Role-Play 1

Situation

Coburn Tool Corporation receives a unique proposition from Companhia Internacional de Comercio: in exchange for US $ 400,000 in assorted gears, Coburn would receive the equivalent in Brazilian shoes, which it could sell in the American market.Coburn’s first reaction was to reject the deal; indeed, the overseas sales manager, John McEnroe, found the arrangement almost laughable. On further consideration, however, he began to think more seriously about the proposition. Four hundred thousand dollars was a significant amount of money. But what would a machine tool manufacturer do with shoes? Garcia is experienced at dealing with Western businessmen and has quick answers to all of McEnroe’s questions, while the latter is unfamiliar with barter. Garcia mentions American corporate giants like Citicorp, Sears, GM, so as to show McEnroe that companies much larger than his own got involved in countertrade and to make it seem less risky. Garcia makes the proposal more attractive by telling McEnroe that he can even earn some extra money through a commission. Garcia is going to send a tentative order for the gears, making McEnroe show that he has a firm offer for a large amount of money.

Task

Act out a series of telephone conversations between John McEnroe, Overseas Sales Manager, Coburn Tool Corp. and Jose Garcia, Presi-dent, Companhia Internacional de Comercio. After the first conversa-tion Mr. McEnroe consults his colleague Alain Malone. Rose Ward, Mr. McEnroe’s secretary, receives telephone calls and does secretarial jobs.

John McEnroe: Your first reaction was to reject the deal; indeed, you found the arrangement almost laughable. On second thought you and your associates decided you might as well investigate it. You are of course happy to sell $400,000 worth of gears, but you do not know what to do with shoes. Garcia’s idea of setting up a trading subsidiary sounds strange and you are afraid your boss will only laugh you out of office. But then you try to find out how the deal will work and what would happen if you are unable to sell the shoes. You don’t know what a good shoe is and what a good price is. The whole business sounds very risky. But the hint about an extra profit makes the idea more attractive and you ask Garcia to let you talk to some commodity specialists and to your associates. If they feel you can move the shoes, you might consider it. It’s natural that Coburn will be reluctant to ship $400,000 worth of gears without first having some assurance they will actually get paid. So you ask Garcia to send you the specs (specifications) on the shoes together with some samples; also a breakdown on what gears they want to purchase.

Make use of the helpful phrases: