For businesses, you start getting synchronization issues that cause inefficiencies. "Oh I can't talk to that department because they are on shift 2" and instead of a quick back and forth you get day long response times over email. Or you have to wait half a day if the shifts overlap a bit. It's like having a remote office across the world, locally.
That doesn't matter if two groups have to have a conversation about something over a period of time so they can come to agreement about something.
Usually this happens during that 'advance planning' stage. It adds an unavoidable lag time to come to some sort of decision or plan, especially when there is a conflict.
And if people have to wait on a decision to get started on something, that adds more inefficiency.
Another solution is to live close to work, build high-rises and subways, or you have 'core meeting hours' and people come in from 9am-noon.
Asynchronous communication is made easier by raising multiple points at once, rather than sending one-line responses. It also helps to have multiple directions of work available, so progress can still be made in one area while blocked in another. Both of these strategies can carry a political/negotiating/leverage cost (all cards on the table at once), but I consider that a good thing :).
Core hours: have some consideration for late risers and people with DSPS. Early birds have enough control already.
It sounds like, if building a remote team from scratch, it would be good to try to create isolated clusters of decision-making power on a shared schedule per cluster.
