Starting new team operations: lessons from greenfield managers

Greenfields are new plants, typically but not exclusively manufacturing, that belong to an existing organization; as such, they offer an organizational strategy for understanding knowledge transfer. Greenfields are important to understand because they offer advantages for expansion into new economic and labor markets. But the overall challenges starting up a new greenfield cannot be overlooked. The aim of this paper is to try to better understand how knowledge transfer occurs in these interesting team operations.

Plant and human resource managers representing 33 greenfield organizations from food and beverage, consumer products, heavy manufacturing, pharmaceutical and automotive industries were contacted. Managers discuss greenfield rationale, vision, work practices, and business characteristics. Both opportunities and risks are described, along with examples from the research literature.

Greenfields can be successful as experiments in knowledge transfer but are unlikely by themselves to create large‐scale organizational change. Greenfields offer long‐term potential if team work practices and culture can be sustained and ultimately transferred to other parts of the organization, but this requires strong senior management support.

Opportunities and risks involved in greenfield start‐ups are discussed, along with practical examples from managers from diverse industries.

This paper helps to fill the gap between greenfield promise and reality.