Reference no: EM133403240
Assignment:
Virtual Teams at Verifone
VeriFone is a California-based manufacturer of in-store credit-card authorization terminals. A VeriFone sales representative in Greece knew he was in big trouble when a competitor had challenges VeriFone's ability to deliver a new payment-service technology. The sales rep knew his company was unproven in Greece. The rep needed to convince the bank executives that this technology would work, but he had no details on its effectiveness by users in other countries. His reaction was to create a virtual team.
He sent an SOS e-mail to all VeriFone sales, marketing and technical-support staff worldwide. In San Francisco, an international marketing staffer who was on duty to monitor such distress calls got the message at home when he checked his e-mail at 6:30 a.m. He organized a conference call with two other marketing staffers, one in Atlanta and one in Hong Kong, where it was 9:30 a.m. And 10:30 p.m., respectively.
A few hours later, the two U.S. team members spoke on the phone again while they used the company's wide area network to fine-tune a sales presentation. The leader passed the presentation on to the Hong Kong team member so he could add Asian information. The Greek sales rep awakened a few hours later. He retrieved the presentation from the network, got to the bank at 8 a.m. and showed the customer the data on his laptop. Impressed the customer's apprehensions about VeriFone's technology were alleviated and the sales rep got the order.
Question One
- Use one of the major factors distinguishing a group from a team to explain why it is more appropriate to call this a virtual team rather than a virtual group.
- Which of the two classifications of a formal group best fits this virtual team?
Question Two
Three tests are often used to determine whether an individual is appropriate (and will be more effective) or whether a team is appropriate:
- Can the work be done better by more than one person?
- Does the work have common purpose or set of goals for the people in the group that is more than the aggregate of individual goals?
- Are the members of the group interdependent?
The rep made up a team - based on the above tests, was this the right decision?