Leading Global Product Development Teams
Gloria J. Barczak, Edward F. McDonough · Research-Technology Management · 2003
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 new-product 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. Global product development teams face additional challenges, however: physical distance, cultural diversity, language barriers, and technological infrastructure differences. And, because global team members are from different countries, they are unlikely to know one another, may never meet or else meet infrequently, may be more or less fluent in the team's language, and are likely to have strikingly different work, communication and decision-making norms (1). 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. While this may simply reflect the difficulty of managing teams whose members are scattered across the globe, developing an appreciation of how to manage these teams is critical (2,3). Firms that fail to develop this capability may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. To close this gap in our understanding, we undertook a study 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 (See How the Study Was Conducted, next page). Global Team Usage The managers we surveyed indicated that there were four principal reasons for using global teams: 1. To address global markets/customers by identifying common product platforms.--Two competing needs have driven the increasing use of global teams. On the one hand is the need to develop a global product, i.e., one that can be sold in a number of countries with little customization. As one respondent noted, Product definition and market attractiveness needs to be global--the regional/country mindset must be replaced by global priorities. For these managers, the value of global teams lies in their ability to identify a common product platform that will appeal to customers in many different countries. 2. To identify and incorporate unique needs and requirements of local markets.--On the other hand is the need for products tailored to the unique needs and requirements of a local market. Because they are from different countries and cultures, the inputs and insights of global team members can be used to identify and incorporate the market needs and requirements of their different countries into a new product. The beauty of a global team is that, properly managed, these insights can not only be used to identify different needs, but to develop common product platforms. Thus, global teams can implement two different yet potentially complementary marketing strategies. 3. To capitalize globally distributed Centers of Excellence.--Global teams allow a company to leverage expertise that exists in different countries, rather than attempting to collect that expertise at a single by relocating team members. Not only does this save enormous costs, but it also saves wear and tear a team member's personal life. 4. To bring together dispersed resources.--By bringing individuals together virtually, global teams allow companies to take advantage of lower manufacturing costs in one country, the central location of a distribution center in another, research skills in still another, and on site sales offices. …