enrolled his children had a substantial Hispanic population and the quality of education was not the same as their earlier school in India. Moreover TS & his wife were constantly worried that their children would eat non-vegetrian food at school - which was very much against their religious beliefs. She also found it difficult to run the household without her usual servants.

At work, TS found things to be very difficult. The absence of a personal secretary - cramped his style. He was angry that he had to do all travel arrangements, type his own letters etc. Moreover many of his customers expected him to have lunch with them at a steak house or at a BBQ place. TS being a religious man never ate meat - and desisted eating at places which served meat. The idea of eating beef appalled him. All this had a negative impact on his performance and the company was worried due to his failure to succeed. After 6-months, TS requested to be transferred back to India and was even willing to settle for his earlier role as sales manager - a demotion.

When I read this story, the first question that came to my mind was, "Why didn't TS exercise his power of choice?" When he realized that if he did not speak up about which restaurant he and his customers would eat at, they would always choose a steakhouse, why didn't he suggest a different one?

America, the US, is a land of choices. But if you don't know that you have a right to exercise those choices, what good does it do? In an article I wrote recently for Prudential Relocation entitled "Acculturation: To Stress or Not to Stress", I wrote about the stress involved in relocating internationally. In the article, I talked about self-efficacy:

Self-efficacy is our belief in our personal ability to get things done. It's how well we think we are capable of achieving results. If you believe you have the power to produce results, to make things happen, you are more likely to attempt the required action. In this way, the way you perceive your abilities can lead to lower anxiety, and therefore reduced stress reactions. Self-confidence can positively effect how we view our environment -safety, transportation, housing, social encounters, and all of the potential stressors mentioned above. It's beliefs in our capabilities to exert some control over these potential threats, not the capabilities themselves that determine how we judge changes. With increased self-efficacy, you may judge the negativity of daily life events at a lower level and, therefore, imagine fewer problems. When you view yourself as positively being able to cope with the changes that come with international living, you will find the new environment less potentially hurtful. What was once deemed a fear of the unknown or discomfort with ambiguity has now turned into a feeling of adventure, challenge and fun.

Now, this isn't to say that I am not understanding of someone who has difficulty expressing his or her personal choices when it's obvious that the majority of the group wants a different choice. But, what I am saying is that there are ways to get around this awkwardness. One way is to lead the decision-making by being proactive. Use communication to gather everyone's input and make a decision. If you cannot eat meat and would like to have your next business lunch at a restaurant that offers a variety of vegetarian dishes, send out an email the day before with a list of a few choices of restaurants that offer both meat and non-meat dishes. Gather your responses and make a decision that will satisfy everyone in the group. Maybe instead of a lunch meeting, the meeting could be held at a coffee shop or tea house.

Once you know that you have the power to affect the outcome, you can take control. This doesn't mean you should decide for others without asking them, but you should anticipate the cultural issues and come up with some possible solutions.

Let's return again the story above to deal with another issue TS and his family had difficulty dealing with: dissatisfaction with the education of their children at school. I am assuming that their children were attending a public school, not a private school. There are a variety of private schools in the US that offer a more challenging and comprehensive curriculum. International schools are one of them. TS and his family could have done a little research into local international schools and found that the class sizes are small and that most of the students are from other countries. These schools also used advanced curricula that challenge the current academic level of their students.

Finally, there is the issue of not having a personal secretary or a housekeeper. If these were necessities to TS and his family's happiness, could he not have found a way to have them? Now I know it takes some tact when asking your home-based manager in India to provide you with a secretary, but if you make it clear that it is necessary to your effectiveness, then I believe you can successfully negotiate it. Once again, you can be proactive and initiate communication with your home country boss. In this case, you would need to use the style of communication that is most appropriate in your company and in Indian culture, but whatever that style may be, you can still offer some possible solutions that might relieve you of the everyday tasks. One solution could be to have a secretary from another department take on some of the tasks. Another solution might be to hire a part-time secretary. The point here is that there are always choices and in the US, if you wish to change an outcome, you need to suggest different choices.

Again, I believe that if you understand that, in the US, it is OK to exert your influence and communicate your desires, even if they are different from the cultural norm, you will find more satisfaction in your quality of life. Not only is it 'okay', it is required that international managers be proactive decision makers on all levels.

If you do what is within your personal power, and you still don't have things the way you would like them, then you either need to accept the differences or leave. But I guarantee that over time, with even a few changes implemented, you will feel more comfortable in your new home…at least comfortable enough to stay.

Now, while your personal secretary is sending out emails with restaurant choices for your business lunch with customers, you don't have to stress out -- you can rest easy!