Master Your Next Move, with a New Introduction

CHAPTER 3

The Corporate Diplomacy Challenge

After just four months in her new job at Van Lear Foods, Irina Petrenko was deeply frustrated by the bureaucratic maneuvering going on at the corporate-headquarters level. “Where’s the support?” she wondered. An accomplished sales and marketing professional, Irina had risen through the country-management ranks of Van Lear, a leading international food company, to become the firm’s managing director (also known as “country manager”) in her native Ukraine. She was a hard-driving, results-oriented executive who had overseen dramatic growth in her territory.

Based on this success, Irina was promoted to ...