In today’s flat world, we see a paradigm shift in terms of work allocation and the way work itself is performed.

We are used to competence coming in where the work is, but with advances in technology and the changing ambitions of the workforce, this is no longer necessary and in fact possibly counter-productive. Today there is a growing movement towards taking work to where the competence is. This is especially true in knowledge intensive industries. The IT world has embraced this philosophy and is the trendsetter in practices around this. The healthcare, legal and the research industry are also seeing the benefits of this approach.

This model presents a complete new set of challenges to the modern managers. The paper discusses these challenges and presents industry best practices and some new thinking on how a manager can continue to deliver products against this background. We look at the primary drivers for this change, and some fundamental tenets that we take for granted. Is it time to challenge concepts like employer-employee relationship, the relevance of teams, employee engagement, employee motivation and loyalty in this changing world?

Virtual teams have arrived and are here to stay. The smart manager will adapt himself to this while ensuring stakeholder needs continue to be met.