Describe an experience in which you exercised leadership and made a difference in an organization.
As my company's top guy in South Africa since October 1995, I have secured a strong presence for my company in South Africa. To do this, I have streamlined our business, devised new incentive program for our employees, and cut back the cost.
Before I was made the manager, my company was trying to sell a wide range of Chinese products in South Africa, including commodities as different as foodstuff, china, clothing, and textiles. Seeking to do many things too fast, the company incurred huge costs but generated little profit. Upon careful analysis of the market situation, I determined that my company should concentrate on marketing textiles, for which we had relative advantages in terms of expertise and supplies. So, we pulled out of the markets of other products, where we had no special advantages in the fierce competition. With the benefit of scale in one product, we quickly achieved better efficiency.
With a new incentive program I developed, the company's sales people, its biggest asset in South Africa, worked harder and more productively. In my scheme, remuneration was strictly tied with one's performance. Each salesperson's income is made proportionate to his or her volume of sales. With this program, the company brought in more revenue and the sales people made more money for themselves.
Large sums of money were saved for the company because, with strict control of operational cost, I drastically cut down the company's overhead in South Africa. For this, I put in place a clear chain of authorities with respect to who can authorize what amount of spending for what purpose. That has worked very well. With the cost down and revenue up, the company's profits have soared.
