...Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (A) Greg James, a global manager at Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun), slumped on the edge of his bed in the company’s corporate flat in Paris. He struggled to even move after only three hours of sleep. James had embarked on this unexpected trip from Sun’s Santa Clara, California, headquarters six days earlier. With only a few hours’ notice, he had set out to meet with his entire 45-member customer implementation team spread across India, France, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States (US). He had already met with his team members in the US, India, and the UAE. France was his final stop before heading home. For the second time, the team had failed to respond promptly to a customer system outage as required by a service contract agreement. James had begun this trip assuming he would find a swift resolution to the rapidly escalating customer situation that had motivated it. Unfortunately, that had not been the case. James knew that if he could just make it to the gym, exercise would invigorate him and clear his head: “Five more minutes and then I’ll go.” Twenty minutes later, still in his room, he grabbed his laptop and launched his e-mail. Re: HS Holdings James scanned his inbox, reliving the events that had plunged him into this predicament. Six days earlier, he had received a string of e-mails, forwarded to him by his team. Rahul Ashok, service manager for the Mumbai team, was in touch with Praveen Devilal...
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...Problem Statement Greg James, a global manager at Sun Microsystems, has found himself in a difficult situation after his teams failed to respond to a customer’s outage. James’s main problems are that his teams have a support system that fails to address emergency situations and that James has poor, inefficient communication with his teams that leads to unhappiness in the workplace. Analysis Sun Microsystems uses a support systems that queues problems for resolution. The situation for HS Holdings went into a queue that is designed to keep track of missing contract numbers. Since there is no queue system for emergencies, it took several hours for anyone of importance to notice the issue. Jamal, the programmer that created the queue system, stated his assignment was to create a queue for accounts with missing contract numbers. Never was Jamal communicated to create a program that dealt with emergencies such as when a client’s servers go down. The problem here is that Sun Microsystems does not have an emergency situation protocol. With a fail proof support system, one that is designed to deal with emergencies, James would not be traveling across the globe to meet with each of him teams. Sun Microsystems also fails from poor and inefficient communications from James to his teams which has caused unhappiness. If this problem is left uncheck, employee morale will decrease and Sun Microsystems could start to see themselves with a high employee turnover. One of the biggest reasons...
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...Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reebok NFL Replica Jerseys: A Case for Postponement1 “This time of year is a little too exciting for us. I have a warehouse full of jerseys out there and retailers are screaming for the teams and players I don’t have! Every year, it seems like we have the right mix of inventory going into the season, and then some team that no one expected to do well gets off to a 4-0 start, and the team everyone expected to contend for the Super Bowl is losing games. Suddenly I have 1000s of jerseys I can’t sell and 1000s of orders I can’t fill.” Tony is responsible for the inventory of NFL replica jerseys that Reebok maintains in their central distribution center. It is early October, and the NFL season is well underway. “No wonder we call this the chase, I feel like I have been running for months, I’m exhausted. I wish there was someway to plan inventory that would allow me to react faster to hot players and teams. But with player demand changing so much from year to year, I really can’t increase inventory, in fact I like to minimize inventory at year-end.” Background Reebok International Ltd. is headquartered in Canton, Mass. The company employs approximately 7400 people, and is widely known for their sports apparel and footwear brands. Reebok was still a small British shoe company in 1979, when Paul Fireman acquired the exclusive North American license to sell Reebok shoes.2 In 1985 Reebok USA acquired the original British Reebok, and Reebok...
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... 10 Rules for Managing Global Innovation Companies are well aware that hidden in their dispersed, global operations is a treasure trove of ideas and capabilities for innovation. But it’s proving harder than expected to unearth those ideas or exploit those capabilities in global innovation projects. Some of the challenges of global projects are familiar: figuring out the right role for top executives, for example, or finding a good balance between formal and informal project management processes. But although the challenges may be familiar, the solutions are not; what works for an innovation project conducted in a single location doesn’t necessarily work for one dispersed across many sites around the world. That’s partly because many important enablers of innovation happen naturally in colocation. Single location projects draw on large reservoirs of shared tacit knowledge and trust, and when issues arise, senior management is on hand to make decisions and provide direction and support. Team members october 2012 harvard business review 85 10 Rules foR Managing global innovation share the same language, culture, and norms, enabling flexibility and iterative learning as the project unfolds. When a project spans multiple locations, many of those natural benefits—often taken for granted—are lost. Part of the challenge of dispersed innovation thus becomes how to replicate the positive aspects of colocation while harnessing the unique benefits of a global initiative. To...
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...September 2012 Managing People and Performance Assignment Student ID#: 82081035 Word Count: 4779 Managing People and Performance Assignment brief Provide a very short introduction to your organisation, and your role, to provide a context for your assignment. Based on your own organisation (or part of the organisation): a) Identify, with justification, a critical issue relating to people that impact on effective performance within the organisation. In justifying your chosen issue, you should analyse the organisational context using the course materials to show how the issue has arisen, and the impact that it has. (40% of the marks) b) Based on your analysis, develop your recommendations and an outline plan to address the issue to improve organisational performance with clear justification for your proposed approach. (20% of the marks) c) Identify the benefits that you expect to achieve from your recommendations and how these might be measured to know if the benefits have been achieved. Include theories and models from the course materials to support your expectations of the potential benefits. Also identify any major risks that might jeopardise the success of your recommendations. (30% of the marks) d) You should finish your assignment with a reflective statement that includes: – how insights from your elective pathway have influenced your choice of issue and impact on your analysis, recommendations and expected outcomes or your thinking about managing people – the value...
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...Department of Technology Management and Innovation MG 7953 Global Innovation Fall 2014 Professor: Tom Helling Saturday @ 1:30-6:00 pm (see dates of class per session dates below) Contact Details: th930@nyu.edu 917-593-0946 (mobile) Course Description: This course focuses on the global dimension of technology-enabled innovation. Topics covered include: motivation for a global business outlook, how to proactively access global sources of innovation, coordination and organization of innovation-oriented activities around the world, new product development on a global basis, the role of revitalized global R&D, the growing of prominence of IT, virtual organizations and e-Business, and the increasing role of alliances and linkages with customers, suppliers, and other third parties. Course Structure: This course introduces the latest and most relevant thinking, research and best practices, with an emphasis on learning based on the experiences of actual firms around the world. Individual and team-based project work is an important part of this course. We will be discussing a number of research papers, case studies and relevant reading material during this course. Class interaction is vital to understanding many of the central themes and issues in the area of global innovation. Textbooks: Reverse Innovation, Govindarajan and Trimble, 2012 ISBN-10: 1422157644 ISBN-13: 978-1422157640 The Innovator’s Dilemma, Christensen, 2011 ISBN-10: 0062060244...
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...Managing a virtual workplace The article Managing a Virtual Workplace focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of virtual workplaces and the tools needed for managers. There are many business reasons for a virtual workplace: reduced real estate expenses, increased productivity, higher profits, improved customer service, access to global markets and environmental benefits. There are also many disadvantages of a virtual workplace: set-up and maintenance costs, loss of cost efficiencies, cultural issues, feelings of isolation, and lack of trust. Virtual teams are not appropriate for every job or company. This article is about how to overcome the disadvantages and emphasizes the advantages of a virtual workplace and hoe managers will adapt to the new challenge of managing a virtual workplace. Critical success factors for global virtual teams This article focuses on the success and failures of virtual teams. There are several factors that determine the success or failure of virtual teams and they are: • Team Formation • Trust and Collaboration • Team Communication Within the team foundation, there has to be a clear sponsorship, agreed goals, awareness of cultural influences, and the right competencies and skills. Trust and collaboration are key skills in having a successful virtual team. Team communication is also a very important key in the success of a virtual team. You must stay connected with the members on your team and meet on a regular basis via e-mail...
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...Team Performance Report Team Pink Samantha Smith Jaquline McKague International Business GBUS 440 May 6, 2012 Table of Contents LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS COMPANY OVERVIEW REVIEW OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE SELECTED FINANCIAL INDICATORS SELECTED LINE ITEM ANALYSIS DISAGGREGATING STOCK PRICE MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS COMPETITOR ANALYSIS BUSINESS OUTLOOK SIMULATION LEARNING OUTCOMES FINAL REMARKS 3 5 6 6 7 8 9 11 12 12 14 Dear Fellow Shareholders, Team Pink is please to inform you that your firm is the world’s leading cell phone provider. With the highest share price and level of profitability, Team Pink has strived to become a premier transnational organization. Increasing its share price over the last six rounds, Team Pink has preserved through a global recession and a price war. While keeping marketing and R&D cost down, Team Pink has the leading global market shares and the leading market shares in Europe. Although Team Pink does not have the leading market shares in Asia and the United States, its market shares are well above the average. Team Pink is able to offer its customers the most technology-advanced phones at a low and affordable price. Team Pink has been able to keep production prices around the average to low end allowing Team Pink to sell phones at a price lower than most of our competitors. Team Pink’s success can be accredited to its corporate mission: “To effectively and efficiently manage a selection of cell phone technologies in method that...
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...Alcoa’s Strategies for Managing Diversity. Abstract Over the years, many organizations have been faced with the challenge on how to manage diversity. It is difficult for many organizations to understand what diversity is and what strategies to use to manage it. Managing diversity in the workplace takes an extreme amount of effort, persistence, and dedication from everyone within the organization. This paper explains the background of Alcoa, their philosophy for managing diversity, and the steps they have taken to reach their goals of managing diversity within their workplace. Also if the steps they used were appropriate and if they will work for them in the future. AlCOA’S STRATEGIES FOR MANAGING DIVERSITY. Managing diversity can be accomplished in organizations if the correct approaches are utilized and followed up with. Alcoa is an organization that is dedicated to its strategies in managing diversity in their workplace. They have various approaches that they all work together on as a team to accomplish their goals for diversity. My belief is Alcoa is a great company for anyone to be employed with. Alcoa’s Background. Alcoa is the world’s leading producer of primary aluminum and fabricated aluminum. It also is the world’s largest miner of bauxite and refiner of alumina. In1888, the enterprise was incorporated as The Pittsburgh Reduction Company. In 1907 the name was changed to Aluminum Company of America and later, in 1999, it was shortened to Alcoa. In addition to inventing...
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...4172/2168-9717.1000e106 Open Access Managing Multicultural Construction Teams in today’s Complex Global Environment Edward Ochieng* Faculty of Technology and Environment, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK The rapid globalisation of the world’s economy has had significant impact on the way construction project managers work, bringing them frequently with clients, suppliers and peer that they never work before. In an era of globalisation, projects in the construction industry face unique challenges in coordinating among clients, financiers, developers, designers and contractors from different countries. In addition, construction project teams need to cope with the complexities of both local institutions and physical environments. Bartlett and Gosha [1] discussed the challenges facing organisations, which are intending to work effectively across borders. They identified the major challenges as being able to develop practices, which balance global competitiveness, multinational flexibility and the building of a worldwide learning capability. They maintained that achieving this balance will require organisations to develop the cultural sensitivity and ability to manage and leverage learning to build future capabilities. While offering opportunities, globalisation also poses significant challenges for construction project managers especially when different cultures are involved as a team. Multicultural construction project teams have their culture as a set of shared...
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...issue * Conclusion * References Introduction People have always been the driving force of business and management. This force is a challenge and if not addressed with the right skills, it will develop into disturbing elements that are very dangerous for the management of the company. The challenges of global talent selection and mobility of labor, established by a career concept that transcends national borders and organizational groups and the emergence of virtual collaboration on international projects requires companies to develop new skills in their employees to be effective in the complexity of today's contexts. The workforces are people, and as we are human, we are all different from various points of view. This paper aims to answer the question: “Is culture really all that International Human Resource Manager is about?” I’ve analyzed the differences between HRM and IHRM based on the concept of diversity, characteristics that influence both topics but in a different way. After this, the next stop is to define IHRM and the concept of culture to reach the conclusion that managing cultural differences in an international team is the major challenge to IHRM. Due to the movement of employees between foreign subsidiaries and headquarters and between foreign locales, HRM professionals are likely to find themselves working on international assignments. Managers working in their home countries but employed by a local subsidiary of a foreign MNE, will...
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...CHALLENGES OF MANAGING VIRTUALIZED TEAMS Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. Why Virtual Teams? 3 III. Are Virtual Teams For Me? 4 IV. Virtual Team Challenges and Best Practices 4 1. Communication Challenges 5 A. Cultural and Global Communication Challenges 6 2. Management and Leadership Challenges 7 V. On The Flip Side: Virtualized Project Managers 9 VI. Conclusion 9 Appendix 1: Source: Solomon, 2010, p. 10 11 Appendix 2: Source: Solomon, 2010, p. 12 12 I. Introduction As globalization becomes more prevalent in organizations and telecommunications infrastructure improves, virtual teams are becoming more and more of a reality. Collaboration of work and sharing of knowledge is becoming increasingly important as businesses promote more agile and just-in-time production. Many businesses realize that virtual teams can provide them with these competitive advantages. However, as virtual teams grow in popularity (Cascio et al., 2000), the challenges that come with managing these teams become more apparent. This is due to problems that naturally come from a virtual environment, such as communication deficiency, lack of motivation, and non-transparent management. This report is intended to inform project managers and IT professionals about the challenges of virtual team management and provide best practices for handling these challenges. In this paper, we will be looking at managing three different configurations for virtual teams: virtualized...
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...There are many similarities and differences between domestic and global project management. A project manager must realize that what might work in their country may not work in a foreign environment. Project managers might find themselves using practices that have worked for them in the past, without even thinking of the new environment, and issues may arise. Project managers need to understand the differences in a different country's environment to avoid and reduce any obstacles that there may be. Some considerations global project managers must consider are the legal, political, security, geographical, economic infrastructure, and culture implications of working with different countries (Gray, 2006). Some legal and political issues project managers should consider are staying within the laws and regulations of the country they are looking to work in. The foreign environment usually has protection of local workers, and may strongly influence how the different types of projects can be implemented. In addition, security is a high risk factor and must be considered when going to a foreign country. The geography of a country is also a consideration that one should make. It is necessary in this case to assess what the weather is like such as; does it rain often or is it extremely hot. These considerations must be made and planned into the overall projects, as some of these challenges could cause the project to be delayed if you are working on a construction project. In addition...
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...Geographic dispersion & cultural diversity As economic borders come down, cultural barriers will most likely go up and present new challenges and opportunities for business. As global restructuring takes place within the company, Koch leads a geographically dispersed project team (i.e. Germans and Chinese members ) to standardize its personnel selection methods in the APAC region for staffing 25 new middle management positions. The HR executive encounters problems when leading across cultural differences in work behaviors that arise within his multinational team. He fails to respect and understand his team members’ cultural diversity (Chinese behaviors and values), or bond his team together, which is essential to form such a team. Also, conflicting goals confront the HR executive: design a personnel selection system that is valid across different countries, yet adapted for each country taking into consideration the cultural diversity consisted of: country’s unique economic, educational, and cultural contexts. And this process is undoubtedly costly. Jollibee’s international expansion. Tony Kitchner was hired to build the global Jollibee brand. Although Kitchner hoped to leverage Jollibee’s competitive advantage by entering new geographic markets, his rapid expansion strategy was unfocused and poorly executed. Lack of considerations on cultural diversity, “Planting the flag” only showed that Jollibee knew how to repeat its success. Kitchner’s decision to “plant the...
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...Business and program manager with an accomplished career, demonstrating expertise in pursuing new business opportunities and effective team building. Strong management and leadership skills, experienced working with cross-functional teams in complex environments. Creative and innovative problem solving skills and clear decision-making abilities in pressured situations. Accomplished in the successful presentation and negotiation of complex, high value, concepts at senior level. Proven track record in strategy, business planning, budgeting and performance management. Over thirty years in the Information Technology and Communications industry with extensive international business experience. CORE COMPETENCies Leadership: One of thirteen...
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