In today's increasingly interconnected world, an ever-growing number of businesses around the globe work on complex, cross-border projects the success of which depends on the efficiency of mostly heterogeneous teams whose members collaborate with one another across time zones, continents and cultures. Such settings, known as virtual teams, require special skills that can and need to be developed. The Virtual Team Project (VTP), an integral part of WU Vienna's Global Executive MBA program, prepares managers for the challenge of bringing cross-border projects to fruition, which is becoming more and more of a success factor for both executives and businesses.
How practical Virtual Team Projects can be is illustrated by two Global Executive MBA alumni who have successfully turned their projects into reality:
- Harald Trautsch and his start-up "iVoting" (which is currently being used by international businesses such as American Express and Nokia)
- Norbert Wirth and the BPL "GREENoneTEC enters the US market" market-entry study
The Virtual Team Project has been an integral part of the Global Executive MBA for years, making the WU Executive Academy one of only a few executive-education providers to use this innovative teaching method. 120 MBA students from three leading universities from Europe, Asia and the USA, respectively, work on complex projects in 21 teams. In an effort to foster joined-up thinking and working at the global level, the WU Executive Academy's partner institutions—the Carlson School of Management in Minnesota and the Lingnan College of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou—have also firmly established the VTP in their curricula.