Leo Burnett Company, Ltd: Virtual Team Management - Case Study Example

For instance, a virtual team may be created when a company wants to introduce a new product in the market (Gibson & Cohen, 2003). Virtual team management is, therefore, designed to oversee the activities of the project managers and maintain the organization’s competitive advantage in the global market. The management does this through a series of communication with the project managers who represent the organization in global forums (Gibson & Cohen, 2003). The communication usually takes forms such as video conferencing, e-mails, phone calls and websites, direct marketing print adverts such as magazines and print outs.

This essay discusses a case study of the Leo Burnett Company Ltd on how it applies the aspect of the virtual team management (ONeil, 2003). Virtual team management is critical to organizational performance, especially in representing an organization in global forums. LB Company Ltd is a premier advertising agency in Chicago, U.S., founded in 1935. It has created a number of known brands such as “Pillsbury Dough Boy, the Kellogg`s Tony the Tiger and the Marlboro Man,” (ONeil, 2003, p. 1). By 1999, the company had expanded globally with 93 offices and approximately 9000 employees worldwide (ONeil, 2003).

LB Company offers marketing and communications services and products such as building brands and markets them. Since the company had many offices globally, virtual teams had to be developed, especially when introducing a new product into the market. This company applied virtual management in its core management system for the coordination of its departments across the globe. The virtual teams were structured such that the account managers for the home or local office supervised the employees.

There was also a project leader who coordinated activities in of the virtual teams achieving to whom the team members reported (ONeil, 2003). In 1998, LB Ltd entered into an agreement with Ontann Beauty Care Company (OBC), which is a leading