There definitely will always be challenges communicating with international branches of the same company. As was previously stated, time differences, language differences, and cultural differences are all challenges to consider. However, I think the cultural differences will be the most important one to tackle. The cultural differences don’t have to manifest simply as just simply American vs. Japanese cultural differences for example. There are also the workplace cultural differences that exist even between different branches in the same country. One site may value rapid execution of projects while another may value a significantly longer time doing research. It is thus imperative for one to understand the workplace culture of both areas when trying to communicate for a collaboration.