Read the below given Management Team Decision and answer the 3 question in total of 200 words only.

MANAGEMENT TEAM DECISION

Talking Across Time Zones

In the beginning, your company was run out of a small, drab building in the middle of Ohio. With just five employees, your little factory produced just a single productsmall boat engines. Five years later, against all odds, you somehow landed a lucrative government contract to supply the U.S. Army with small engines for its unmanned vehicles program.

That contract was the turning point that trans-formed the company from a small local business into a global powerhouse. Gone are the days when the entire company was housed in a small, cramped, converted farmhouse. The entire manufacturing operation was moved to China several years ago. The research and development (R&D) and engineering division operates out of a sparkling new building in Berlin, Germany. The marketing staff works out of Los Angeles, and the sales and customer service call center is based in Mumbai, India. As for the little farmhouse that you started out in, its long gone, re-placed by a glamorous modern building thats home to executive management.

With facilities located all over the world and an international staff, there have been few challenges that your company has not been able to overcome. Its been able to create low-cost, reliable engines that have been a hit in developing economies. Its alternative fuels research division is among the largest in the world and is poised both to introduce a hydrogen-powered engine and create an infra-structure to give consumers easy access to refueling stations. However, there remains one issue that your company has struggled with for some time. It doesnt have to do with dealing with environmental groups, suppliers, or competitor firms. Instead, its about communication.

Your company has always emphasized speedspeed in discussing issues, speed in coming to decisions, and speed in executing them. And all this speed requires a great amount of efficient communication within the company. In the early days, of course, this simply meant that Jo in engineering would walk across the hall to talk to Sam in marketing. But now that you have offices all over the world, its become more difficult to make quick decisions and plans, because its hard to find a way to get people together to talk. If its 10am in Ohio, its 7am in Los Angeles, 11pm in Beijing, 8pm in Mumbai, and 4pm in Berlin.

So, how can we talk to each other quickly and efficiently? Thats the question that the senior management team has been gathered to try to resolve. Their task is to find, or even create, a communication system that will allow timely, clear, and effective communication throughout the organization without forcing people to wake up at 3am for a videoconference.

Questions.

1. In your opinion, what communication method would be ideal for an organization that has offices in many different countries?

2. Is it necessary to sacrifice speed in communication for the sake of a global presence? That is, can a company have both a global presence and an efficient, timely means of communication?

3. What cross-cultural issues should you keep in mind as you create a new communication system?