Collaboration is a hot topic in the not for profit world – from Australia and the UK to the USA, Africa and Asia. There is a shift in the way charities, not for profits, NGOs, community organisations, voluntary groups, social enterprises, and a plethora of other groups operate. Most prefer to see themselves as slightly unique while in reality they all share one major feature: none are interested in sharing profits with shareholders but instead are focused on creating social impact and solving major socio-economic societal issues. This shift towards collaboration has not come as a surprise; it’s only been a matter of time. However, the shift is also very challenging and for many quite unnerving. After all, many are only used to paying lip service to collaboration, as opposed to making collaboration the default position for solving problems and being more relevant. This week’s selection offers a few interesting pieces which may help calm the nerves and help in transition to collaboration paradigm.

Collaboration between charities can help them embrace risk and adapt

Running in the same direction: partnerships between charities could help them spread risk more attractively Photograph: Tony Sapiano/REX

Make a mistake as a manager in a commercial company and you face losing your job as well as your investors’ money. Do something similar in a charity and you face harming the vulnerable people your organisation most wants to help. How charities can balance the importance of protecting their beneficiaries against the need to innovate in an ever-tightening economic climate was the subject of a roundtable hosted by the Guardian, in conjunction with Zurich Insurance, earlier this month…READ ON

Collaboration is key to helping homeless

The News-Journal’s call for openness and cooperation among homeless service providers, clients and advocates is welcome and timely. The Volusia/Flagler County Coalition for the Homeless thanks The News-Journal for bringing continued attention to the crisis of homelessness and for insisting in a recent editorial, “Conflict is distracting and destructive.” Preventing and ending homelessness requires a commitment to collaboration across different community groups: nonprofit, faith-based, business and government…READ ON

How can you collaborate more successfully?

We are now in the days of asking and listening to our customers and working with them in our innovation cycles. Innovation demands collaboration. So does production. In the past we could focus on a single task in an assembly-line fashion, handing our completed activity to the next person who would in turn do the same, until the job was finished. Now the jobs change fast, requiring learning new skills rather than merely repeating the old. We have to seek out people who have other pieces of the puzzle and work with them to tackle increasingly complex issues…READ ON

SME collaboration puts UK ahead of the game

Collaboration between SMEs and global corporations has helped to put the UK at the forefront of innovation, Rolls-Royce Submarines’ head of engineering improvement told an Insider breakfast. Patrick Kniveton said at the Midlands Innovation Breakfast that major manufacturers are no longer simply looking to suppliers to secure the best deal on price. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are taking into account the skills SMEs can offer and the innovation which comes from the business. “They’re collaborating whether it’s supporting them financially or helping to train their people, they’re even providing opportunities for secondment into the larger company,” Kniveton added…READ ON

Collaboration critical to innovation and productivity

Effective collaboration between businesses and between business and publicly funded research is a critical enabler of innovation. Additionally, international collaboration is critical to the increased productivity and competitiveness of Australian firms. Collaboration with publicly funded researchers can help businesses access new technologies, ideas and markets. International collaboration facilitates access to new markets and networks and assists with the early adoption of technologies developed elsewhere. New analysis of 8,000 Australian small to medium businesses, found that innovative firms that collaborate are more productive than their non-collaborating competitors. The strongest benefits arise from collaborations with research organisations…READ ON

Germany Seeks Collaboration To Promote Nigeria’s Renewable Energy Policy

German government is seeking effective collaboration that would help in delivering other sources of energy in Nigeria. Under the consideration, the country intends to provide technical back-up to Nigeria in the area of renewable energy. Head of energy and environment desk of the delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria , Baerbel Freyer, who gave this indication said the country was concerned about Nigeria’s lingering energy crises…READ ON

Collaboration technology’s winning kick

Collaborative technology means many things to many people, but “revenue generating” and “robust” hasn’t always been on that list. That is starting to change. If you had stepped out of the room for a moment you would have missed it, but soccer is often like that. I refer to, of course, the final game of this year’s World Cup when, after hours of play with neither side yielding a single point, German winger Andre Schürrle passed the ball to teammate Mario Gotze, who went on to send his nation into ecstasy with a beautifully executed winning kick…READ ON

India, US to identify collaboration opportunities in projects

India and the US today agreed to start identification of projects where partners from both the countries can collaborate in order to enhance trade and investment ties between the countries. In an hour-long meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker reviewed the trade ties between the countries. “Both sides agreed to initiate identification of real projects where partners from both the countries will collaborate,” an official statement issued after the meeting said…READ ON

…and now for something completely different…

With Big Data Comes Big Responsibility

You should presume that someday, we will be able to make machines that can reason, think and do things better than we can,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in a conversation with Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla. To someone as smart as Brin, that comment is as normal as sipping on his super-green juice, but to someone who is not from this landmass we call Silicon Valley or part of the tech-set, that comment is about the futility of their future…READ ON