Leading a team spanning more than 8 timezones is hard - but what it usually means is they don't know how to manage (read: trust) and have no leadership experience with remote teams. The factory/assembly line of managing teams is still common - they don't really understand how to asynchronously build software itself. Many employers in the US are particularly keen on NOT hiring in the EU because of the significant difference in both contract and employment laws in the two regions, whereas in Asia is cheap enough and there are plenty of contracting or outsourcing firms to help manage that requirement.
I've never been on a team where having people spread the globe worked well. In fact, just this morning I got off a 7 am (PDT) call with people at 7:30 pm (IST), and as always I was thinking "this sucks for all of us". I don't believe there's a clever hack that can optimize around the circumference of the planet.
the one caveat I've found is that if you _can_ get it running you get a two or three stroke engine instead of a single one. its absolutely fantastic to wake up and find out that not only was the problem solved but we solved another one and we're on the next.
that memory is pretty tarnished by all the other times I couldn't even get very much done because the night team is asleep and its completely unclear where we are - not only did they not make any progress but they actually left things in a bit of a mess.
