Building Global Capability: Creating and Maintaining Effective Global Teams

STUDY OVERVIEW

Amid diminishing boundaries and flourishing global economies, companies expand rapidly to make their business presence felt world-wide. Global teams can provide a company access to diverse skill sets and expertise, knowledge and wisdom about emerging markets. Round-the-clock business hours for efficiency is also a strong motivator for organizations. Even as companies emphasize the need to build global teams, they realize that managing these dispersed teams is problematic with cultural and time zone hurdles among the critical challenges.

Best Practices, LLC conducted this research project to explore tools and techniques that companies use to function effectively on a global basis. This document contains valuable metrics and key insights that can help executives improve the performance of their global teams and networks.

KEY TOPICS

• Why companies establish global teams
• How companies measure progress toward globalization
• Tools and practices that accelerate progress
• Practices that facilitate working with other cultures, time zones and workplaces
• How progress of individual global teams is measured
• Top improvement objectives for global teams
• Key lessons learned for managing global teams
• The biggest pitfalls to avoid

• Top three goals or objectives in setting up global teams
• Years taken to “go global” from time company began global organization effort
• Metrics used to measure company’s progress towards becoming a global organization
• Three practices to accelerate progress towards becoming a global organization
• Three operating processes that enable an effective global working environment
• Global team operating mechanisms most successful in working with other cultures, other time zones and conflicting workplace practices
• Technologies found to be successful in enabling a global work environment
• Best practices to manage virtual team meetings
• Top five training techniques to prepare individuals for working in global teams
• Practices that have proved most successful in managing global team communications
• Percentage of companies that formally measure performance of global teams
• Metrics used by benchmarked companies to evaluate the performance of global teams
• Three top improvement objectives in global team operations planning
• Area of greatest success/disappointment throughout the progress period
• Most important lesson learned from the work in global team management
• Biggest pitfall to avoid in global teams management

• To increase global operational excellence: Nearly half of participants' responses involved achieving operational excellence in some form: efficiencies, economies of scale, standardization and alignment of processes, harmonizing systems.

Primary research was conducted through an online survey instrument. Seasoned executives to innovative managers, 59 representatives from 56 companies participated in this research.

If you purchase Best Practice Database document(s), you will have 30 days from the date of purchase to apply some or all of the cost of the document(s) toward the cost of a Full Access Individual, Pharma, Group or University Membership. Write us at DatabaseTeam@bestpracticesllc.com or call David Guinn at 919-767-9179 if you have any questions.