Creating Collaborative Advantage

By Martyn Laycock

For decades the late management guru Peter Drucker suggested that a collaborative dynamic of networks, joint ventures and partnerships would become a key feature of the developing knowledge-based economies. Today, in a world of growing e-commerce, we can see increasing efforts being made by organisations to achieve collaborative ‘win-win’ situations, as opposed to the typically ‘win-lose’ scenarios that flowed from more adversarial approaches in the past.

Fuelled by the growth of the internet, the introduction of Lotus Notes and the development of collaborative technologies and tools, collaboration now represents one of the underpinning tenets of effective information and knowledge management: working together to achieve common goals and objectives. And more recently, innovations such as virtual private networks, web conferencing, podcasting and blogging have made collaboration even easier.

Increasing Collaboration
Ark Group’s 2005 collaborative working survey found that there has been continually increasing emphasis on collaboration, although many organisations do not yet have defined collaborative strategies in place. Encouragingly, however, we can see increasing evidence of organisations collaborating with their customers (Amazon and Atari are good examples of this). Another trend is businesses that are collaborating with their competitors. The John Lewis Partnership is one example, acquiring electricity supplies and services jointly with its UK-retail rival Marks & Spencer). Competition still reigns but collaboration is increasingly being used to support it.

Collaboration can occur at national and at international levels. We saw evidence of this in 2005, when through highly effective collaboration between national and regional government, key agencies, business and local communities, London overcame strong competition from four other international cities to win the hosting of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Yet collaboration in itself is no panacea. Leaders cannot simply wake up one morning and say, ‘let’s collaborate’; those who seek to enter into or encourage collaboration must first consider the pitfalls as well as the potential benefits. Such initiatives need to be planned and well managed. London now has to deliver the Olympics in 2012, and successful delivery will depend on continued collaboration across a wide range of organisations.

Sharing and trust, leadership and management
All the evidence shows that successful collaboration depends very much on the concept of sharing – the sharing of information, knowledge, and responsibility for actions and outcomes. And while modern technologies are well capable of supporting all this, the most critical factors for success in my view remain a mix of collaborative leadership, effective change management and effective people management. New technologies can be introduced and new business processes developed, but without effective leadership, change management and cultural consideration, technology will not provide the collaborative answer.

This is because effective sharing is highly dependent upon trust. And in a highly competitive world, trust is generally recognised as one of the most difficult things to achieve both inside and across organisations. Where there is a lack of trust there is often a lack of motivation, and also increased concerns about the security aspects of sharing.

Yet where collaboration is effectively achieved, considerable benefits can accrue. Hewlett Packard’s (HP’s) late former president and chief executive officer Lew Platt knew this when he famously said, “If only HP knew what HP knows…” Indeed, HP pioneered knowledge management in the late 1980s, when it recognised that sharing and collaboration could give it considerable competitive advantage. This included higher levels of new product development, considerable reductions in ‘time to market’ and much improved overall productivity. Similarly, in the early 1990s, Buckman Laboratories built a highly successful, long-term ‘customer intimate’ strategy, based on knowledge sharing. The company used its knowledge, experience and application to product/service development and collaborative problem-solving to gain considerable, sustainable edge over competitors many times larger than itself. In both HP and Buckman, we can see evidence of strong leadership; information and knowledge-based strategies; effective change management; and strong customer and supply-chain collaboration. All of this is supported by enhanced employee involvement and carefully chosen collaborative technologies that ensure delivery against long-term business strategies.

Aligning Systems with People and Culture
So, information systems and collaborative technologies will certainly play their part. But with the market for such tools estimated to be worth $2.3bn per year and rising, according to Ovum, to $2.9bn by 2009, vendors will need to ensure that the systems they specify and sell to an increasing array of collaboratively committed customers are aligned to organisations’ cultural, as well as operational, needs. Vendors need to consider the related human and cultural requirements if the full capabilities of the emerging information and communications technologies are to be effectively utilised and the benefits of collaboration realised.

In June 2005, Forrester Research surveyed 69 US and European executives on issues affecting their organisations' enterprise-wide adoption of team-collaboration software. The research* found that for internal roll-outs, cultural issues were ‘the most common roadblock’, whilst for external rollouts, security was the greatest concern. The report stated that : “IT professionals must recognise that while their role is limited, they can contribute by helping to build a business case based on improvements to specific business processes and by selecting technology that won't hold the organisation back.”

Thus, technology providers themselves need to adopt collaborative approaches with their existing and prospective customers, to ensure that the right technologies, systems and collaborative tools are specified and will fully support collaborative activities. Otherwise many of them, organisations and vendors alike, are likely to be disappointed.

Reference
* ‘Culture and Security are the Leading Barriers to Team Collaboration Adoption’, Forrester Research, October 2005.