Following the proverb "Knowledge shared is knowledge preserved," virtual teams are an absolute necessity in today's globalization arena for the simple reason that not all corporate specialists can be physically located in one geographical area. In addition, specialists from one region are often temporarily needed for projects sponsored in another region, e.g., projects involving web site usability, inter-cultural liaison work, enriched media development, etc.). A virtual team balanced in its skill sets, personalities and international concentrations usually negates the requirement of having on-site resident specialists, thereby saving corporate logistical overhead and enabling faster time-to-market for product/service offerings to the customer base.

In 2000, Dell initiated a web globalization project impacting international regions across the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Achieving optimal balance among global branding, localized marketing communication (marcom), business units and logistical teams required patience, diligence and diplomacy. This endeavor spanned months and months of continuous research and analysis before its final implementation in 2003. However, the real success of this venture is represented by the strategies for business processes and virtual team formation that are now consistently leveraged across Dell's international regions.

Establishment of virtual teams complements standardized business methodologies, which provide a framework, set project stakeholder expectations, generate modeling artifacts, document workflow processes, etc. Within Dell, the Microsoft Solution Framework is the primary disciplined approach to determining business solutions. Nevertheless, a "one size fits all" tactic is seldom feasible, especially when dealing with inter-cultural and logistical issues on a global basis. For this reason, a combination of extended core teams, localized business methodologies and virtual team strategies were implemented to ensure success for Dell’s web globalization project.

Extended Core Team Formation

Transnational = centralized strategies + local flexibility

In the book, Branding Across Borders, James Gregory places equal emphasis on overall corporate structure, virtual teams and uniform business processes. The author identifies the following three approaches for corporations going global:

• Traditional


• Multinational


• Transnational

The traditional approach typifies structures of the 1950s-1980s, very centralized and efficient in operation, but not very conducive to localized marcom. The multinational approach was extensively employed during the 1980s-1990s, whereby global markets were partitioned into manageable regions. Although more attention was vested at that time upon local uniqueness and messaging, many efforts were often duplicated among different regions. The transnational approach of the 1990s-present has secured the best practices from the previous approaches by simultaneously leveraging internet technologies integrated within global brand management campaigns. This approach allows transnational organizations to implement centralized strategies where it makes sense, while permitting them to grant local flexibility when necessary.

With Dell Inc. being a transnational entity, distinct advantages in corporate culture were vested into the Dell.com web globalization project. A regular core team normally consists of project stakeholders situated within a geographical locale. However, given the project's online nature and resultant impact upon multiple regions worldwide, an extended core team was established by Dell's marketing arm, Global Brand Management (GBM), which proceeded to enlist representatives from teams representing marketing, business units, geographical regions, information technology and content management. Team membership fluctuated between 30 and 60 associates, depending upon the information architecture and localization tasks to be completed at any given time.

By having GBM lead this effort, Dell also avoided any possible friction or competition between its internal business units (Consumer, Enterprise, Government, etc.) If, instead, a particular business unit had been chosen to lead the overall web globalization effort, then the other units might have had reservations that the online solution would be inadvertently skewed in one unit’s favor. GBM's default neutral stance in this regard preserved business unit buy-in throughout the entire project lifecycle.

Leveraging the International Generalist

Anticipating the logistical challenge of a virtual team spanning 20 different time zones across Asia – Americas – Europe, GBM appointed an International Generalist (IG) with concentrations in international marketing, web localization, socio-linguistics and inter-cultural relations. This person reported directly to the GBM team and facilitated multiple business resolutions among core team members. Generalists with this level of cross-discipline knowledge are becoming the trend in today's global arena, since their combinations of international business / marketing / sociology / linguistic / technical skill sets can be simultaneously leveraged to solve localization challenges.

For example, the IG contributed his socio-linguistic insights in transcreating Dell's global brand tagline "Easy as Dell" into multiple languages. The key aspect in this case was to align local customer expectations with the American marketing nuances encapsulated in the following concepts:

• seamless online interactivity (e.g., e-commerce, internet service & support)
• lifestyle enhancements via technology usage (e.g., Multimedia PC, PDAs, Broadband Internet).

A direct translation in this case would have been ineffective, if not outright detrimental, due to differences in language syntax and semantics and just plain cultural differences. For example, in Japanese, the word Easy can be translated literally as Yasashii (with the possible connotations of leisurely, lack-luster, promiscuous) or Yooi (alluding to a physical task, not to ease-of-use). Yet both of these possible translations undermined the nuance of the original American English tagline.

When “Easy as Dell” really means “Simple for you, Dell.”

Balancing these expectations after much research, Dell successfully transcreated the taglines into localized equivalents, such as the Japanese Sinpuru Anata ni Deru (Simple for you, Dell), the French Simple comme Dell (Simple like Dell) and the German So Einfach wie Dell (As simply as Dell).

The IG also served as the resident international business specialist to the GBM core team. "Never underestimate the power of local knowledge" is a marketing proverb touted by HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks based in the U.K. This maxim is quite evident across all aspects of international business. During focus group preparation for the Dell China website usability review, the IG noted that the original Chinese usability questionnaire form was written in Traditional Chinese characters and then converted into Simplified Chinese characters. Although the syntax was correct, the style did not resonate culturally. With over five decades of socialism in China, many socio-political terms have blended into the Chinese vernacular; hence, there is an expectation by the local populace that it be used. For example, the English question, What computer do you use at the workplace?, was localized into Simplified Chinese as Ni zai gongzuo danwei shiyong shenme diannao? (What computer do you make use (of) at your work unit?), which projected a harmonious socialistic image of community and cooperation. The Chinese audience was so appreciative of this detail that compliments were bestowed upon Dell for the mere design of a customer questionnaire form.

Finally, the IG's inter-cultural liaison efforts alleviated potential misunderstandings between GBM members and the geographical regions. For example, U.S. corporate culture usually follows an "open forum" meeting format whereby associates are invited to participate, regardless of rank or seniority. However, Japan follows a strict corporate protocol in which the senior representative speaks for the entire team during official meetings. Cultural differences of this nature created logistical backlog for the U.S. team since their Japanese junior counterparts would submit business recommendations only after a meeting's adjournment.

In resolving the dilemma, the IG formed a "Second-Tier" core team comprised of only Japanese junior associates. Since the IG possessed the same rank and seniority as the Japanese colleagues, communication was interactive and engaging. The identified business problems and/or suggestions from the meeting were forwarded to senior members on the American GBM team, who in turn placed these items on the official agenda for discussion with their senior Japanese senior colleagues. This was one novel approach of using cultural differences to one's logistical advantage.

Why doesn’t your vice president have her own office?

An interesting "spill-over" benefit was the Japanese curiosity for U.S. corporate culture. For example, during informal conversations, the Japanese members of the team were astonished to discover that Dell vice presidents are assigned the same cubical office layout as regular employees, rather than being placed in a segregated office. The Japanese expect a certain level of corporate decorum for its senior executives. The IG explained that this office layout promoted a higher level of equality among the corporate rank-and-file, in which open spaces promoted seamless communication and team synergy.

It is social interactions such as these that ultimately allow closer bonding between company employees spread out worldwide, eventually fostering a common transnational corporate culture.

Localized Business Methodology

For any business team to function effectively, consensus must be established on a standardized business development methodology. As mentioned above, Dell has adopted the Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF). Although MSF produces a wealth of process and artifacts, the core business team should determine where logistical flexibilities supercede mere adherence to methodology guidelines.

For example, MSF designates five phases in the project lifecycle:

• Envisioning
• Planning
• Development
• Stabilization
• Implementation

However, the Stabilization phase is sometimes viewed as a redundant feature, thus removed and bundled into the Development phase, thereby reducing logistical costs in terms of time, localization and required personnel. The condensed MSF framework at Dell now consists of Envisioning, Planning, Development and Implementation.

A variety of global strategies are available to the transnational corporate entity.

With this structured approach to business development, a variety of global strategies are available to the transnational corporate entity. The first option is to offer the same solution to multiple international regions without localization. For example, local market research revealed that certain Asian markets preferred the English tagline Easy as Dell, hence no transcreation was required.

The second option is to convey a similar or a partial solution to the international regions. This action is usually associated with porting certain application feature sets. For example, a global customer database developed in the U.S. automatically divided the customer profile by business sectors. However, when ported over to Europe, it was discovered that the Europeans divided the customer profile first by country, then by business sectors. In this case, only the customer profile information was ported to Europe and not the "lookup" application itself.

The third option is to stagger the localized implementation to accommodate resource limitations. Via this technique, the international regions will ultimately receive the fully localized feature sets, but not simultaneously with the headquarters region. For example, the www.Dell.com web globalization conversion in 2003 was staggered across a 12-hour window in which the Americas region was converted first, followed by Europe/Middle East/Africa, and completed in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lastly, there is always the possibility that it may not be cost-effective to offer a global solution to a particular international region due to its unique business requirements and/or localization demands. In this case, corporate associates will have to determine the opportunity cost or risk involved. Although this is not part of a localization effort, it is a scenario that is fairly common.

Virtual Project Management Strategies

Identifying international talents within the corporation is one aspect of building effective globalization teams. Another is to establish a flexible virtual project management (VPM) structure to accommodate logistics and stakeholder "buy-in" from the virtual core team.

There are multiple approaches to managing virtual projects, each with its own unique benefits, based on corporate culture (e.g., market presence, cultural diversity) and interdependent resources (e.g., shared mandates, existing talents and skill sets, available funding). Four VPM strategies can be effectively leveraged:

• Traditional
• Liaison
• Tag Team
• Two-in-a-Pod
• Implementation

Traditional VPM

Under the Traditional VPM model, the Project Manager is located in one geographic location, while all related project clientele, vendors, resources and business partners are located at a different geographic location. This distance may be as close as the country next door or as far away as a market region on the other side of the globe. As the saying goes, "When a corporation goes global, everywhere is home!" Using this VPM approach, Dell's GBM team successfully localized brand tagline equivalents for its international regions.

Nevertheless, accommodating time zone differences, inter-cultural nuances and business etiquettes can be challenging. For example, a 9:00 am (U.S. Central Time) teleconference requires attendees to participate at 4:00 pm (16:00) in Berlin time and 11:00 pm (23:00) in Tokyo. Although this structure may work for short-term projects (e.g., localized marketing campaigns, user-interface design, customized enriched media creation, etc.), the lack of regular on-site interaction can undermine long-term project momentum, stakeholder buy-in and a common strategic business vision.

Liaison VPM

Given the limitations of Traditional VPM, one enhancement is to appoint a local Project Liaison to assist the Project Manager. Under this model, the Project Manager resides in the Home region, while the Project Liaison is located in the International region. This Liaison is usually a professional with intimate understanding of the local customer base and market dynamics.

The Project Liaison, working with direction from the Project Manager, coordinates the gathering of business requirements, engages in clientele / business partner liaison activities and conducts on-site vendor reviews. In this manner, the Home region is able to establish proxy interaction with the International region to preserve project momentum. In fact, this VPM relationship has been successfully leveraged for Dell’s Managed Services initiatives across the U.S. and Europe in planning a business-to-business e-procurement online trade marketplace web portal for its enterprise clientele.

Tag Team VPM

Despite the proxy benefits of the Liaison VPM model, certain projects require that a balance be struck between the Home region's inclination towards a common global solution across all regions, versus most International regions’ desire for local control of project development and implementation. The Tag Team VPM structure makes this balance possible.

During project initiation, the Home region's Project Manager will coordinate the envisioning and planning requirements with the International region's Project Liaison. This Liaison will be the lead in interacting with the local region's clientele, resources, business partners and vendors. Once the project reaches mid-lifecycle during the development stage, the International region's Project Liaison assumes full on-site Project Manager responsibilities. At that same point, the Home region's Project Manager relinquishes control and assumes the responsibilities of an International Generalist.

Under this "tag team" scenario, the local region will be able to closely control the implementation process, while the IG will be able to leverage "best global practices" across other international regions. Hence, a "win-win" scenario exists for all participants. However, this VPM structure requires senior executive support, a willingness to experiment with diverse process management paradigms and a corporate team capable of shared project responsibilities.

Two-in-a-Pod VPM

A variation on the Tag Team VPM format, the Two-in-a-Pod model assigns two Project Managers to the same project, with one situated in the Home region and the other residing in the International region, to mutually oversee project direction and scope. With this dual ownership in business requirements identification, both people must sign off on an integrated project vision and planning approach.

Via this arrangement, the International region will have direct control over clientele – resource – business partner – vendor interactions from the project's onset. The Home region will have the opportunity to establish a common global solution. Once the project matures into the development and implementation phases, the International region's Project Manager assumes full ownership. In turn, the Home region Project Manager documents the best global practices and toolsets for implementation within other transnational regions. Success factors for this VPM model is the same as the previous one, including senior executive support, a desire to experiment with new process paradigms and the ability to formulate shared responsibilities.

Summary

Business development methodologies and virtual team strategies are mere toolsets available to the localization and international professional. The most valuable asset is the ability to experiment with diverse process management paradigms and to expand one's "specialist" skill sets into cross-disciplined, multi-functional "generalist" capabilities.

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Leon Z. Lee is the International Generalist for Dell Inc., with concentrations in international business, global branding, web globalization and inter-cultural relations. He can be reached at Leon_Lee@Dell.com and + 1 512 / 725-2902.