Haritha V H| MS20D014

Flextronics Case Study

Haritha V H
(MS20D014)

1) What challenges were faced by Flextronics University?

Flextronics University offers tailored training administration with global access

to standardised training content in technical as well as leadership context.
Bringing in such a framework to practice possessed challenges in several
settings such as;
i. Dealing Cultural idiosyncrasies – Working as a multi-national
company would mean dealing with enormous cultural idiosyncrasies.
Huge employee turnover of Hungarian workforce was one such instance
where Flextronics faced challenge. When establishing a global system
like Flex university this complexity increases significantly.

ii. Designing Global standardisation – Flextronics has to ensure that the

organisational culture is more priortised than culture of individuals from
different countries. Flex University training has to ensure that they
impart global standard practices in quality assurance as well as human
resource management for the firm to successfully strive in the global
market.

iii. Performance Management and Evaluation – As evident in the

Hungarian context, there may be significant differences in how
employees of different countries perceive training, controlled learning,
feedback system etc. Designing a training program that is acceptable
irrespective of the country and ensuring that the standard of the training
is not compromised is not an easy task. Moreover, bringing in an
employee performance evaluation system that is acceptable to
employees across various regions is a real challenge.

iv. “ONE Flextronics” moto – The objective of attaining a standardised

production process and thereby enhancing the quality of output and
retaining customer satisfaction is the crux of ‘ONE Flextronics’. This
includes employing the global best practices in quality and material
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management, production, program management, engineering, finances,

training etc. The scope and range of activities required to attain this
motto is extensive and challenging.

2) Assess the achievements and future development needs of Flextronics

University?

The achievements of Flextronics University are remarkable. IT has been able to

attain the objectives with which the program is initially designed. It includes
the following;

 Addressed the cultural diversity – Since the operation of the firm is

spread across three continents, the diversity factor has to be given
significant importance. The development of a tailored training
administration by Flextronics University effectively addresses this
cultural diversity.

 Effective use of ‘collective intelligence’ – Using the ‘collective

intelligence’ of a global corporation would mean that the company can
gain an edge over its competitors in the industry by employing best
practices. Integration of flex factory and flex university was a
momentous effort in this regard.

 International training practices – Managers need to understand the

interdependencies among functions and the downstream financial impact
of their decision. Flex University was successful in employing
international best practices in ensuring that managers are equipped to
meet this challenge.

 Employee development opportunity – The most severe challenge

faced by Flextronics was that the employees’ readiness to ‘jump ship’
even in cases of slightest ay increase. But a training and development
program based on Flex factory would provide the employees a cross
functional training and enable to acquire better skills. Such employee
development programs enhance the employee commitment to the firm
through cultivating a sense of belongingness and scope of personal
development.
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 Integration of technical and HRM practices – The firm must strive

towards making the best use of the value of team collaboration.
Managers has to practice delegation and trust, sharing problems and
implementing innovations that save time and money to ensure better
outcomes. The training program develops executive workforce who are
technically skilled and equally sophisticated in team management.

The scope for improvement lies in the following aspects;

 Working on attaining best global HR practices

 Efforts to gain employee trust
 Provision for long term employee development
 Designing a global HR reporting system

3) In what other ways might global and local training and development
programmes have been delivered by Flextronics?

Following are the few other ways by which Flextronics might have enhanced
their workforce through training and development programs;

 Moving talent around the globe - Because of Flex’s worldwide

footprint, developing the workforce capabilities including support for
multiple languages and currencies and country-specific security and
regulatory support is particularly important in getting the most from the
workforce. This shall be possible only by global job rotations and
thereby providing an exposure to opportunities across the globe. When
cross-functional teams compete under the given time pressure, it yield
the best financial results and the highest customer satisfaction ratings.

 Inclusive workplace practices – As a company of diverse individuals

working together in teams to meet the commitments, the practices and
policies on recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits,
professional development and training, promotions, transfers, layoffs,
terminations etc. must be on the premise of gender and diversity equity.
It can bring a sense of belongingness among the employees. The
diversity and inclusiveness in the home country workplace provides an
opportunity for employees to get familiarised with how to deal with
diverse workforce prior to placing them abroad.
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 Customer Relationship Management – To learn how a multi-national

corporation responds to the market and customers is very significant.
Each and every manager has to understand how their role in generating
more options for customers, managing cost factors reasonably and
improving customer services on the whole. 

 Supply Chain Management Training – Flextronics has a multi-

disciplined supply chain and hence understanding it requires specialised
training practices. When it comes to leadership development and
training, a set of employees has to be trained to solve complex real-
world problems of the firm’s supply chain. Supply chain management
and Customer relationship management are two ends of the same rope;
hence, training programs focusing on this aspect is also critical for a
global firm.

4) Suggest three alternative training solutions for Flextronics situated in specific

cultural contexts. These may be countries mentioned in the case study or others
that you can assume have a Flextronics workforce.

Considering that Flextronics works in more than thirty countries spread across
three continents the diversity of the workforce and the differences in business
environment might be enormous. Hence taking into account the PESETL
factors, Singapore, India and Ukraine seems to be three culturally three very
different countries in which Flextronics operate. Following three training
programs shall be introduced in these countries respectively;

i. Embracing virtual training environment – Considering the globally

competitive work force of Singapore, and their exposure to
technological advancements, it would be cost efficient for the firm to
embrace virtual training environment in SIngapore. This enables the
firm to sustain effectively in the ongoing trend of Work from Home or
Remote Working culture. Considering the cost, effort, time and other
resources involved in ensuring a physical training cohort in a Tier 1
cities can eat up the profit margin of the firm. Also, resorting to a virtual
set up would mean that anyone across the country can become a part of
the core teams without relocating implying that a wide range of diverse
candidates are available for recruitment process.

ii. Mentorship programmes – In a vast and diverse country like India, a

systematic mentorship program can play a very crucial role in the
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training and development. Since the country is so much diverse in all the
cultural aspects including language, ethnicity, economic background,
religion etc. it might be difficult to generalise the employee aptitude or
leadership style while recruiting. But since India can offer significant
number of technically skilled labour, it would be effective if such a
labour force is trained for management skills under senior mentors and
executives who can provide greater insights. Making use of the diverse
workforce in India and guiding them through appropriate mentorship
program can partially resolve the dilemma of finding a right mix of a
team player employee who is technically skilled. Such trained personnel
can fill up the executive positions well. Mentorship programs also
strengthens the collaborative efforts of global practices and helps in
bringing forward a diverse global talent pool.

iii. Industry facilitated training at Universities – When it comes to an

economically under developed country like Ukraine, it is advisable to
focus on employee recruitment and training from the grassroot level.
Industry facilitated training provided to university students would make
them more employable which makes it a viable option to both the
company as well as the prospective employee. This can bring down the
considerable amount of resources required to provide training program
for employees whether it be technical or HR based. A pro-active
training approach of this kind can ensure that a well facilitated pool of
candidates are available for the workforce recruitment.