Virtual Teams,

1. • Many firms now take advantage of available technology to assemble
virtual teams that meet and share information “electronically” in
place of traditional or co-located teams.
• A Virtual team is one whose members are linked electronically (e.g.,
via the Internet) to each other and also to partners such as customers,
contractors, and the like.
Virtual Teams

2. Benefits
• Ability to communicate despite geographic dispersion.
• Virtual teams can meet in
• Synchronous mode
• Asynchronous mode
• Synchronous methods of communication include video or audio
conferencing, instant messaging, live application sharing.
• e-mail and shared document repositories are examples of
asynchronous methods.

3. Challenges
• Team members must be familiar and comfortable with the
technology
• Performance measurement and managerial control may be
more difficult
• The whole idea of virtual teams may not fit too well with the
values or cultures within many firms
• Firms with a very hierarchical chain of command, or poor
teamwork skills in general, tend to have difficulties with
implementing virtual teams

4. Managing Globally Dispersed Teams
• More firms than ever are taking a global perspective to new product
development and building teams composed of individuals based in
different countries.
• Increasing product complexity and accelerated product life cycles put
pressure on new product teams to gather expertise wherever it resides.
• On Idea Generation:
• On Product development
• On commercialization

5. Challenges with Globally dispersed teams
• Language
• Cultural differences
• Communication problems
• Design reviews take longer