October 20, 2003
MBAs and Austin-Based Firms Explore How to Thrive in
the Shifting Global Labor Market
By Allison Anderson
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Austin, TX - How can economies thrive in the most innovative regions of the United States, including Central Texas, as high-tech companies bring more and more workers on board in Bombay and Beijing?
That's just one of the vital issues that came up for debate during an innovative "Business Across Borders" program held Oct. 13-17 at The University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business. To prepare MBA students to lead the shifting global labor-market, the school tapped into top talent in the growing specialization known as "distance management."
Coordinating far-flung production facilities is already a reality for many U.S. managers who direct virtual teams of product designers spanning a half-dozen time zones and at least as many cultural divides. Most people associate offshore outsourcing with call centers in India, but the labor market has already entered a new phase. Today, jobs associated with innovation, such as those requiring PhDs in engineering and computer science, are increasingly moving to global markets like India, China and Taiwan.
U.S. firms - and American professionals - can benefit from current labor trends, provided they follow the right roadmap for the future, according to Catherine Crago, a consultant with Austin's Semicon Group who helped design the McCombs School's cross-cultural program. The key, she says, is to add the competencies that the global marketplace demands.
"The best sustainable revenue is from innovation," says Crago. While jobs are being transferred offshore from Austin and the U.S., she says that "as long as we position ourselves accordingly, we can be the nexus through which these transactions pass."
In other words, central command for international networks could be in Austin, provided the region and its managers are prepared to lead the emerging global organization.
Pressing Issue for Industry
Executives from Dell, Motorola and Bank of America addressed both this big-picture issue and the thorny particulars of distance management during the Business Across Borders seminars created by Leslie Jarmon of the McCombs Plus Program. Plus is a series of mid-semester, professional development activities aimed at MBA students. Companies also sent managers to attend the program alongside UT's graduate business students.
"Let the work flow follow the sun," was the practical advice doled out, for example, by Martha Haywood, the author of "Managing Virtual Teams." A team of engineers working through the night in California, she said, would be able to send software to company headquarters in Boston by morning.
Amid the operational insights, whether simple or hugely complex, one theme repeatedly emerged: the number one secret of successful business teams, virtual or not, hasn't changed. What's the fundamental ingredient? Good communication. Several participants observed that the art of managing virtual teams amounts to good local practices writ large. They said the added complications of working with people from other cultures helped them sharpen their management skills at home.
Dell manager David Keifer recommended that distance managers immediately document and integrate lessons learned throughout a project's lifetime. It's more efficient, he said, than waiting until a project is complete to debrief and try to remember what could have been done better.
And as many company operations shift overseas, even individuals must constantly monitor their career path, Keifer said. The task is to avoid obsolescence by maintaining the educational qualifications and skills that a constantly evolving market demands.
"Jobs will be here," Keifer said. "But they won't be the same jobs that were here five years ago."
Cultural Divides
Frank and occasionally humorous discussions of the highs and lows of managing virtual teams evolved during a "master class" that brought together students, business people, and industry consultants.
"In America, people go to the point; you're very efficient," said Antoineta Ruiz, an MBA exchange student from Chile. "In America you say in five minutes what we say in 15 or 20 minutes. In Latin America, it's kind of rude to go straight to the point. You ask about the family, how everything is going, then you get to the subject."
Everyone agreed that America tends to be results-oriented. "In the U.S. there's a lot of 'talk the talk, walk the walk'," Keifer said. "I think in some cultures, they're separated."
Ruiz, as well as several Asian students, told their American colleagues that it would likely be difficult for them to spontaneously comment when their elders and bosses are present. So American employees of a company may not get the full story in a meeting or conference call with their counterparts overseas.
In addition to learning, the students offered solutions as well. Dell turned to a team led by McCombs MBA '04 Kai Qu of Harbin, China, for input on their Asian operations. Qu's group proposed strategies to reduce costs and improve communication with employees in India and China.
Qu had already advised local Dell employees several times via the Austin office of the Eaton Consulting Group. One cultural characteristic that American business people must understand, Qu said, is the Chinese aversion to risk.
"Americans try to take initiative but in China, people try to follow directions," he said.
An everyday aspect of Distance Management is conference-call protocol. Qu said a higher tolerance for silence among Chinese can be misunderstood. Chinese tend to methodically process all the information that's being discussed, he explained, defer to any managers in the room and speak up only when they're convinced they have something important to contribute.
"But sometimes it's hard to come up with a genius idea on a conference call," Qu said. "At Dell, a lot of people say, 'Are you guys still there?'"
Business Across Borders participants took a break from serious strategizing to "Travel around the world in 180 minutes" during International Night. Everyone was treated to delicacies from more than 25 countries, each one represented by at least one McCombs student. Even the Americans got into the act by staffing booths and sharing food from their home turfs of Chicago, Louisiana and of course Texas.
An enthusiastic crowd dressed in native clothing roamed two levels of the Bass Concert Hall tasting everything from Georgia peanuts and peach cobbler to Gado-Gado, a dish of boiled mixed vegetables from Jakarta. A mariachi band, a belly dancer and a Brazilian capoeira martial-arts demo provided the entertainment.
"It's probably the most fun we have during the semester," said president of the International MBA Student Association, French MBA student Marie-Laure Carvalho, who helped organize the event. "And by getting to know different countries, we will be better managers dealing with globalization."
For Business Across Borders schedule information, go to the
Business Across Borders Schedule and Facts web page.
For more information on the Business Across Borders sessions,
contact program director Dr. Leslie Jarmon at
LJarmon@mail.utexas.edu,
512-232-4639. MBA student and project leader Kai Qu can be
reached at 457-8297.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
