Your Next Move

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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 managing director and assigned to turn around the company’s struggling operations in the Balkans. She thrived ...