Journal Article

LEADING GLOBAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TEAMS

McDonough, Edward F., Barczak, Gloria

2003

Overview

More and more firms face the need to access a critical resource for new product development (NPD) - people who are dispersed around the world. Like other types of product development teams, global teams experience the challenge of getting a diverse group of individuals from different functional areas to work together effectively for a finite period of time to accomplish specific project objectives. In light of the critical role that global teams play in NPD, it is surprising that our understanding of how to manage them effectively has not kept pace with their increasing use. A study was conducted that sought to understand why companies use global teams, the challenges that managers and project leaders face in leading global teams, and the practices that they use to do so successfully. It was found that there are 4 principal reasons for using global teams: 1. to address global markets by identifying common product platforms, 2. to identify unique needs of local markets, 3. to capitalize on globally distributed Centers of Excellence, and 4. to bring together dispersed resources.

• Publisher: Industrial Research Institute, Inc,Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subject: Buildings / Business structures / Collaboration / Communication / Consumer goods industries / Educational administration / Global communication / Human resource management / International / International aspects / Management / MANAGERS AT WORK / Marketing / Meetings / Methods / Polls & surveys / Product development / R&D / Research & development / Schedules / Start up firms / Teams / Teamwork / Trust