In response to signifcant changes within the aerospace industry during recent years, a new approach is proposed for developing complex products in a globally distributed environment. Current approaches favour collocating project teams, but collocation is often not practical, nor economically justi.able. The Macro Concept is a process whereby products can be developed by globally distributed task teams, managed by a Core team. In the development of this concept, particular attention is paid to the human factors, the product decomposition and the infrastructure that supports the product introduction process in a globalized industry.