Have you recently considered how critical the skill of collaboration is to your company? As I thought about the importance of collaboration, I realized how many vendors are, and will continue to be, required to develop and deliver wireless and mobile services over the next five years. Wireless and mobile technology offers your company many opportunities for innovation and gaining market share. However, the technology, protocols, global restrictions, service and customer considerations are highly complex. Staff doesn't need to have all the technical knowledge, but service delivery will be much more achievable if they can...communicate and collaborate.
In doing research for business success and innovation, I found a "Working Knowledge" article titled "4+2 = Sustained Business Success," from the book What (Really) Works by Joyce, Nohria and Roberson, that was referenced on the Harvard Business School site. The authors' research indicated that companies can achieve sustained business success if they excel at each of four primary management practices and at any 2 practices from a secondary list. Thus the title "4 + 2 = Sustained Business Success". The list of secondary practices includes mergers and partnerships. The authors believe that companies can use mergers and partnerships to create new market opportunities for existing clients. In my experience, companies who excelled at collaboration:
- created teams with complimentary skills (consultants for subject matter expertise, training and speed of delivery),
- ensured access to critical resources and
- empowered participants through inclusion and open communication.
4+2 recommends partnering with businesses synergistic to your own and creating a system to "identify, screen and close deals."
An additional recommendation I always make is to create and review your exit strategy from the beginning of the collaboration. Let's "collaborate" to build these skills for your company, in your initiatives and in your teams to achieve and sustain a global competitive advantage.
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