She has no clue
there is something about a team being more powerful, more impactful, more creative, and frankly hopefully having more fun when they are shoulder to shoulder. Bringing people together creates its own X Factor.
Where 'X' is the unknown?
That statement is complete bollocks, having a distributed team has it's own advantages once you learn to take into account timezone and cultural differences so that you use them instead of fighting them. Remote workers in distributed teams tend to spend less time goofing off around the coffee machine and can be more productive than a team that is all in one place, when properly encouraged and managed.
Most important of all is having a team and Peluso seems determined to destory the teams she has.
Go IBM! (I work for a competitor...)