Virtual Teams
The company tasked our team to provide digital and marketing services in the Real Estate industry for our potential partners from China. We decided to create a virtual group of four members comprised of a team manager, one representative from investors from China, one technical support expert, and two general members. Considering the nature of our team, which comprises several branch managers, a technical support team, and a representative from the Chinese Real Estate Firm, the team is a networked team with cross-functional members. Our team from China Harbor Engineering Company comprises Zhang, Wang, and Chen, who are Property Investors, Real estate Asset Managers, and Real Estate analysts, respectively. From our company, we had Abdullah Mohammed Ahmad Ibrahim and I, the technical expert, as representatives. Abdullah and Ahmad are the Real Estate Chief Executive and the Real Estate Sales and Marketing Executive. Members of this team are senior members from the national real estate agencies from China and Saudi Arabia with an aim of coming up with good policies on investment as we create this team. Mr Zhang and Chen were tasked with analyzing the property location and evaluating and making valuations on the property being invested. All three investors in China basically have a common goal of analyzing, evaluating, and speculating the expected cash flow from every investment made. Members of our team were mandated to negotiate and determine incomes from rent and negotiate lease agreements with potential clients. They are also to give a blueprint of how the property is to be maintained and repaired and how vendors, suppliers, and contractors would manage contracts.
Our team incorporated Bruce Tuckman’s Four stages of decision-making by cultivating cohesion and a positive dynamic or vibe amongst members. The team mentors were mandated to create conflict mitigation strategies due to the volatility of this stage, where members would easily disagree on assignments. The mentors are tasked with strengthening contributions from individuals to promote team functions. The team manager was charged with maintaining efficiency.
Virtual Tools (Pictures)
The main tools that we selected for this project were the Forum, Quiz, and ePortfolio tools. Other complimentary tools include the Gantic tools, Redmine, teamwork, and Apollo. We also used one document storage and a file-sharing app known as Dropbox, which served well in sharing tasks. These virtual tools were essential in communication within the group and assisted everyone with sharing their specific functions with our members. Collaboration of these tools with Bruce Tuckman’s Four different stages of decision-making was really helpful in building productive sessions. The following is a description of the virtual tools and their features.
Genetic
This tool was extremely helpful for its customizable Gantt chart, which was used by the team to share their plans within estimated timelines while controlling how their works could be viewed and edited altogether (Ramachandran & Karthick, 2019). The Ganticc Software can monitor the utilization of resources and teams for good balancing and efficiency and can allocate tasks quickly through drag-and-drop options.
Example of the Gantt Chart
Forum
Forum is a software that enables users to create threads of messages and post questions, discussions, solutions, and comments. This software was essential for our team in China, which posted questions meant to evaluate the performance of our real estate market and analyze the potential rewards on investment depending on the feedback we posted. Typically, Forum software enabled a moderate conversation and provided tools for rating responses. There is an option of including attachments, which enabled us to post bulletins on the daily performance of the real estate market and the rates of growth in the industry. The cool thing about this platform was that it included a half-hour editing period before submission of posts.
Forum Image
Quiz
Our team used quizzes with a range of questions with multiple questions, which were posted on the software platforms for individuals to research as per their jurisdiction. The questions had multiple choices with different periods for responses.
E-portfolio
This software was basically used at the norming stage, where the team leader used it to make us understand our tasks and train us on our duty descriptions. The ePortfolio is basically a digital platform that is used in the learning process and captures the aspects of the learner’s life, i.e., experiences, history of successes in employment, and extracurricular activities. The ePortfolio allows users to create personal accounts and share them amongst team members. Just like the social media accounts, the ePortfolio has a profile that can be linked with other accounts. The pages available on this platform are journal pages, resumes, notes pages, and to-do lists. It also has files and folders options where one can store their documents.
Redmine
Redmine was the most essential tool, considering the language barriers between the members of the two teams. There was seamless collaboration and communication between the team members due to the specific tools selected, including Redmine, which consists of multi-language support in its cross-platform and cross-database framework. Redmine also provided multiple project support and flexible access control to different individuals with different roles. It also had multiple customized settings for issues, time entries, projects, and for users.
Apollo
Another important tool with helpful features was Apollo, which contains tools that enabled our team to comment and communicate on their plans and keep in contact with team members and leads. Apollo helped the team members organize their work by breaking the tasks into smaller components for easy accomplishments. Its components are track times and schedules. Proof images and Gantt Charts were used to plan the tasks.
Besides these virtual tools, the team also used one document storage and file-sharing tool, Dropbox, throughout the whole project. Dropbox is a personal and corporate cloud-based storage app that can be used to organize content and files shared by team members. The most interesting thing about drop box is that everyone can create their workspace and collaborate with teams from anywhere within a secure infrastructure. Dropbox can ensure your presentation, i.e., PowerPoints, cloud content, and Word documents, are safe within one folder.
Why We chose the tools
The importance of these tools is that each one of them was consolidated into one in that as long as you have one, you can communicate, schedule tasks, and plan on completing them. The other options we would explore were WeChat and WhatsApp video calls. These options were less effective than the named virtual tools.
How did you use Budget to get the best possible tool
With SAR 10k, it was easy to select the best virtual tools for specific functions in our team. We identified the outlined tools as perfect, with each one of them costing approximately $23 approximately. The Budget was enough for every member to be able to access these tools.
How Frequently does the team meet?
The team met every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, where tasks would be assigned on Mondays, then reports on progress would be made on Wednesdays, and submissions done on Fridays. Mondays were for discussions and agreements on recommendations for the projects.
How the meetings helped your team stay focused
The meetings helped members come up with innovative ideas, while the assignments given to everyone helped everyone stay on their toes.
Virtual Work Dynamics
A virtual office in this context means the services provided online for a physical business by a remote team working online. Building this virtual office means that there is a permanent commitment for teams to work to complete a specific project. We managed to create a virtual office by creating a virtual office strategy, which comprised a team leader, an assistant, a secretary, and members. After creating the structure, we ensured that we had selected the most appropriate technology infrastructure to be exploited. We then established the right virtual tools and communication tools for collaboration. For efficiency and functioning, we ensured that every member was engaged as they would be engaged in a traditional office structure (Iffa Nurlatifah et al., 2023). As explained above, we developed tactics amongst each other through the leadership of our team leader, Mr Ahmad, to improve productivity.
The technical Challenges
Like any other global virtual team, there are common challenges that we faced in this project, especially with our main objective of providing digital marketing services and solutions for investors from China. The most common challenge was learning about these virtual software first before having to use them (Smith & Ruiz, 2020). This challenge arose due to the fact that some members were interacting with software for the first time. The second challenge we faced was communication due to the difference in time zones between Saudi Arabia and China. We also had a challenge of language barrier since China speaks Mandarin while Saudi speaks Arabic. The language barrier became challenging in the first stages due to difficulties in creating relationships and agreeing on goals or objectives.
Examples of work ethic in China
The work ethic in China is totally different from that in Saudi Arabia. The work ethic in China is characterized by dedication to responsibility, hard work, diligence, and professionalism. Chinese professionals can work extra hours comfortably and are driven to achieve a goal, with many of them working beyond the standard 48 hours. The examples of the work ethic in China are rooted in the seven lessons I learned interacting with the Chinese Partners.
Their perception of time is sensational.
Our scheduled meetings were attended with punctuality. I can recall Wang suggesting that if every member would be more consistent and intentional with promptness which came out loud and clear that promptness is highly valued, and this could be the reason for anyone to cross paths with any Chinese manager in the corporate world.
The Chinese service culture is rooted in attention to outcomes, which means that they believe their hard work will pay and improve their living standards. The expression of dedication from the Chinese shows how they were determined to extract results from our project. They were focused on the development of strategies that would enable us to come up with a strong marketing solution for their real estate investment in Saudi Arabia.
The Pursuit of Excellence
From our first meeting, Mr Zhang has always stated the aim and objective of the virtual team. His focus on objectives has enabled every member of the team to align themselves in their pursuit of achievement by contributing to marketing ideas that could work.
How did you utilize vacation and Holiday time?
In any form of work, for you to be productive, you must take time to refresh and take some time off duty. I used my holiday time by spending time traveling, watching sports, and going out with family. This helped me unwind and develop great morale for the tasks at hand back at work.
Challenges that the team faced in communication.
The language barrier was our greatest challenge while communicating amongst ourselves. Members found it difficult to create relationships due to the continuous face to virtual conferencing. Sometimes, we had network problems, which were later resolved through the employment of better devices and virtual tools that helped us translate (Smith & Ruiz, 2020). Some of the factors that made communication difficult were also based on space, time, and cultural differences. Sometimes, during meetings, we had cases where the network had issues, and people had to move from one place to another to be in meetings. Time zones were an issue because submissions could be reviewed late or would require one to wake up at odd hours to perform tasks due to deadlines (Smith & Ruiz, 2020). The aspect of working under constant pressure to keep up with the Chinese colleagues was also a factor and a challenge at the early stages. Also, people had to be punctual enough because of the probability of offending the Chinese, whose culture is opposed to being late.
How we overcame the challenges
Because of the common goal and objectives agreed by every person in the team, everyone had to be flexible to different cultures.
Reports and Presentations
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing number of investors in the tourism sector, infrastructure, and increased demand for housing. The Saudi Arabian market experienced an economic growth of 8.6% in 2022, and many of the world’s financial institutions predicted more growth in GDP. According to these figures, the real estate market has contributed majorly to the growth. The Saudi Arabian Real Estate Industry has been projected to grow to an estimated $1.39 trillion in 2023 and, within five years, grow to $1.61 trillion. This forecast projects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.98%.
One of the marketing strategies selected to exploit this growth in the real estate industry is aligned with the current trends and needs of the buyer. We understand that the buyer wants to be reached even in the comfort of their couches or cars as they go to work. This marketing strategy was based on identifying components that would be helpful in reaching out to the client. The following are the strategies that we saw fit our target market.
Creation of a website
The creation of a website builds an identity for the real estate investment online and advertises what the business has to offer. The website would include property listings, which would be updated regularly. We would incorporate tools within the website, such as the Google Maps extension, mortgage calculators, and a chat box for queries. A website creates a space or hub where clients can learn more about the property you are offering them.
Developing E-marketing campaigns such as emails and blogs
The creation of blogs that can be reached through search results in Google would play a key role in locating our potential buyers. We selected the Google Analytics and Ahrefs tools as our go-to tools to help clients find search terms and keywords. Blogs demonstrate the company’s dedication to providing quality real estate options and advising them on what suits them. Similarly, email campaigns would be helpful in keeping previous clients in touch.
Virtual Staging
This is basically giving the client a preview of the property online by taking them through a quick tour around the home. This could be efficient due to the number of clients reached online compared to physical tours. The study confirms that there was a higher probability for virtual staging to sell properties at a 20% higher rate than unstaged homes.
Other strategies that work are experiential marketing, which is taking people out for home tours, doing paid social media promotions, drone photography, and referrals.
There are many more campaigns that we discussed besides these four campaigns relating to the needs of the Saudi Arabian real estate market. Creating a strategy is one thing, but ensuring that these strategies are implemented and work ultimately is the task. Through a vision statement, customer identification, goal development, and uniqueness in the presentation of propositions, we have a greater potential to reach a wider customer base. Creating websites, developing e-marketing campaigns, creating blogs, virtual staging, partnering with advertising agents, and hosting podcasts and real estate shows are go-to strategies to achieve a digital solution for real estate marketing for our Chinese Partners.
Saudi Arabia’s Real estate industry performance
Response from the Chinese Representatives
Hello team, this figure is insightful to us, considering we are being intentional in moving our business into your market. We want to express our gratitude for your extensive research on the Sudi Arabian Real Estate industry performance. Our investment is based on the number of buyers we would reach, and through the application of your marketing strategies, we would receive high returns on investment.
Response from the other members through Mr Ahmad.
Hello team, we are honored that you are pleased with our research and recommendations for the strategies you could use to market your units.
How the teamwork was, what could have been done better, and how we would thrive in the future
Teamwork is all about communication and working hard to achieve shared common goals. Our team, composed of persons from different countries, was subjected to numerous challenges, such as differences in time zones, communication challenges, language barriers, and cultural differences. The team from China comprised representatives of investors who had the intention of setting up offices in Saudi Arabia. We both had the task of ensuring that the virtual team created, due to the prevailing global conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic, thrived in creating a good digital marketing solution in promoting the sale of units created by our Chinese partners. In that experience, we realized that it was important for any form of partnership to have a good environment for relationships. To thrive in the future, we will focus more on building more interactive relationships with our partners.
Reference
Smith, S. M., & Ruiz, J. (2020). Challenges and Barriers in Virtual Teams: A Literature Review. SN Applied Sciences, 2(6), 1–33. Springer. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42452-020-2801-5
Ramachandran, & Karthick. (2019). Gantt Chart: An Important Tool of Management (International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE), Ed.) [Review of Gantt Chart: An Important Tool of Management]. Https://Www.researchgate.net; International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ramachandran-K-K-3/publication/358234055_Gantt_Chart_An_Important_Tool_of_Management/links/61f78cc7007fb5044727d77d/Gantt-Chart-An-Important-Tool-of-Management.pdf
Iffa Nurlatifah, Juliani Dyah Trisnawati, & Muhammad Rosiawan. (2023). Virtual vs. Physical Office: Which One Increases Productivity the Most? Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, 194–198. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-244-6_31
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