An example of bad HR practice

Watch the video that introduces TADA International, a company with some rather poor HR practices.

Originally a company with interests in retail – specifically clothing, shoes and accessories for men, women and children – it has diversified to open a small number of small food and catering businesses. As a result, the company has grown to become an influential multinational company, listed on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges.

The company exists within a competitive sector in the US and the UK, due to the presence of several similar retail outlets with a committed customer base, but also has a significant number of outlets in Durban, Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Lagos in Africa, and Bogota, Buenos Aires and Lima in South America.

Despite this global reach, the board of the company are all US or UK nationals. It’s an all-male, white, middle-aged board, where the appointment process is heavily, though informally, influenced by the CEO Colin Thornberry.

Management teams in Africa and South America are led by people who, professionally, are mirror images of Colin – white men in their 50s, with illustrious qualifications in law and finance, and with long associations (and family relations) with Colin. A lack of representation of other stakeholders (eg suppliers’ communities, consumers, employees) has often been criticised in the UK newspapers because the company continues to be one of only three remaining FTSE 100 companies with an all-male board and no policy on diversity.

As you’ve seen in the video, the insular leadership and recruitment processes have lead to unhappiness from some employees, and to the tribunal described.

Your task

What potential problems can you identify in TADA International’s present method of working on the international stage and what does this mean to the company?