Commentary on managing distributed teams

From the HBR blogs...

"Managers frequently ask for best practices for managing their global teams, and recently we've noticed some common themes. Here are the three questions that keep coming up again and again, and what the research tells us about how to address them..."
"...managers of virtual teams should have dual, complementary objectives: structure and socialize. First they must shift their teams' work practices away from the dynamic adjustment outlined above towards more structured coordination. Clear team-level work processes, output requirements, and group norms reduce the complexity of virtual team coordination from coordinating efforts across multiple sites to aligning one's efforts with a single, consistent set of expectations. Second, as the speed of today's economy means no team — collocated or distributed — can eliminate all such dynamic adjustment, virtual team managers also work to support and facilitate dynamic adjustment when it's required by promoting and encouraging informal interaction."

Reference: Managing a Virtual Team, by Mark Mortensen and Michael O’Leary (link), published: 9:52 AM Monday April 16, 2012

Mocality - crowd sourcing business in Africa

From the Mocality blog; how we built this business...

Quote: When we started this business, we knew that (unlike in the UK or US, where you can just kickstart your directory business with a DVD of business data bought from a commercial supplier), if we wanted a comprehensive database of Kenyan business, we would have to build it ourselves. We knew also that if we wanted to build the business quickly, we’d have to engage a lot of Kenyans to help us. So we built our crowd program that utilises M-PESA (Kenya’s ubiquitous Mobile Money system) to reward any Kenyan with a mobile phone who contributes entries to our database, once those entries have been validated by our team. Over two years, we’ve paid out Ksh. 11m (over $100,000) to thousands of individuals, and we have built Kenya’s most comprehensive directory, with over 170,000 verified listings. Personally, I regard the program as one of THE highlights of my 18 year career on the internet.
From day 1, we aimed to target all Kenyan businesses, irrespective of size. As a result, for about 2/3rds of our listed businesses, Mocality is their first step onto the web. That’s about 100,000 businesses that Mocality has brought online.

Links
Mocality site (link)
Mocality blog (link)

How about crowdsourcing your seed capital?

"Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform for creative endeavors, was founded in April 2009... The unique all-or-nothing approach to funding has struck a chord with both creators and funders and is allowing enterprising individuals to bypass traditional establishments to create films, music albums, events, and even products. Kickstarter helped hundreds of projects raise millions of dollars in 2010." Mashable blog (link)

Further reading
Kickstarter "A NEW WAY TO Fund & Follow Creativity". Web site (link)
Kickstarter Surpasses $100 Million in Pledges. Mashable post (link)

Microsourcing labour case

Lifebushido: The Challenge of the Microsourcing Labor Markets is available from Erran Carmel's web page under the 'Cases for Teaching' section - http://auapps.american.edu/~carmel/ The case is about a small American firm growing in a new part of the sourcing world — microsourcers, also known by other labels: micro-work, human-cloud, crowdsourcing. LifeBushido is a middleman platform that mediates between the buyers and the global supply of sellers in specialty knowledge work. The case takes place in 2011.

Localisation, Translation, Culture

Panel discussion with Damian Scattergood, Paul Quigley, and Stella Grubo, STAR Translation Services, Docklands Innovation Park, Dublin.

A discussion on outsourcing/sourcing, managing inside and managing outside; the relationship with clients and suppliers. What is culture and how does it come into the frame? How to manage the interface, who to manage, and listening or being listened to!



About Star TS (link) Star's video summary of the session (link)

Ways to avoid outsourcing failure...

According to Robinson and Iannone (2007) Transition is the most challenging period in an outsourcing project. Over two thirds of projects encountered problems that began at the transition stage. They suggest three approaches to address issues that germinate at the transition stage

"1.Refocus and retraining of the retained organization is critical. In most cases, the retained staff consists of IT professionals who have been "doers", with strong technology management roles in service delivery. Now they must shift gears and reconstitute themselves as managers and liaisons between their organization and the service provider. Special training may be necessary so that members of the retained organization understand and can operate effectively in their new roles.
2.Use acceptance criteria. Tactically, a key success factor at the transition stage is the use of acceptance criteria: What are the marks that the service provider needs to hit, by what dates? Unrealistic transition timetables are a frequent source of trouble. Both buyers and providers should look with a sceptical eye at the viability of their transition timeframes.
3.Choose the right transition economic model. A milestone-based, achievement-based economic model is a better approach than a time-based economic model."

(Robinson & Iannone, 2007)

Reference
"9 Ways to Avoid Outsourcing Failure" by Robinson & Iannone, 2007. CIO Magazine (link)

"Understanding Transition Performance During Offshore IT Outsourcing" by Beulen et al (2011).

Am I dealing with Guanxi yet?

The problem with Guanxi for non-Chinese dealing with China based or culturally influenced organisations is figuring out when Guanxi applies.

Q&A on the topic of gifts:

• Does it start with big gifts? 
• No, someone starts the process out with longish introductory engagements, these are usually set up by mutual parties or intermediaries.
• What happens in the build up, before? 
• Generally a lot of ground work has to be done in advance.
• Who gets gifts? 
• Usually gifts may be given by equivalents at each level. The most important at the level of business/organisational owners.
• If the first meeting doesn't go well, does that stop the relationship getting closer? 
• No, anything can be recovered, but no one expects a screw-up at the eventual formal kick-off, which anyway happens after all the ground-work is done in advance (months of interaction).
• Who presents and receives a gift? 
• The highest representative at the highest level present.
• When selecting a gift what should I consider? 
• Things like value, symbolic importance, scarcity, use. Get advice from a suitably respected and experienced organiser.
• Do you need to bring a gift to every meeting?
• The first meeting for the agreement between organisations is the most important (but of course preparation has taken place earlier, see above).
• When should the gift be opened? 
• Well you should ask 'can I open it?' usually if it's ok the gift will be a small thoughtful token, but if it isn't ok to open it it may be a high value, socially 'heavy' gift, one that generates an obligation of sorts.
• Does the big visit (agreement visit) to the host require a reciprocal visit to the guest's site? 
• Often, yes, and consider again, to eat with the guest is very important, particular consideration should be given to what food is offered.
• What role does food play? 
• To eat with the guest is very important.
• What kind of food should be ordered? 
• Again, the best of everything makes for auspicious relationships.