Growth through Collaboration

How many competitive advantage partners does your business have?

I was recently asked to share the Impact Innovation Group collaboration story at the Brisbane Lord Mayors Business Excellence Workshop and surprised myself when it came to how many collaboration partnerships we have created to grow our organisation over the past 12 years.

Using practical collaboration approaches I transitioned the company from a sole consultancy to one of Australia’s most rapidly growing innovation advisory firms. This was all achieved through collaborating with other firms and individuals to win projects, attract additional innovation specialists, and expand our customer base.

Some of the key things that we have learnt are:

• It is about mobilising resources: The best collaborations occur where we want to access the partners networks and resources and they want to access ours. The idea is that both parties benefit from the collaborative activities that are being undertaken.
• Do before document: Collaborations rarely work if you start with trying to work out the financial arrangements. It is all about trust and value (and more than financial value) and these things require testing and discussion – not a legal agreement.
• Project not company: Each company (or organisation) that have its own mandate and collaborations that incorporate the entire organisations, are mergers, not collaborations. Collaborations work best when they are project focused, that is, together we are trying to achieve a specific objective.
• High value propositions: Both parties see that 1+1=5. Anything less and it becomes difficult to justify the time and effort.
• Test the value: Start with a pilot project or a trial activity to test that the assumed value translates into real value.

This is how Impact Innovation Group puts collaboration into practice.

These and other learnings are now benefiting our clients as they grow and differentiate through effective collaboration. For more information or to see how we can help your business, call us on +61 7 3041 1128.

– Brian Ruddle, Managing Director