I thought I’d close out January with a quote from an article in Harvard Business Review by Thomas J. Tierney (Collaborating for the Common Good, July 2011):
Collaboration among competitors is an unnatural act-but sometimes it’s the best way to reduce costs, leverage strength, accelerate scale, or amplify influence in order to generate results. Useful lessons lie in how collaboration among unlikely allies is achieving change in the world of social enterprise.
Businesses pursuing social enterprises can achieve greater results by dampening their competitive instincts and collaborating with peers. They can also promote collaboration among the organizations they fund or support efforts whose business model is collaboration.
Collaboration isn’t easy-that’s why it is still far too infrequent across all forms of social enterprise. But when peer organizations honestly embrace shared goals and clearly articulate how they will achieve them, collaboration works. Most important is believing that a group-even of “competitors”-can accomplish what no one member could do alone.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at #ESPC!
This article was first published on buckleyPLANET. Christian Buckley will be a keynote speaker at ESPC14 presenting on ‘What It Takes to Make Social Successful ‘. For more advice check on Christian’s ESCP13 conference presentation on ‘Looking Under the Hood: How Your Metadata Strategy Impacts Everything You Do‘. Download Now>>