Organizational changes such as the introduction of project teams or simultaneous engineering are not enough to meet the challenges of time competition. What good are teams if they do not cooperate but instead become embroiled in the emphasis on special interests? What benefit do strategic alliances with other companies provide if they are characterized by an unequal balance of power? Profound changes are necessary to reduce the status differences between employee groups, alter behaviors, and thus change the corporate culture. It is about genuine cooperation and communication among all parties involved. The author analyzes these elements of politics in the product development process. They are the essential criteria for performance differences in time competition, examined here in a comparison of PC manufacturers from Germany.