News Release
Contact: James Irwin, Vague Apparatus, vagueapparatus@gmail.com
- Marketing communication expert James Irwin will address graduate students on the realities of working with colleague teams on the opposite side of the world
- India has one of the largest and best-educated workforces and companies large and small are establishing marketing communication teams there
- Adding a foreign team is not plug-and-play; there are cultural and interpersonal issues that could cause friction and threaten operational success
WAYNE N.J., 16 February 2023—James Irwin, principal of media firm Vague Apparatus, will deliver a talk to the students and broader community of Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Master of Arts program in corporate communication on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, as part of the university’s 2023 Schering-Plough Executive Lecture Series.
James, who most recently held a leadership role in global marketing communications at international business services giant Deloitte, will present a talk titled “Looking toward India: Collaborating with teams across time zones, cultures, and communication styles,” drawing on his nearly 25 years of experience in managing, and collaborating with, colleague teams in India and other geographies.
“As we saw during the pandemic, modern collaboration tools make it possible to work with virtual teams spread across the globe,” says James. “This has helped accelerate the use of foreign teams for all sorts of business services, including marketing and communication. Strategies like ‘smartshoring’ are being implemented not only in large multinationals, but in small companies as well, and if you haven’t experienced working with colleagues based on the other side of the planet, you will soon enough. But how does an American organization best integrate a team based in India so that the company, as well as everyone involved, succeeds? How do you avoid the cultural and interpersonal minefields that can lessen the benefits?”
James will draw on several case studies from his own experience as he touches on issues of diversity and inclusion, the potential confusion when high-context cultures engage with low-context cultures, and the global economic powerhouse that India is becoming.
James previously spoke as part of the Schering-Plough Executive Lecture Series in 2007, when his talk addressed the challenges around developing an effective internal communication operation in a global enterprise.
The 2023 Lecture Series will be delivered remotely, over Zoom, with a total of eight speakers. Other speakers in this series include Stan Deetz, President of Interaction Design for Innovation and Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado at Boulder; Srividya Ramasubramanian, Newhouse Endowed Chair, Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Sarah Dempsey, Associate Professor of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Lauren Shallish, Associate Professor of Critical Disability Studies, Rutgers University.
About James Irwin
James Irwin is an award-winning writer, media artist, and business communication expert. Currently the principal of Vague Apparatus, a media and consulting firm based in Wayne, New Jersey, he previously served in marketing and communication leadership roles at Deloitte Global, EY, and Comcast. He has taught media and communication at universities on both the east and west coasts of the country, is a co-founder of the New Jersey Communication Association, and an associate editor of the Atlantic Journal of Communication. As a much younger man he was a widely exhibited media artist and made walking-around money as a tennis instructor. More information at https://jrirwin.com/
About Schering-Plough Executive Lecture Series
Since 2006, the Master of Arts program in Corporate Communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University has hosted this annual lecture series, in which distinguished speakers from the business, civic, and academic worlds cover various topics related to corporate communication. Sponsored by Schering-Plough, the 2023 series opened 31 January and will conclude on 25 April. For more information visit https://www.fdu.edu/ or contact Dr. Gary Radford at gradford@fdu.edu
About Vague Apparatus
Vague Apparatus is a limited liability company based in Wayne, New Jersey. It is a media and communication firm, serving as the business umbrella for the professional work of writer, media producer, and business communication expert James Irwin. Besides offering communication consulting services, Vague Apparatus also serves as an incubator for creative work in video, podcasting, and fiction. Learn more at https://jrirwin.com/vague-apparatus-llc/, or contact vagueapparatus@gmail.com
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