Siemens Case

1. How would you characterize Siemen's global development strategy? Why does it have regional development centers (RDCs) around the world?

From the beginning creation of the company, Siemens' always viewed themselves as a global organization. They attempted to strengthen their global presence throughout the years by increasing the amount of autonomy in the regional centers. There were two main reasons that Siemens conducted regional development centers around the world:

* Local Labor Shortages - Siemens was originally located in Munich, Germany and due to local labor shortages ICN could not centralize all product development in the area

* Employing regional managers, engineers, and technicians created faster responses to local needs such as EWSD customization. This allowed Siemens to be more available to its customers

2. What are the differences between RDCs in India, Germany, and the U.S.? How are these issues managed and resolved?

Germany - Since Germany was the headquarters for the company, most of the formal communication occurred through this RDC. However, problems arose with the changing time zones of the various RDCs. While employees knew their direct responsibilities, they had difficulty determining who their supervisor was. To solve problems, Munich focused on a "common understanding" approach. Higher executives met on a bi-weekly basis to talk about the issues at hand. However, these decisions were often delayed because there wasn't enough time to solve all of the problems.

US - The US RDC was more independent compared to others due to its responsibility for North American Marketing and the fact that the center had been in operation for several years. This RDC was sometimes referred to as the "Old RDC in the New World". The style of work at this site was more open to communication with all employees working in cubicles instead of offices. To keep up with changing customer demands, the US RDC tended to make a lot of decisions without consulting Munich. Due to faster pace, there appeared to be a growing gap between Munich and the US.

India - This RDC was relatively new, but had access to intelligent and cheap labor for software development. The office style was similar to the American way with open cubicles for easy communication. Due to the declining economic conditions, employees truly enjoyed working there and would put in extra hours when necessary. However, it also seemed more competitive because non-Indians were always worried about losing their jobs.

3. What has gone wrong with the ADMOSS and NetManager projects? Please consider both the Bangalore and Munich perspectives.

The problem is that the subsystems created were much more independent than what had been assumed. Bangalore