I mentioned a while back my reading of the book Collaborate to Compete, which played a role in an article that I collaboratively wrote for LearnNB. Two recent articles continue the discussion around collaboration. From Dave Pollard:
And then I came across this from Small Business Trends:
Together they accomplished more than they could have in "solo" outreach efforts. They attracted and delighted their mutual market of people while spending less
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As you can tell, any kind or size of organization can adopt this trend towards joining forces to generate more value and visibility together.
Collaboration is like play – you cannot force it. I know that I like to collaborate with people whom I can have fun with. Perhaps a good way to foster more collaboration in your business is to play more. Just like in kindergarten, being told that someone "plays well with others", may be a critical business skill.
Collaboration, both at a high conceptual level (industry should collaborate) and the human level (let’s work on this together) takes up a piece of almost every business conversation that I have. I think that most people are open to collaboration, but we don’t have all of the tools or the best environment for it in business yet. Just read an RFP from the federal government, and it is set up so that only one company (usually a larger one) can get the contract. Government could become a catalyst by encouraging smaller companies to collaborate on projects, in order to prepare them for larger, global bids. Promoting collaboration on larger projects would be one low-cost way of furthering small business development and creating a more diverse and sustainable economy.
