Collaboration and Its Increasingly Important Role in Business Today
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Overview Description of the problem
This research aims to provide information that proves that collaboration plays a significant role in business today. According to Chris Huxman and Sir Evy Vangen (2005, p. 4), collaboration is the process of attaining a specific end by working across organisational boundaries. It involves the collaborative relationships that organisations have apart from this, this notion of collaboration is not related to conflictual or competitive relationships that are directed to the fall of a common enemy. It is a positive relationship between organisations, such as joint ventures, alliances, partnerships and so on.
However, despite all the positive aspects of collaboration, why is it that there are some companies who hit a blank wall whenever they collaborate with other companies The answer lies in the fact that some companies are not fit to do collaboration (Hansen 2009, p. 11).
According to Michael Porter (1998, p.21), people view their competition pessimistically, and sometimes, there are companies that try to collaborate with their rival companies in the hopes that their collaboration would produce great results and ultimately lessen the competition. However, doing such ambitious plans need a lot of plans and may eventually backfire. If a company wishes to collaborate with another company, it must consider every aspect of the other company and try to see whether the collaboration would indeed be beneficial (Hansen 2009,pp. 11-12).
Some organisations also underestimate the costs of the collaboration process. Some collaborations, which require sharing customers can cause a lot of problems, for most individuals, tend to distrust the other side, resulting in competition instead of collaboration. There are times when managers are not able to foresee such problems and made financial projections that were faulty. Working with other organisations requires projecting finances that will be able to address potential problems in case they occur the manager must always anticipate potential problems and this includes having the finances to troubleshoot these problems (Hansen 2009, p 13).
Another problem that collaboration may pose is that it primarily involves a lot of meetings between the collaborating companies. Nobody likes meetings for a lot of people are cynical regarding the capacity of a lot of people to reach a consensus, given that they have different opinions. People may interrupt or talk over each other during these collaborations and there are those who may manipulate and dominate the discussion. However, this problem is not an inherent problem of collaboration itself, but of the people involved in the collaboration. Most people do not understand how collaboration works and it has to be learned. People have to work together in order to make the process of collaboration effective for their organisations (Straus 2002, p. 3).
1.2 Research Question
How is technology changing the way international businesses collaborate
1.3 Further research aims
What are the advantages and disadvantages of collaboration for the collaborating organisations and how can collaborating organisations ensure that these advantages will be achieved and that these disadvantages will be avoided
How does collaboration with another organisation affect the performance of the organisations and its employees
What are the conclusions and recommendations to international businesses about re-engineering their collaboration processes
1.4 Study Objectives
1. To establish how collaboration spurs business performance when embedded with technology, systems and cultures.
2. To recommend to organizations ways in which they can implement collaborations in order to achieve desirable return on investments and returns on collaboration.
1.5 Significance of the study
The significance of this study is to demonstrate how business collaboration positively impacts on the common organizational resources such as time management, talent development and new idea and product development. Thus, the outcome of this study will be useful in motivating various business leaders and managers to spare resources and investment for the sake of collaboration. Once such strategies are in place, it is predicted most large-scale businesses will realize about 4 million worth of return from a 1 million worth of investment on collaboration. Most significant, this study is keen on guiding organizations to ground their collaboration on culture. In fact, this study predicts that the return on investment could yield up to 7 times more returns when the collaboration is culture led as compared to 4 times more returns when the collaboration is command and control led.
1.6 Hypothesis
With the inherent benefits accruing from Return on Collaboration, big companies such as Cisco Systems Inc CFOs, CIO and other senior managers will embrace the process of business collaboration as a culture. Whereas a lot of work is ongoing to quantify and qualify the Returns on Collaboration and their roles in businesses, key performance indicators such as ROC index are proving to be successful ways of evaluating the course for these investment. In terms of business social networking, collaboration is cited as one of the best value creators where workforce can explore various communication media to boost productivity, spur confidence and make decisions in a timely manner.
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Collaboration as a business culture with probable returns
According to King (2003), collaboration is very important to the upcoming businesses because the internal departments may be experiencing insufficient capacity to execute roles such as engineering, technical development, communication. Thus, the best outcomes from business collaboration are likely to be realized when the core business goals and the specialization skills are identified independently (IBM 2008). Further observation by King (2003) states that collaboration enables key organizational staff to concentrate on what they do best whether they are in administration, product development or sales. King (2003) also notes that most organizations will be successful because their show social traits since the inputs required differing interdependencies. In this way, collaboration encourages business support and sharing of secured collective knowledge (IBM 2008).
King (2003) credited the culture of collaborations as coming from initiatives such as Wikis, Blogs and WELL, which enables people to share information from a virtual perspective. To that effect, it is common to see all disciplines professional employees narrowing the information gaps across the globe (Brannback, 2003). Further collaborations is evident when companies rate and protect each other against the trust issues especially is the ventures like eBay, Amazon.com and others. Using appropriate software and systems development, these organizations are capable of collaborating individuals, teams, companies and locations (Ferris 2010). The Java is one such format of collaboration.
Research by Austin (2001) concluded that there are three major classifications of business collaboration. These are the transactional, integrative and philanthropic collaborations, as shown in appendix I.
the more effective collaborations are characterized by clear purpose, mission congruency, high and mutually balanced value creation, effective communication, and deep reciprocal commitment. Austin (2001).
The philanthropic collaboration is one of the most popular strategies whereby organizations donate to the society or support their workforces. The philanthropic collaborations play the important role of giving the organizations a positive image such as caring, sharing and corporate social responsibility (Austin 2001). The Transactional collaboration is by exchange of values that are not available within and individual organizations. Such values may include roles in marketing, sponsorship and strategy sharing, even though the most widely known form of transactional collaboration involves the financial exchange (Austin 2001). Finally, the integrative collaboration involves the coalition of smaller business entities as long as they share mission and visions. This is characteristic of mergers and acquisitions. The integrative collaborations play the role of availing core competencies to the partners in joint ventures, formation of common markets and the creation of product values and standards (Austin 2001). It is important to note that all the above-mentioned collaboration by Austin (2001, could take shape either in isolation or in overlap modes across many organizations.
Rosen (2009a) was cited in Businessweek.com asserting that any organization that does not embrace collaboration will eventually face internal competition, which in the long run has undesired cost. This is true because when workforces and teams start competing internally, they may end up conflicting and the business values will diminish with time. However, if such business entities are for collaboration, the various departments will exist in harmony and issues like customer dissatisfaction will reduce. Rosen (2009a), favour collaboration rather than competition because the conflicts evident by blame games will not be manifested to the customers and on the returns on investment. Therefore, the creature and perpetuation of the workforce stars if not desirable because it antagonizes workforces as opposed to when the culture of collaboration is encouraged.
All said and implemented studies show that establishing the collaboration culture is proving to be the most difficult venture in most organizations. According to the Cisco Systems Inc. CEO, culture causes most organizations leaders a headache, and Rosen (2009b), agrees with the following observation,
without a culture of collaboration, the best processes, systems, tools and leadership strategies fall flat.
No wonder many organizationss strategies fail at the culture level of collaboration and reverse the strategy all together. Organizations like Cisco have been successful in the introduction of more than 60 collaboration products without much hitch in the systems. Cisco is very aggressive in the introduction of video cam coders as a way of expanding their market telepresence across the globe. According to Rosen (2009), such technology as videoconferencing has come along way in supporting business collaborations since past attempts to introduce it in the market met stiff opposition on the privacy breach grounds. However, this problem resolved by the sense of conference schedules.
A study by Frost and Sullivan aimed at measuring Return on Collaboration (ROC) (Rosen 2009). Whereas the previous performance indicators such as Return on Investment (ROI) was keen in quantifying investment gained or cost, the ROC on the other hand relayed the improvements yielded after departments or organization collaborated in business. Hence, the RD, sales, and marketing ranked higher than most departments in the sampled organizations (Rosen 2009).
An earlier study to establish the best way forward for business collaboration revealed that most organizations that collaborate in business gain more than double as compared to those that do not. Second, this study sought to establish how many organizations uses latest technologies such as Voice-Over-Internet Protocol and video conferencing and Cisco telepresence among others to collaborate and get tasks accomplished. Third, this study was successful in establishing a Return on Collaboration index to be used as a benchmark for future research and identify the areas of improvement. Thus, most organizations scored 4.2 on this scale, which has implications that they received above for time or returns whenever they collaborated. This study also established that most organizations favour unified communications collaborations systems as compared to those in similar business segments that did not have such collaboration systems on a scale of 74 in terms of returns on collaboration. This study also established that 4 in every 1 organization have advanced plans of implementing the communications collaborations systems at most by the third year from the date of the study (Verizon 2009).
The Frost and Sullivan Study (Verizon 2009) established that VoIP was the most popular mode of communication collaboration that helps many professionals to steer away from stress. However, the study noted instances where the employees were not friendly with technology due to concerns about confidentiality. The study was upbeat about the growing preference for telecommuting since the environment was conducive in many cases. Overall, the study concluded that collaboration was more effective in the regional settings wherever there was deployment with varied responses from the basic, intermediate and advanced collaborators (Verizon 2009).
2.2 Cisco Systems Inc Case Study on Business Collaboration
2.2.1 Ciscos Collaboration and Communication
According to Cisco Systems Inc. (2008), modern communication and collaboration is the key to workforce satisfaction and nature of inherent talents. Hence, if the communications is well entrenched with technology, the business prospers with few gaps and motivation flexibilities to accomplish tasks. Such collaboration also guarantees the businesses stable operational environment where their short and long-term strategies execution, productivity multiplication and innovations harnessed.
Research shows that most business entities are leaning towards communication technology to track development trends and search for new markets (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008). Cisco, as a case study engages communication technology to achieve various objectives. First, Cisco is keen in embracing globalization concepts that will enable their business to expand beyond the borders with the value chain processes like outsourcing, data warehousing, marketing, human resource management and supplies taking a leading role. This initiative enables Cisco to match and exceed the current market expectations.
Second, Cisco is aware of the advantages that communication up scaling can offer to their business due to the inherent collaboration. This awareness stems from the possibilities and realities that the Cisco market segment experiences in terms of constant changes. Therefore, in order to stay ahead of the competition, Cisco seeks to be a market communication innovator. Cisco accomplishes this goal by alignment with the real time technologies to shrink the geographical distances and enable efficient decision-making processes (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008).
Third, Cisco is keen on empowering and collaboration their workforce to make them competent, reliable and adaptable to emerging work technologies (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008). This step has the goals of making the workforce move efficient to the delivery of customer expectations and skilled in the operations of common applications such as Web 2.0 with minimum breach of security details and ability to support the stakeholders in the systems.
Fourth, Cisco would like to achieve optimum business results without much modification on their existing systems (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008). Hence, Cisco is exploiting the advantages of collaboration using IT to leverage their technology strengths to the market. This process ensures that the Cisco systems are serviceable on a 24-hour basis from any locations in the world. Thus, the employees are encouraged to used common communication platform such as social networks to enhance collaboration for the need of connectivity.
Fifth, Cisco is concerned that historical communication tactics such as e-mails are experiencing much difficulties such as merging, archiving and bulkiness (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008). Hence, Cisco would like to champion innovations that will make such communication and collaboration efficient and effective. Therefore, Cisco trains the workforce in flexible applications such as blogs, video conferencing and technical presentations as a step towards compliance with business cost and time optimization goals. Instant messaging is one such initiative. Cisco believes that a mobile workforce is just as good as the business application contents in use because this feature makes everyone comfortable from within and outside the organization.
2.2.2 Ciscos Emerging Collaboration Technologies
Cisco is a market technology leader in communications and collaborations. The company uses communication technology to spur productivity, inspire innovations and expand business scope. Thus, Cisco utilizes Information Technology to meet their business goals while collaborating with all the stakeholders. Such collaborations impact a lasting experience to the Cisco workforce since they are capable of optimum resource utilization, within the shortest time frame (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008).
Ciscos communication and collaboration strategy offers better outcomes because the workforces have access to relevant parts of the system and tasks. Previous approaches such as power point and bulk mails are considered time consuming and inefficient (Cisco Systems Inc. 2009). Emerging collaboration technologies at Cisco target internal and external areas. This strategy links the Cisco suppliers, customers and the workforce as well as set pace for the continuous improvement process (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008).
2.2.3 Ciscos Collaboration in business and inherent problems
While collaborating with other stakeholders, Cisco prefers to adopt a generic implementation of new technology that tests the features as the systems is under trial so that the adjustments can be appropriately recommended and effected. This strategy also enables the workforce to upgrade the collaboration network within the shortest time possible (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008).
The Cisco collaboration process attempts to offer most solutions from a robust architectural platform. However, this process has range of problems (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008).The first problem is how the communication strategy will enable the workforce complete their tasks effectively. The second problem is how Cisco will be able to recruit and retain the best workforce capable of adapting to the systems. The third problem that Cisco attempts to address is how the collaboration systems will succeed in integrating the pilot and virtual groups of the organization. The fourth problem is the bigger quest to collaborate with the rest of the world since Cisco would like their system to be as compatible with the other machines and technology from any location all the time.
A solution to all the above problems facing Cisco collaboration for business excellence will enable the company to achieve the desired goals. This process also highlights the companies tools that are available as well as the logistical strengths and weaknesses of the company. The system enables the top management to identify any immediate and future needs without duplication of the operational areas (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008).
2.2.4 Ciscos Collaboration for innovation and competitive advantage
Cisco boasts of an internal innovation architecture that shapes the business strategy and solution development. One such innovation is the widely used Wikis which enables people from inside the Cisco organization and from outside to store their information and data in a collaborative manner. The Wikis platform has a competitive advantage over other systems because it enables frequent editing of the documents therein (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008). Cisco has a range of collaborative technologies such as Web 2.0, business applications, contents and other services. These technologies have the capability of linking the Cisco workplaces, data archiving, search engines and overlap between the customer contents. The Cisco platforms also enable innovative customers to upload documents via RSS feeds, video conferencing, Wikis, Cisco Blogs, instant messaging and social networking and meetings.
The Cisco system is an innovative platform for collaboration that is capable of multitasking various business processes. Apart from offering a robust security platform, the Cisco system is a network on its own, which is easy to use with the integration of various software (Cisco Systems Inc. 2008). All users have secured system access that keep of intruders and malicious hackers. Using the innovative Cisco Unified Communication, the workforces are able to share solutions and instance messages. The Cisco Directory 3.0 has proved a success in the social networking arena with the workforce being able to locate each other or their peers in the wider organizational structures (Weinwright, 2007).
Past research by Bunker Zick (1999), revealed that collaboration was important in business institutions to enable stakeholders communicate, carry out situational research share relevant information with the public. Hence, the establishment of public libraries aides the learning institutions in running their businesses, whereby, there is room for analysis and feedback for continuous improvement. Such libraries acts as a bank for authenticated information where generations can archive and download data based on their areas of interest. The libraries further utilize multimedia technology to enhance collaboration across a wide base of user applications.
2.3 Summary
From the literature review and brief case study of Cisco Systems Inc., it is clear that collaboration plays and important role in the business entities today. Thus, organizations such as Cisco are capable of mobilizing their resources from internal and external locations to maximize their returns from business collaboration. The competitive advantages that are realized under such initiatives are immense and the workforce and customers expectations are exceeded by such collaborative initiatives. Similarly, innovations are created at a faster rate (Violini, 2007). However, due to challenges posed by globalization, there is need for the collaboration networks to be secure in order to assure of authenticity and confidential sharing of information (Cisco Systems Inc. 2009). Finally according to Hagel, Durchslag, and Brown, (2002, p.1)
Collaboration can only generate economic value when is firmly anchored in specific business processes that span across enterprises. Unlocking this economic value will require a very different approach to managing business processes. New generations of information technology can be significantly enablers but much progress can be made with technology already available. In fact, companies should start the transition now because lengthy lead-times are required to build the necessary skills.
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