Collaboration

Collaborative advantage is the new competitive advantage for industries that are already established. Economies of scale in these veteran industries fail to create a competitive advantage, while collaboration will help a company leverage their dispersed resources and capabilities in each subsidiary or division--even globally. The article, How to Build Collaborative Advantage, discusses this phenomenon. Some of the advantages a company will experience are a cost savings, better decision making, increased revenue, innovation through cross-pollination of ideas, and collective action potential.

A large part of the article discusses the barriers that must be removed to achieve interunit collaboration. These are unwillingness to seek input and learn from others, inability to seek and find expertise, unwillingness to help, and inability to work together and transfer knowledge. Most of these issues involve the networks and community established at the organizational level. By focusing on furthering such topics, companies will achieve competitive advantage.