Managers at Work: Leading Global Product Development Teams

More and more firms face the need to access a critical resource for new product development—people who are dispersed around the world. Not only are these newproduct developers separated by time and distance but they are separated by cultural and language differences as well. The challenge for their leaders is to integrate and coordinate these individuals and their activities by forming global teams of nationals from a variety of countries. 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. These teams must build trust among team members, meet schedules and adhere to budget guidelines.