Coca Cola LA Managing Virtual Teams

CASE STUDY
Coca-Cola Latin America - a virtual programme to develop

organisational capability and capacity for Managing Virtual Teams
Background
In response to a business imperative to minimise cost, avoid duplication and leverage

capability, Coca-Cola Latin America began the implantation of a virtual team structure
for elements of its commercial products supply technical groups based across Latin
America. This was prioritised as a strategic initiative for Coca-Cola. In 2005 a framework
and 3 year plan was developed to support the implementation and management of
virtual teams across agreed areas of the organisation
Business Issues
Two years on, a set of core competencies for working in a virtual environment had been
established, and teams had undergone a series of assessments to establish any gaps.
While the outcomes of the assessments were very positive, there were areas that could
be improved on. It was also recognised that the business had never invested in
developing its leaders’ capability to work in a virtual environment.
The human resources function, in conjunction with a core group of managers who were
involved in implementing and managing virtual teams, sought a training programme.
The programme needed to help them assess and validate their current virtual team
leadership practices and experiences, matching it against global best practice and set
action plans to move to the next level of high performance in virtual team working and
virtual team management.
Coca-Cola Latin America commissioned Academy Internet to work with them to specify
and deliver a bespoke development programme for a small group of virtual team
managers.
The Learning Solution
The unique feature of the programme

was that it was delivered virtually, the
main reasons for which being:
• While the facilitators were based in

the UK and France, participants were
based across Latin America in Puerto
Rico, Brazil and Argentina.
• Participants could engage in a two
month development programme
without disruption to them
continuing to manage “the day job”.
• Participants got to experience life as
a virtual learning set team member.
The Coca-Cola virtual environment homepage
• The programme used up to date tools
and technologies to support the
development of the learning set and the programme. These technologies were
promoted as best practice to virtual team management, so there was learning
layered on learning.
Academy Internet is a Division of Academy Learning Ltd

Kingslake House, 1-5 Union Street, Brighton. BN1 1HA
Email: contact@academyinternet.com Web: www.academyinternet.com
VAT Number GB798099747 Company No: 4310360
CASE STUDY
The programme itself consisted of a variety of activities and interactions, over a 2 month
period. These consisted of:
• A series of 6 online web seminars held over a 2 week period:

o Setting the scene; introduction to participants, facilitators, the programme, the
tools and technologies
o Effective participation in virtual teams
o A framework for effective virtual teams
o Team spirit and motivation
o Personal skills, coaching and action learning
o Hands on with Wikis, social networks and survey tools
• Participation in a social network team room
• One to one telephone coaching
• Collaboration tools, including social networks, survey tools and wikis
• Assessments, audits and analysis
• Action learning sets
A follow up to the action learning project was held 6 weeks later.
Business Benefits
The design of the programme encouraged participants to take responsibility for defining
their own learning requirements. The various survey tools that the training facilitators
provided encouraged them to actively reflect on their working environment and current
practices.
A common thread from each participant was that they all worked long days and long
weeks. Partly this was because they were all passionate about their work and their
teams. But partly this came out of some organisational – and national – cultures which
were based on a high level of interpersonal, real-time contact. Hence virtual team
leaders could be spending as much as 8 or 9 hours a day on the phone.
By investigating alternative asynchronous communication strategies, the team leaders

realised that they could free themselves up to work more strategically. This would also
help their teams move through the stages of team maturity to becoming more self-
sufficient, high performing teams.
Participant feedback
As a result of the programme, the participants developed action plans which they will roll
out through their divisions over the 18 months following the programme. They had a
purpose, a focus, and a direction. Here are two statements from the participants that
highlight the shift in thinking and attitudes that took place over the programme:
“Until now, we’ve been managing the teams with what we have. What we
can do as a result of this training is come up with a proposal of what is
indispensable to virtual team management. Some things might be small
and simple, others are more fundamental. For example, we need good
quality headsets; access to blogging tools; shared drives to manage our
information and share our knowledge.”
“Up until now we’ve been experimenting with virtual team leadership. Now
it’s time to create a robust framework and provision of resources to
underpin what we are doing. It’s not a pilot anymore. It’s what Latin
America needs for the future.”

CASE STUDY
Good practice ideas – hints and tips for effective implementation
• Having two facilitators is essential in case of problems with connections; it also

enabled one to use chat to write a real-time synopsis of the sessions, which
helped with cross-cultural accents and language differences
• Make time in the online sessions to enable participants to “do” some of the
required preparation and work; the advantage of the participants being able to fit
the training around the day job actually meant that they didn’t have time to do
much between sessions
• Don’t expect managers to be fully up to speed with technologies and tools – build
in time for them to experiment and use the tools that are available. “I know my
grandson uses Facebook – it hadn’t occurred to me that I could use social
networking with my team”
• Don’t over-prepare. Much of the energy and benefit from this programme came
from the participants sharing experiences and formulating their own requirements
for themselves.
• Don’t try and change the world all at once. One or two well focused actions that
are implemented and supported will make a huge difference


Coca Cola LA Managing Virtual Teams

Uploaded by

Document Informationclick to expand document information

Copyright:

Available Formats

Coca Cola LA Managing Virtual Teams

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Coca Cola LA Managing Virtual Teams

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CASE STUDY

Coca-Cola Latin America - a virtual programme to develop

In response to a business imperative to minimise cost, avoid duplication and leverage

The Learning Solution

The unique feature of the programme

• While the facilitators were based in

Academy Internet is a Division of Academy Learning Ltd

• A series of 6 online web seminars held over a 2 week period:

A follow up to the action learning project was held 6 weeks later.

By investigating alternative asynchronous communication strategies, the team leaders

Academy Internet is a Division of Academy Learning Ltd

Good practice ideas – hints and tips for effective implementation

• Having two facilitators is essential in case of problems with connections; it also

Academy Internet is a Division of Academy Learning Ltd

You might also like