How good is this? Australians are falling in love! With collaboration that is. I hope it’s not an ‘on the rebound’ thing. According to most indicators the love is real. Australians are joining the global trend which has been long time coming. A summary of findings from a global survey on collaboration are part of this week’s recommended list of reading. In fact, there’s a number of pieces on the list that collectively explain why we should not be surprised at the results indicating growth in the acceptance of collaboration as a competitive strategy. Even a casual observer now gets the link between collaboration, productivity and competitiveness, but let’s not take things for granted just yet. There’s still major marathon ahead before we start see substantial sophistication in the practice becoming as widespread as it needs to be.

Sincere thanks to those who have suggested articles for this edition of Roadmender Recommends.

Why Aussie businesses are falling in love with collaboration

Australian entrepreneurs are great believers in collaboration, with 92 per cent saying collaborative working places offer start-ups excellent value for money in a recent survey. The research by global workplace provider Regus found that Australian businesses report improved efficiency and innovation, while co-operative problem solving also made the workplace a more fun and social experience. The survey had 22,000 respondents in 100 countries, including 727 respondents in Australia. Eight out of 10 Australian survey respondents said collaborative working places helped start-ups connect with potential clients, providers and suppliers, and partners…READ ON

Creating Collaborative Advantage

Successful collaboration between businesses can have myriad advantages. In this article, John Sutherland talks us through four key aspects for successful collaboration and demonstrates how sometimes collaborative advantage is of far more value than competitive advantage. Business looks through the prism of competitive advantage. Almost every book on strategy is based on the assumption that you want to compete with others in your sector and increase your market share, at your rival’s expense…READ ON

A Step-by-Step Plan to Improve CMO-COO Collaboration

A traveler arrives in a foreign country and attempts to use his credit card to make a purchase. It is the same card he used to buy the plane ticket and book the hotel. While this would seem sufficient to alert the bank to his impending trip abroad, “transaction denied” flashes across the terminal screen, leaving this longtime customer stranded, fuming, and no longer so loyal…READ ON

5 ways the collaborative economy is evolving

Over the last couple of years, the collaborative economy has seen a meteoric rise in popularity, as mentioned by Jeremiah Owyang. At first, most people approached it with skepticism similar to initial sentiments toward online shopping 15 years ago. People were worried about security and whether they can trust a perfect stranger with their item or personal safety. However, startups – including Airbnb and Zipcar – are providing a customer experience that fosters trust and comfort and makes people wonder what else they can share…READ ON

A Very Fast-Growing Group of Entrepreneurs: People Over 50

This article is part of an ongoing series analyzing how baby boomers — those born from 1946-1964 in the U.S. — behave differently from other generations as consumers and in the workplace. The series also explores how the aging of the baby-boom generation will affect politics and well-being. Leaders looking to promote entrepreneurship in their cities and regions may find an abundant source of business builders among people older than 50 — they are one of the fastest growing groups of entrepreneurs in the U.S…

How to Work Faster, Collaborate Better & Leverage Time

Let’s face it, email, Skype and Word docs are not great for collaboration. They are old school dinosaurs and productivity killers for many. Whiteboards covered in post it notes were not much better; even using geeky collaboration “web enabled” boards with video conferencing functionality. Dropbox has given us all the ability to share docs, see updates with some onboard collaboration tools; but the feature set is limited. Trello, a browser (cloud) based app, is a significant improvement over past methods and tech tools – enabling teams of people easily collaborate on projects…READ ON

3 Ways to Implement Your Security Needs in Collaboration With Business Stakeholders

You have done your homework and have identified the security needs to protect your business. You put together the business case and presented it to your executives, who approved the spending. Now, it is time to plan the implementation and you have to communicate with your business stakeholders. How can you convince them that the additional protection you are adding to the ecosystem outweighs the change to their business process? There are three key components that can help you position security changes with the business in a way that lowers the impact to your stakeholders and helps build credibility for your security initiatives…READ ON

…and now for something completely different…

How to Have the Perfect Workday

How do you manage your time? The How to Have the Perfect Workday infographic designed by Alissa Scheller for The Huffington Post tries to map out the perfect schedule to maximize your productivity…READ ON