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Collaborative Enterprise: Managing Speed and Complexity in Knowledge-Based Businesses
Organizing for competitive advantage and profit
How can businesses best tap diverse capabilities to generate new ideas, manufacture products, and properly execute strategy? In this groundbreaking, thoroughly researched book, organizational expert Charles Heckscher argues that, in a global network of creation and production, the dominant organizations will be those that master the still-uncodified skills of collaboration—replacing the giants of the past century who thrived on the mastery of bureaucratic systems. Though there has been much discussion of teamwork and alliances in recent decades, Heckscher argues that we are still a long way from fully understanding how to manage fluid and inconstant collaborations; and that this is an area dominated far more by rhetoric than reality. Using a combination of theory and extensive real-life case studies, Heckscher pushes the boundary of organization design and illustrates how companies are able to create new, effective patterns of interactions, and how they can build a culture and infrastructure necessary to support them. For organizational leaders in search of long-term competitive advantage, The Collaborative Enterprise offers sound research findings and invaluable insights.
How can businesses best tap diverse capabilities to generate new ideas, manufacture products, and properly execute strategy? In this groundbreaking, thoroughly researched book, organizational expert Charles Heckscher argues that, in a global network of creation and production, the dominant organizations will be those that master the still-uncodified skills of collaboration—replacing the giants of the past century who thrived on the mastery of bureaucratic systems. Though there has been much discussion of teamwork and alliances in recent decades, Heckscher argues that we are still a long way from fully understanding how to manage fluid and inconstant collaborations; and that this is an area dominated far more by rhetoric than reality. Using a combination of theory and extensive real-life case studies, Heckscher pushes the boundary of organization design and illustrates how companies are able to create new, effective patterns of interactions, and how they can build a culture and infrastructure necessary to support them. For organizational leaders in search of long-term competitive advantage, The Collaborative Enterprise offers sound research findings and invaluable insights.
357 pages, Hardcover
First published June 29, 2007
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October 24, 2012
This book takes the view that major businesses, (at least those that are going to be successful in the long run), are going through a fundamental shift from a bureaucratic to a collaborative system of organization.
By collaboration the author means working together to achieve a shared objective that cannot be reached without the contribution of all, and, in particular, he is most interested in situations where the people working together are from very different backgrounds, with very different bases of knowledge and expertise, coming together for fairly brief periods, with no expectations of ongoing relationships. These could be internal employees (task teams made up of people from different divisions, functions, countries, and/or levels of the hierarchy), or even between different companies (collaborating with a supplier, for example). Although not mentioned in this book, I think the use of contractors (as explored in the recently read Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies) can also fall into this category.
The main arguments made:
- Great results can be achieved by switching to a collaborative system in terms of continuous improvement and learning, balancing competing priorities, and adjusting quickly to changing environmental demands. BUT, if you don't do it right, you just end up with a mess.
- Extended collaboration requires:
a) a shift in culture from a paternalistic bureaucracy based on loyalty to a culture of contribution;
b) a change in the social infrastructure so that people can create and share an understanding of the overall goal/strategy and so they have access to the people and info (internal or external) they need for collaboration;
c) overcoming the tendency to regress to a simpler form of organization ("just doing my job", small group solidarity, loyalty to protectors);
d) interactive leadership that partially inverts the normal relationships (encouraging criticism of strategy and policy from lower-level positions, bringing customers into the decision-making process).
- This whole process is fairly new, and there are still major problems to solve, including:
a) Accountability: how do you evaluate and reward contribution to the strategic mission when people aren't being assigned well-defined tasks?
b) Careers: there is a lack of support for the mobility required of workers in an environment where tasks and projects change frequently. And this whole approach creates greater insecurity for any but the most sought-after employees.
By collaboration the author means working together to achieve a shared objective that cannot be reached without the contribution of all, and, in particular, he is most interested in situations where the people working together are from very different backgrounds, with very different bases of knowledge and expertise, coming together for fairly brief periods, with no expectations of ongoing relationships. These could be internal employees (task teams made up of people from different divisions, functions, countries, and/or levels of the hierarchy), or even between different companies (collaborating with a supplier, for example). Although not mentioned in this book, I think the use of contractors (as explored in the recently read Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies) can also fall into this category.
The main arguments made:
- Great results can be achieved by switching to a collaborative system in terms of continuous improvement and learning, balancing competing priorities, and adjusting quickly to changing environmental demands. BUT, if you don't do it right, you just end up with a mess.
- Extended collaboration requires:
a) a shift in culture from a paternalistic bureaucracy based on loyalty to a culture of contribution;
b) a change in the social infrastructure so that people can create and share an understanding of the overall goal/strategy and so they have access to the people and info (internal or external) they need for collaboration;
c) overcoming the tendency to regress to a simpler form of organization ("just doing my job", small group solidarity, loyalty to protectors);
d) interactive leadership that partially inverts the normal relationships (encouraging criticism of strategy and policy from lower-level positions, bringing customers into the decision-making process).
- This whole process is fairly new, and there are still major problems to solve, including:
a) Accountability: how do you evaluate and reward contribution to the strategic mission when people aren't being assigned well-defined tasks?
b) Careers: there is a lack of support for the mobility required of workers in an environment where tasks and projects change frequently. And this whole approach creates greater insecurity for any but the most sought-after employees.
Displaying 1 of 1 review