product teams. A large firm many have R&D skills in its German subsidiary, its manufacturing in Asia, and its suppliers somewhere else again. A firm’s global presence, however, is no guarantee that it will automatically know how to efficiently manage its global operations. Effectively coordinating and marshaling the efforts across multiple countries to develop and to launch successful new products is a major challenge. There are many decisions to make that impact global product development effectiveness: how much autonomy should the subsidiaries have, how should they be rewarded, what work conditions should be imposed such that teamwork within and between subsidiaries is encouraged, and so forth. There is also the possibility of outsourcing some of the required new product capabilities, for example, through strategic alliances with global partners. Similarly, the global network of suppliers and distributors needs to be managed and coordinated so as to improve global product development as wall as global launch. Selecting the best organizational structure for the global product them is more difficult then if only one culture is involved, as differences among then individuals as wall as linguistic barriers and national culture differences much be taken into account. At the time of launch, even more decisions arise: Should a product be positioned the same way throughout the world, or should positioning, branding, or packaging decisions be localized? Many firms react to these challenges with well-defined, formal processes, while others leave the new products process relatively unstructured and adaptable to product or environmental considerations.