CASE STUDY:

“SETTING UP A SALES OFFICE IN BRUSSELS”

The international company WING AG (Wasserkraft Ingenieure) has been founded in 1928 in Zug,
Switzerland (Headquarter). During the first decades WINGs main business purpose was to serve as
a civil engineering company that planned and built smaller hydro power plants for factories and
train stations in the alpine region. Their business focus has changed over the last decades. WING
developed towards a global consulting and engineering company that serves customers all around
the world in geographical challenging regions. Meanwhile WING has international offices in Sweden,
Canada, New Zealand, and Japan with in total about 430 employees worldwide.

Since about two decades WING recognizes growing demand in the area of “green energy” such as
solar, wind and geothermal. Following this trend, WING concentrated for the last 14 years on the
role as a general engineering company in this field. The economic success is obvious and the
position in the market is “settled”. WING has developed two new product lines (WindPark and
SolarFarm) which are especially designed for small municipals and communities up to about 50.000
inhabitants for a pricy and independent power supply. The marketing & sales (MASA) department
for Europe identified over the last three years the need to be in closer contact with all trends and
decisions coming up from European Community as well as having a certain informational influence
on trendsetters and the political bodies. Thus, MASA decided that WING should open a sales office
(no consulting or engineering to be done there!) in Brussels to be very near to the representatives
from interesting locations (esp. Eastern Europe). The project PROSALO (Professional Sales Office)
was initiated. There is a YoungCrew-Program at WING, implemented to support and assess young
high potentials to promote the best for an in-house career. You are the leader of this team of young
employees who are participating in the YoungCrew-Program. MASA offers this project PROSALO to
you in order to demonstrate your abilities and to provide a sounding contribution to the future
development of the company.

The following information is provided as framework:

1. cost at maximum € 150.000,--;

2. duration at maximum 26 weeks (scheduled from MASA’s later decision to start the project);
3. there should be a “showroom” in the new office;
4. the office should be representative, but not too showy;
5. MASA expects that in total about 12 people will work in the office;
6. One senior partner and one principal (each with his assistant) are interested to take over the
lead in the new sales office, all other staff (e.g. accountants, secretaries, legal expert etc.)
have to be newly employed and trained;
7. For “going Europe” the experience and needs from the already existing international offices
have to be considered.

Dörrenberg / Meyer 1