Business Value of Collaboration
Welcome to the inaugural posting of CollaborativEye! In some sense, collaboration is nothing new to business. In fact you could argue that we are only now beginning to return to the level of collaboration that existed in business BEFORE the era of specialization, professional management, computers, and the internet. Our cubicles and modern office structures have isolated us. And although none of us can live without email, nobody pretends that it has actually improved collaboration in the workplace (just recall the last run-away email train you've participated in!) But there is a new sense of urgency to incorporate collaboration into the workplace. Technologies are evolving rapidly, books are being written, bloggers are blogging. For lack of a better word, we'll call it Collaboration 2.0 (I know, I know -- give me a better name).
Is there true business value in collaboration or is it just hype? In other words, what is the ROI of Collaboration? Here are some points to consider, refute, support, or ignore:
- In the short term, I don't believe all ROI answers can even be calculated in financial terms. There just isn't enough information.
- However, in the long term, I believe financial ROI for any activity can be calculated. But by then it is usually too late to provide actionable information.
- Sometimes ROI is a binary scenario: 1 = your business thrives, 0 = your business dies
- Some concepts are too big for a simple ROI calculation : for example, what is the ROI of motivated, on fire employees?
- I believe that one of the primary sources of ROI for collaboration is tied to INNOVATION. Read Wikinomics by Tapscott and Williams. Lot's of examples of how collaboration has spawned innovation in the form of new invention, new products, new markets, etc.
Dave Kresta
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