GEC Scenario #55: German Joint Venture

This sample scenario is from a collection of 70+ Global Engineering Competency (GEC) scenarios developed for instructional and assessment purposes. For more information, including links to usage tips and other supporting resources, visit our About page.

Your American company is exploring a possible joint venture with a German firm. As a technical manager in your firm’s R&D group, you have been invited to Berlin to give an in-depth presentation about a new technology that is central to the partnership, and is also one of your main areas of expertise. During the presentation, many of the audience members nod to signify understanding, and some even smile once or twice. Yet when you call for questions at the end of the presentation, the audience gives critical evaluations of your preliminary test results and recommends major changes to the technology. During a teleconference shortly after the presentation, your supervisor asks whether you think the partnership has any potential. How would you reply?

  1. Tell him no, the partner is likely not interested
  2. Tell him that nothing can be assumed from the German response
  3. Tell him yes, the partner is likely still interested
  4. Tell him you are not sure
  5. Suggest scheduling a follow-up meeting to better gauge their interest

Recommended Uses: INSTRUCTION/TRAINING (see our GEC Resource Guide for additional guidance)

Citation: Jesiek, B. K. and Woo, S. E. (Eds.). (2018). GEC Scenario #55: German Joint Venture. Retrieved from https://geec.info/gec55

License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 1160455 and 1254323. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We also acknowledge support for this work from Purdue's Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research (CILMAR).