Collaborative business involves companies sharing information and resources to improve productivity and output. Collaboration can result in new profit opportunities and can involve technology platforms, product collaborations, and even national economies.
Collaborative business is a concept where companies share information with each other to create stronger operations. While collaborative business may seem counterproductive to developing a competitive advantage, it actually helps companies learn new processes or activities that can improve productivity or output. Collaboration works as a symbiotic relationship, where each company has a product or service that will help the other; when they trade or share these items, both companies benefit.
In business, skills are invaluable for creating a competitive advantage. These competencies include skills or activities that enable one firm to complete tasks or produce goods and services better than another. Competencies typically include information gathering, production methods, customer service, and employee development, among others. Collaborative businesses allow one company to work with another to develop these competencies. Core competencies, however, may not be transferable from one company to another. They represent a company’s extraordinary ability or skills that competitors cannot easily imitate.
An example of collaborative business is when companies use a technology platform to advance their operations. For example, social media networks reach thousands of people through websites, text messaging accounts, and other interactive items for work and play. Companies of all types can work with social media companies to leverage the technology of these sites in an enterprise framework. Additionally, businesses can use the social media network to reach new and current consumers with product offers. Collaboration results in new profit potential opportunities for companies, and social media companies will receive payments for their services.
Collaboration can also result when two companies produce goods that hold some value individually but may be worth more when used together. For example, a computer manufacturer and a software development company might collaborate for this purpose. While computer hardware is valuable in and of itself, the lack of an operating system significantly reduces the value of the hardware. Creating a collaborative business environment system allows the hardware manufacturer to install the software company’s operating system on the computers produced. This allows both companies to receive mutual benefits from collaborating their products in a single unit.
National economies can also engage in a form of collaborative business. This concept goes back to the economic theory of comparative advantage, in which one country can produce goods or services cheaper than another country. Nations can take advantage of this by using items from different countries to create valuable goods and services. Similar to business, this creates a mutually beneficial economic environment through collaboration.
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