Collaboration is a bit of a buzzword right now.  But until one starts to delve deeper into all the facets of collaboration, it is hard to appreciate how much the ‘buzz’ is in fact much more than that.  In this week’s dispatch of ROADMENDER Recommends you can appreciate the role of collaboration in the emergence of major economic developments in the collaborative economy, the recognition of the business community in Australia that collaboration is not just about two people working together, an explosion of technological tools and apps that aid collaboration, a major transatlantic collaborative focus of global impact, as well as collaborative community building.  All the stories here are an indication of what is really only a fraction of the collaboration out there.  As the practice grows and improves, so too will the data necessary for improvement and recognition of collaboration as a discipline; a discipline that is seeing the emergence of new careers such as Chief Collaboration Officer (see article below) which is only a small indicator of things to come.

For now, my heartfelt thanks to colleagues who continue to provide feedback, suggestions and tips on interesting readings.

Aussie business looking for ‘more collaboration’ with customers

According to the global study by IBM, business leaders in Australia and in more than 69 other countries, have identified the top three priorities to improving customer engagement as creating a consistent customer experience (81%), quickly responding to emerging trends (77%) and combining internal and external data to gain insights (76%).  And, the IBM C-suite study, including face-to-face interviews with 97 Australian C-suite leaders, shows that taking a “digital-first approach” to customer collaboration will help the C-suite to achieve their priorities…

How to Develop Winning Business Strategies in the Collaborative Economy [Research]
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/marketing/develop-winning-business-strategies-collaborative-economy-research-0797981#YsFgP49rOc7oTz7s.99
source: http://www.business2community.com/marketing/develop-winning-business-strategies-collaborative-economy-research-0797981#!zX6Vt

Collaboration simply means working with others to achieve or produce something. But it has become a bit of a buzzword. Senior executives tout notions of embracing collaboration by reducing functional silos… but the reality is: It’s hard work. Making collaboration work is tough. There are a heap of things that get in the way — our existing workload, time and geographical barriers, hierarchy, bureaucracy and protocol, varying permissions, email burden, communication delays, and so on…

Established Companies, Get Ready for the Collaborative Economy

No wonder big brands want in on the action: the growth of the collaborative economy promises to disrupt the conventional marketplace, as customers buy from one another — instead of from them. But for those companies, engaging with this nascent market must go beyond latching onto a few hot collaborative startups by buying them or partnering with them. Established companies must grasp the core drivers behind this new economy, and understand how those drivers fit into their already established models. These core drivers are:…

Collaboration apps market growing

“The popularity of the ‘bring your own device’ trend in the enterprise environment, along with the rapid penetration of smartphones and tablets, has brought enterprise mobile collaboration into a new stage in Asia-Pacific,” said Shuishan Lu, a Frost & Sullivan research analyst on information and communication technologies. “These mobile collaboration applications are quickly becoming a key component in enterprise UC deployment instead of being merely an add-on to desktop-based systems.”…

Transatlantic collaboration, innovation lead to green energy opportunities

The demand for green goods and services in the UK is growing faster than the general economy; in 2012-13, the green economy was valued globally at around $5.7 trillion (£3.4 trillion), having grown 3.8% over the previous year, despite the global economic slowdown. This market is projected to grow by around 4% for the next four years, with the British portion of the market slightly ahead, at 5-6%. In the natural resources sector alone, estimates of commercial opportunities related to environmental sustainability range from $2.1 – $6.3 trillion by 2050…

Opinion: Innovation and collaboration can help plug Montreal’s brain drain

For a city to thrive in this 21st century, it has to make the fullest use of its resources. One of Montreal’s greatest strengths is the rich pool of educated young people its employers can draw upon to help ensure a solid future. We are second only to Boston in terms of North American cities with the highest ratio of university students to residents. But our “University City” faces a major threat in our competitive global economy when it loses young people once they graduate and are lured to leading centres of innovation…

Collaboration builds communities that care

Since its inception in 2008 the Communities that Care (CTC) program in Williams Lake and Anahim Lake has attempted to make a difference in the lives of children. “We still have many challenges but lots of things have changed,” said Anne Burrill, manager of social development for the city and CTC board member. Speaking during a meeting of community leaders hosted by the CTC Friday at the Central Cariboo Arts Society, Burrill said the community is different now than it was five years ago. In 2008 the community had a problem with youth involved in violence and pursued the CTC program as a possible solution, Burrill said…

Financial Networks Increase Collaboration To Improve Information Security

Last Friday, MasterCard and Visa announced a new cross-industry consortium of banks, credit unions, retailers and industry trade groups that will work together to improve the security of the existing payment system. This still unnamed group will initially focus on introducing and driving adoption of EMV chip technology, which is already widely used in Europe and Asia, on credit and debit cards in the U.S. The forming of the consortium and its emerging agenda may be seen as an initiative by the world’s two largest payment networks to improve security in response to the increasing number of incidents of financial transaction data breaches, particularly at retailers, before additional requirements are imposed upon them by regulators…

…and now for something completely different…

 What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun?

My friend June Thunderstorm and I once spent a half an hour sitting in a meadow by a mountain lake, watching an inchworm dangle from the top of a stalk of grass, twist about in every possible direction, and then leap to the next stalk and do the same thing. And so it proceeded, in a vast circle, with what must have been a vast expenditure of energy, for what seemed like absolutely no reason at all.  “All animals play,” June had once said to me. “Even ants.” She’d spent many years working as a professional gardener and had plenty of incidents like this to observe and ponder. “Look,” she said, with an air of modest triumph. “See what I mean?”…

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