This document discusses managing virtual marketing teams for global programs. It presents research on the challenges and benefits of virtual teams as identified by marketing managers. Key challenges included communication and governance. Benefits included access to experts and faster decision-making.
The document outlines a case study of a new product launch by a virtual global marketing team. Coordinating tasks across time zones while ensuring goal alignment and resource availability was challenging.
The solution framework proposed a global governance structure to facilitate decision-making. It also recommends role task prioritization matrices to define responsibilities and a consensus building process using communication tools to collaborate across cultures.
2. MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAMS – A GLOBAL
MARKETING PROGRAM MANAGER’S
PERSPECTIVE
Rashmi K - Marketing Manager, Hewlett Packard Ltd
Sowmya Moni - Marketing Manager, Hewlett Packard Ltd
Yamuna Padmanabhan - Marketing Manager, Hewlett Packard Ltd
Abhishek RVRK Sharma - Marketing Manager, Hewlett Packard Ltd
3. Contents
1. Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 4
2. Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 4
3. Research Methodology ................................................................................................................. 5
4. Research Findings ......................................................................................................................... 6
4.1 Marketing challenges for virtual teams ................................................................................. 6
4.2 Advantages of virtual teams ................................................................................................... 7
4.3 Important Work Dimensions in virtual teams ....................................................................... 7
5. Go-to- Market Program — New Product Launch Case Study ................................................ 7
6. Solution Framework ....................................................................................................................... 8
6.1 Global Virtual Governance Structure .................................................................................... 9
6.2 Role Task Methodology ........................................................................................................ 10
6.3 Consensus Building Process ............................................................................................... 11
6.4 Cross Cultural Communication Model ................................................................................ 12
7. Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 14
8. Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 14
9. Appendix 1 .................................................................................................................................... 15
10. Appendix 2a ................................................................................................................................ 16
11. Appendix 2b ................................................................................................................................ 17
12. Appendix 2c ................................................................................................................................ 18
13. Appendix 3 .................................................................................................................................. 19
14. Author’s Profile ........................................................................................................................... 20
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4. 1. Abstract
"...you cannot build network organizations on electronic networks alone...If so,... we will probably
need an entirely new sociology of organizations." Nohria & Eccles, 1992, pp. 304-305.
The purpose of this paper is to present the challenges faced by marketing program managers and
make recommendations for effectively managing virtual teams working on global marketing
programs.
Global marketing programs refer to marketing activities co-ordinated and integrated across multiple
country markets to achieve a specific marketing outcome for an organization. Today, many global
fortune companies design marketing programs to drive key marketing outcomes such as improving
time to market for launching new products globally, creating agility in product development life cycle
to compete effectively in an environment, responding to competitor, industry changes and customer
needs etc. In such a program, core concepts such as value proposition building, product roadmap
definition, marketing plan development, and communication strategy are developed at a global level
and implemented in countries. These programs are driven by virtual teams that usually comprise
hybrid mix of location specific and diverse competencies.
The advent of low cost, real-time collaboration communication technology has made it possible for
teams divided by time and space to interact and contribute effectively. Not only does the marketing
program manager needs to manage the triple constraints (time, scope and cost) but also needs to
manage challenges related to cross-cultural communication while ensuring consistency of one
voice in marketing planning and execution. There is also often a need to diagnose and handle
differences, challenge assumptions, and defuse the potential for conflict. The paper will detail the
challenges faced by marketing managers through few business cases.
In order to successfully achieve the marketing outcome and overcome the challenges, marketing
program managers need to manage a whole spectrum of communication strategies and project
management techniques as well as human and social processes in ways that support the team.
The authors will discuss their experiences and share best practices of effectively managing virtual
teams — some of which include establishing a global virtual governance structure, building a
culture for collaboration and formal consensus building process, and creating a role task
prioritization matrix and a cross-cultural relevant communication model for the virtual team
and its stakeholders.
2. Introduction
1
All projects have two core features – activities and decisions. Most challenges stem from
managing these two features. All activities and decisions need to be effectively managed for
1
New Product Development Decision-Making Effectiveness: Comparing Individuals, Face-To-Face Teams,
and Virtual Teams, Schmidt et al., Decision Sciences, Volume 32 No. 4, Fall 2001
4 Page
5. achieving project or program outcomes successfully. Managing marketing projects and programs
are no different. The context of activities and decisions in marketing can be related to managing the
customer journey (customer relationship management), developing the marketing strategy and
plan, defining and launching products, and or management of the marketing mix. Authors, who are
experienced marketing managers, have managed several global marketing programs and have
collectively 25 years of managing and working in large globally distributed teams. This paper
discusses aspects of virtual team management in marketing context.
The authors conducted field study with the objective of determining the challenges and benefits of
managing and working in virtual marketing teams. The study was a mixed-methods approach to
gather quantitative and qualitative data using a Virtual Team Effectiveness Questionnaire, one-
on-one interviews and a Go-to-Market marketing program case study. The authors conducted
few one-on-one interviews with several marketing leaders and project practitioners managing
diverse marketing projects across domains such as research/analytics and product marketing
launches to learn perspectives on managing virtual teams. The insights gained from the interviews
and the authors’ collective experiendces were used in designing the questionnaire. Refer to the
Virtual Team Effectiveness Questionnaire in Appendix 1 and Qualitative Interview Transcripts in
Appendix 4. A correlation analysis was conducted on quantitative data, while qualitative data was
themed and counted. The findings of the study have been discussed in detail in the paper. Authors
have also discussed the challenges of managing virtual team through a Go-to-Market case study of
a New Product Launch.
Authors have provided a proven, actionable and suggestive solution framework to reduce the
risks associated with challenges when working with culturally diverse virtual teams..
3. Research Methodology
A short questionnaire was designed and administered online to 30 mid-senior level marketing
managers working or managing large global programs across the organization. Questions in the
survey focused on gaining insights from marketing managers on challenges and benefits when
working in a virtual team.
Respondents provided their responses on the perceived challenges pertaining to role/responsibility
of team members, cultural sensitivity, customer and market data acquisition, task prioritization,
governance processes, communication, speed of decision making, cost effectiveness, efficacy of
output/deliverables and quality of work, in the survey. Questions on perceived benefits of working in
a virtual teams were also included in the questionnaire and centered around improved time to
completion for marketing planning and execution, clear and effective communication, time saved
through faster decision making and real time collaboration facilitated in accelerating speed to
market.
Refer to the Virtual Team Effectiveness Questionnaire in Appendix 1.
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6. 4. Research Findings
It was important to establish the role of the respondent as the survey responses to the perceived
challenges and benefits in the questionnaire and interviews were role specific. The respondent
chose the role most applicable — program/ project manager or a team contributor while responding
to the questions on the survey. The results of the survey brought out some interesting insights.
Project managers and team contributors viewed challenges and benefits of working in virtual teams
differently. The research results are presented below, with interpretive statements with regard to
their results.
4.1 Marketing challenges for virtual teams
(Refer Appendix 2, Figure 1)
It was surprising to find out that most of the respondents seem to corroborate authors’ views on
challenges and benefits in virtual teaming. Most marketing managers cited communication and
governance related challenges more over other types of challenges. In a large globally
distributed organization, communication is presented as a significant challenge, unsurprisingly and
perhaps compounded by high levels of cultural diversity within project teams that are spread across
multiple time zones. Additionally, there is stress on governance difficulties, indicating difficulties
with decision making and tracking of project progress. With multiple teams working together,
the lack of clear definition of responsibility and task priority definition becomes a major
challenge for virtual teams. The distances inherent to virtual teams make face to face collaboration
difficult, which helps resolve such issues in traditional teams
One of the respondents quoted: ―Decision making structures are often not very clearly defined, as
the nature of virtual teaming means such structures would need to change often. With virtual teams
being created and dismantled frequently, it becomes difficult to maintain good governance in terms
of decision making and communication. Another parameter that was of concern was task
prioritization. With virtual teams so geographically divided, regional biases sometimes emerging
within the team with respect to task prioritization‖
The use of Global Virtual Governance Structure has been seen to improve the incidence of
definition of realistic ideas and implementable solutions in culturally diverse virtual teams. It has
been noted that cultural diversity has both positive and negative implications for virtual team, the
positives stemming from improved decision making and idea generation, and the negatives from
2
the challenges associated with intercultural communication . This has been discussed in detail in
the solution framework section of the paper.
2
Shachaf, P. (2008). Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An
exploratory study. Information and Management, 45(2), 131‐142.
6 Page
7. 4.2 Advantages of virtual teams
(Refer Appendix 2, Figure 2)
The two most significant advantages presented included the ease of exchange of information
due to virtual communication capabilities and ease of access to Subject Matter Experts
(SMEs) and data resources. The core advantages provided in the survey seem to gain
reasonable amount of acceptance from the respondents, indicating that the perceived advantages
of virtual teams are common across most marketing programs. Faster decision making, improved
completion times for marketing planning and messaging are all represented advantages of virtual
teaming.
4.3 Important Work Dimensions in virtual teams
(Refer Appendix 2, Figure 3)
With respect to factors that are influenced by virtual teams, the most significant factor in moving
towards virtual teaming was that of cost savings. The use of virtual teams for a geographically
dispersed organization represents significant savings in terms of costs incurred for travel and
exchange of information. Additionally, the efficiency and improved quality of work were seen as
other advantages of virtual teaming, with the ease of information exchange and access to
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) across geographies.
Qualitative interviews corroborated with the findings of the survey. Marketing managers
mentioned that due to vast time differences across teams, it is challenging to coordinate tasks and
ensure goal alignment while keeping the availability of resources in different regions under
consideration necessitating some team members to work at odd hours. One of the biggest
advantages that virtual teams present for marketing is the work continuance to follow the sun,
thus making sure that work progresses continually as it moves from team members from one time
zone to another across the globe. The work allocation becomes easier as there is accessibility to
global talent. The clear definition of marketing objectives and role task prioritization initially
goes a long way in mitigating the risk in time and communication management.
5. Go-to- Market Program — New Product Launch Case
Study
The authors manage global technology product launches. Global launches are usually done
simultaneously across geographies and require co-ordination with multiple teams across functions.
A diverse globally distributed team such as product engineering, planning, operations, delivery and
deployment works to plan and execute various aspects of a launch. The case study below focuses
on marketing team’s involvement in launching an enterprise software product.
Creating and managing the launch schedule is the single most critical responsibility of a
marketing launch program manager.
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8. An enterprise software product upgrade was to be launched with 1000 global customers across 140
countries. This product aimed at upgrading the Enterprise customers’ IT environment to the next
level. The objectives of the launch were to:
Encourage at least 80% of the customers to migrate to the new product in the first wave of
migration over 12 months
Increase customer satisfaction levels by 30 % post migration
It was imperative that sales, IT delivery managers and customers had access to marketing
literature to the new product earliest and latest finish of 8 and 6 weeks respectively before the
product launch date. A virtual go-to-market team was put together to work on the marketing
activities pertaining to the launch and a launch program manager was assigned to the launch. The
launch schedule was planned for 10 weeks with 5 critical milestones that included approval
of project charter, release of value proposition and positioning statements, roll out of an
integrated communication plan and release of customer and sales facing marketing
collaterals. The program manager had to manage multiple teams with different functional
specializations (marketing, product development, regional sales and delivery) from different
geographies (Asia Pacific (APJ), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Americas).
Being a global launch, all marketing content has to be translation ready. The prioritization of
languages translations for marketing content, created several hurdles in meeting the critical
milestones of the launch schedule. With a finite budget, and decision to translate all marketing
collateral in only 10 languages meant meeting with all concerned stakeholders and seeking
consensus. Consensus building requires trust and building relationships and trust in a
virtual team is a significant challenge. The launch manager had to schedule many meetings for
these discussions. The deliberations did create conflict like situations within the core marketing
team. As a program manager, one had to be sensitive to time zones and work hours and therefore
do resource and task allocation in such a manner that the work is uninterrupted – famously referred
to as the Follow the Sun approach! While the overall launch schedule was met on time which was
(Latest Finish) 6 weeks before launch, 2 critical milestones were on critical path throughout the
project. Lessons learned from addressing ways to dealing with the challenges outlined above, have
helped in building some kind of defense mechanisms to counter risks of delays in managing
launches.
The solution framework provided below has been seen to improve the incidence of managing some
of the known risks and success in managing culturally diverse virtual teams.
6. Solution Framework
We have seen that challenges for managing a marketing team which is connected virtually are
many. However, from the authors’ perspective, the benefits of a virtually managed marketing team
far outweigh the challenges. It has been observed that organizations which cater to the demands of
cross cultural markets, have an inherent opportunity to consolidate and connect the skills and
expertise of resources spread in strategic locations under a common umbrella for the achievement
of marketing objectives. In such a scenario, the successful achievement of the marketing outcomes
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9. is the result of management of a whole spectrum of communication strategies and project
management techniques as well as human and social processes in ways that support the team.
Having observed the dynamics of successful virtually operational marketing organization, the
authors talk detail a solution framework from their collective experience of launching
products globally. This solution framework can be applied in principle to all marketing programs.
The framework consists of the following components:
1. Global Virtual Governance Structure
2. Role Task Prioritization Matrix
3. Consensus Building Process
4. Cross Cultural Communication Model
6.1 Global Virtual Governance Structure
Most global marketing teams have a strong matrix organization structure. The challenge of
managing interpersonal relationships, communicating and monitoring the progress of a marketing
program is managed by defining its Governance structure. A governance structure establishes
the strategic, operational, and technical decision-making process required to ensure marketing
teams enable the organization to excel in its mission. Governance structures are mostly defined at
leadership level such Marketing Council or Business Steering Committee with representation from
several functional teams working virtually across the globe. The leadership team consists of
representatives from the top management of the company. Marketing budgets are owned by this
team and they are the final approval and escalation point for all marketing programs. The top
management is assisted in governance and decision making by the Strategy and Executive teams
who align with the marketing objectives outlined by the Leadership team. Cross-team collaboration
and prioritization decisions are formulated at this level. The Executive teams are also responsible
for setting standards and driving governance guidance, which is necessary in order to sustain an
environment of cohesion within virtual program teams working towards the achievement of the
marketing objectives. Governance structure is also influenced by industry groups and other
business functions (such as finance, legal etc) in the organization.
Decisions making is facilitated by sharing information through multiple mediums of communication
such as team share sites, collaboration websites, virtual rooms, audio conferencing tools etc.
These communication tools enable marketing teams working towards a complex marketing
program such as product launch to collaborate and share information, negotiate and assess
progress of the program. In fact, many organizations in recent times have used these
communication platforms to launch products. The illustration below shows a formal Governance
structure for a launching a product globally across regions. The Launch Program manager interacts
with several teams (product, regional marketing, country marketing, and engineering, global
support functions) which are geographically dispersed to launch a product. Whether it is customer
requirements gathering, product development, messaging, creating marketing outbound
communication or co-coordinating the launch roll out, all of these activities are carried out
seamlessly through virtual teaming.
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10. 1.0 Governance Structure
6.2 Role Task Methodology
The importance of role task prioritization can best be summarized through a sound bite from a
marketing leader, the authors interviewed recently, “I have found that spending more time up front
ensuring everyone is on the same page and knows who is doing what, is a very prudent investment
as the team can then execute against clearly defined goals with everyone pulling in the same
direction.”
How does a marketing program manager keep tabs on who in the virtual team are responsible for
what aspect of the launch program? The answer to the question lies in Role Task Prioritization.
This involves defining and providing members of the marketing program clarity on the role and
responsibilities. Marketing program managers map the responsibilities of different virtual teams by
creating a program RACI. RACI — Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. In a virtual
team, where face to face interaction among the members is very low, a RACI provides a reference
point for decision making and task assignments. Having a detailed program RACI reduces risks on
conflicts and progression of the marketing program as per predefined schedules. The sample below
is a program RACI for global marketing product launch across countries. All the teams are virtually
work together to launch the product.
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11. 2.0 Program RACI
6.3 Consensus Building Process
One of the challenges in managing a virtual team is the varying degree of prioritizations and
involvements existent within a program team. While managing marketing programs such as
launches, launch Program Manager and his/her core team may have a high degree of involvement
on all stages of launch, other teams such as country marketing teams participating in the launch
may have a relatively low degree of involvement in the launch process. Therefore, a formal
consensus building process needs to be initiated in order to manage the triple constraints of
time, cost and scope.
In a virtual team, marketing program managers require consensus in order to:
Develop clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities
Arrive at an agreement on the turnaround time on the marketing deliverables
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12. Agree at convenient time to schedule update and clarification meetings among members of
different time zones
Develop an agreement on the content review process and toll gates
Define success factors for marketing effectiveness
Consensus building can be achieved by respecting different points of view, understanding working
styles and gaining insights through focus group discussions, brainstorming sessions, meetings etc.
The authors have observed certain working styles to work most effectively in a in a consensus
seeking discussion and that can be categorized broadly as Initiator, Facilitator and Devil’s
advocate and Observer.
Members with Initiator style will be proactive to reach out to the relevant members in the team and
would have the ability to identify conflicts and risks requiring consensus building exercise.
Facilitators are active participants to discussions and provide suggestions and alternate options to
the arrive at consensus. They will diffuse emotional, aggressive conflicting situations through their
unbiased, mature conversation style, humor sense or power position in the team.
Devil’s advocates are active participants questioning the status quo in the team.
Observers are passive participants who do not typically voice their views pro-actively but are the
doers in the group.
It is important for program manager to identify the working style of the team members and use this
to his/her advantage while managing the program. For instance, one would like to have more
facilitators present in a conflict resolution meeting and perhaps a devil’s advocate while negotiating
a contract with an external agency. A program manager has to adopt all these styles depending on
the situation while leading a program.
6.4 Cross Cultural Communication Model
One of the characteristics which differentiate a virtual team from a location specific team is the wide
diversity of cultures. Cultures define our approach towards working with different members which
can be perspectives and values towards deliverables and outcomes. A commonly reference theory
on Culture is that of Greet Hofstede’s., who analyzed cultural values on dimensions such as
individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity-femininity and self-restraint etc.
For a marketing program manager working with cross cultural virtual teams, developing an
understanding of the cross cultural differences and adapting his communication and program
approach to sensitivities of other members is of utmost importance. Because of the relevance of
cultural sensitivities in understanding market trends and successful achievement of program
outcomes, organizations today conduct a number of Cultural Sensitivity Training programs for
members of its marketing organizations. The Transnational Management Association’s Country
Navigator portal for example, helps a program manager profile his cultural values and styles on a
nine point scale and compare it with the various countries where its virtual team members are
stationed.
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13. Authors have highlighted dimensions of a cross cultural communication model which are
relevant when managing global programs. Given below are a few case scenarios of cultural
sensitivity which needs to be taken into account while handling marketing programs in a virtual
environment:
Cultural Dimensions
Scheduling Virtual teams work across different time zones and scheduling meetings across
Meetings time zones is a challenge. In a few cultures (like India , China and many Asian
Countries), scheduling meeting post working hours may be considered
acceptable , but in a few others (Germany) stick to deadlines and is particular
of timekeeping
Explicit vs. Americans/German teams have a very explicit communication styles – direct,
Implicit assertive and message which is spelt out clear and concise. It is imperative to
Communication learn to read the signals, and to read between the lines.
Team work Some cultures like and prefer to work in a group than on an individual basis.
Therefore a marketing initiative which requires delegation, negotiation and
decision making will make such cultures more comfortable.
Initiation of Initiation of marketing meetings in a virtual environment with resources from
Conversation cross cultures requires careful consideration of various aspects. Few cultures
encourage relationship building such as an ice breaking session, before moving
on to business scenarios.
Conflict Different cultures may have different ways of handling conflicts. Launch
Management marketing program described in the paper heading for its due date will be an
apt example for this. Under such scenarios, where there is a possibility of tense
conversations with varying degree of assertions, different members of a launch
team may react differently. If we have a background of members who belong to
cultures which do not encourage such open conversations, there is a possibility
of such members taking the situation personally.
Risk The way a member of a virtual team perceives risk is an important aspect of
Perceptions cross cultural sensitiveness. The degree of acceptance and appreciation of risk
associated with a proposed project varies – For example, US as a culture is
more appreciative of handling risk and uncertainties. Many cultures such as the
French have been generally found to be more protective and act more
proactively to safeguard the program and self.
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14. 7. Conclusion
Through the use of survey, personal experiences, one-on-one interviews with leaders and a real
time product launch case study, authors have attempted to describe challenges managing virtual
teams in the marketing world. We understand many of these challenges may not be unique to
marketing only.
The suggested solution framework aims at providing guidance to marketing program managers and
project management practitioners who are looking to increasingly use virtual teaming to enable
effective marketing without spiraling costs. With the pro-active use of some of the concepts and
frameworks mentioned in the paper, it is possible to combat most of the challenges managing
virtual teams while also noting that particular situations may emerge which may require modification
of the methods suggested.
8. Bibliography
al., K. e. (2007). Conflict and Performance in Global Virtual Teams. Journal of Management
Information Systems.
al., S. e. (Volume 32 No. 4, Fall 2001). New Product Development Decision-Making Effectiveness:
Comparing Individuals, Face-To-Face Teams, and Virtual Teams. Decision Sciences.
Association, T. M. (n.d.). www.countrynavigator.com. Retrieved from The Transnational
Management Association’s Country Navigator Portal.
Hofstede, G. (2010). Theory of Cultural Dimensions (Updated). Cultures and Organizations:
Software of the Mind.
Shachaf, P. (2008). Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on
global virtual teams: An exploratory study. Information and Management, 45(2), 131‐142.
14 Page
15. 9. Appendix 1
Virtual Team Effectiveness Questionnaire
Question 1 – What is your job role in your team?
A. Project Manager
B. Project Team Contributor
Question 2 – What are the typical challenges you have had in your engagement/projects while
working in virtual teams? (Rank from most prevalent (1) to least prevalent or nonexistent (9) )
A. Cultural Issues – Dealing with different cultures as part of my engagement with various
stakeholders and teams
B. Governance Issues – Decision making and tracking progress are issues
C. Communication Issues – Clear and consistent communication of messaging and other
marketing assets is difficult across geographies
D. Role and Responsibility Identification
E. Prioritization of tasks that need to be done by the team – Everyone thinks their own tasks are
the most important
F. Identification of the right messaging for products/services
G. Process Issues – Launch/Go-To- Market/Product Development/Market and Customer
Intelligence processes are not well defined
H. Capacity Issues – Not having right or enough resources
I. Data Acquisition – Marketing Data (customer, competitor and industry intelligence, product
sales reports , customer information) and document acquisition from other teams is delayed
J. Other Issues (Please specify)
Question 3– Rate the importance of work parameter while working in a virtual team (Scale of 1 to 5
from much worse to much better)
A. Time for decision making
B. Cost
C. Responsiveness
D. Efficiency
E. Quality of work(Output/ Deliverables)
Question 4– What, according to you, are the major benefits of working in a virtual team? (Rank these
in order from Most Useful (1) to Least Useful (7))
A. Improved time to completion for collateral/messaging or marketing projects
B. More clear and effective communication (two way, translated)
C. Time saved through reduction of decision making delays
D. Real time collaboration facilitated discussion time savings
E. Faster GTM (Go To Market) and generic marketing planning
F. Better sharing of information across the team (reports/analytics)
G. Others (Please specify)
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18. 12. Appendix 2c
Research Results
(n=30)
Figure 3
Virtual Teams
Effect on work parameters
Time for decision making -0.03
Response Times for team members 0.10
Quality of work 0.33
Efficiency of work 0.43
Cost 0.60
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
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19. 13. Appendix 3
Excerpts from an interview with a marketing leader, who is currently managing a large virtual
marketing team in Hewlett Packard
(One example) Interview transcript with Director, Technology Services Marketing, Hewlett
Packard
1. What are the major challenges you face while working with your global teams?
Given we span all regions of the world and multiple time zones, Alignment & Communication are
the key challenges we face. While we communicate effectively and frequently via e-mail, often
times the best or only way to effectively communicate is live voice-to-voice, which means phone
calls at very inconvenient times for some of our team members.
2. In your opinion, what has been the impact of virtual team engagements on marketing
KPAs – Time/Resource Availability, Marketing Spends, Return on Marketing Investment etc.
There are both positives and negatives associated with the global virtual team model. The negative
is what I stated above, i.e. inconvenient times for meetings/calls and challenges associated with
aligning a global team. However, the global virtual team model also provides advantages in that
―work can follow the sun‖, meaning we can pass and hand-off work from one region and time zone
to the next so that the project continues to progress 24x7.
3. What could be done to improve the current operating model for virtual teams in
marketing?
Adequate funding for both people and program money is always a challenge that every global
marketing team faces, so increases in marketing funding drives a corresponding increase in ROI.
4. Which marketing activities work best with virtual teams?
Activities that are VERY clearly defined and scoped out at the beginning of the project. I have
found that spending more time up front ensuring everyone is on the same page and knows who is
doing what, is a very prudent investment as the team can then execute against clearly defined
goals with everyone pulling in the same direction.
5. As a marketing leader, what has been the single most important challenge while working
with your extended team across countries?
Balancing the seemingly infinite and ever-increasing demands for more out of marketing with the
very finite resources (people, time, money) we have. Requires being very tough on setting
priorities and then being very transparent and communicative to stakeholders on what marketing
will do, and equally important, what marketing will not do, with our precious/finite resources.
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20. 14. Author’s Profile
Sowmya Moni has 12+ years of proven experience in technology
marketing. She is a senior marketing manager with Hewlett Packard’s
Global Analytics team. She holds an MBA in Marketing from MDI,
Gurgaon and is a certified PMP. She has co-authored the paper with
her team Rashmi K, Yamuna Padmanaban and Abhishek RVRK
Sharma.
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