collaboration

Originally Posted by simesb

hth :d

Not really. What it does do though is show the inability of anyone being able to read a post without first judging it on the spelling mistakes

Originally Posted by blueto

Pleas dotn maon abuot spleling. Wrod does that fro me on my dissettaion.

Sorry mate, I did try to show I was having a laugh by using the smiley and also following it up with some serious advice.

On a serious note, asking on a bike forum for qualitative and quantitative data on collaborations (presumably between businesses, i.e., mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, etc, rather than between recording artists, as is becoming the norm in popular music culture) is probably not the best source of information but seeing as you've asked....

I'd be looking at government statistics websites as well as looking at profit / loss accounts for big companies before and after 'collaborations' to investigate if they have worked (i.e., evidenced through increased profit or market share). I'd follow this up with investigating what the success or failure of a collaboration seems to depend upon, is it increased market share? Brand awareness? The coming together of workforce intelligence? Diversification? Expansion in to emerging markets? Completely random? I could go on but I don't know what you've researched already...

Just my thoughts...

EDIT: Just seen previous posts and saw that you are looking at collaboration from a different perspective - ignore this post if not applicable!

You have a very wide definition of collaboration - personally, I wouldn't see a merger as a collaboration. Similarly, contract/supplier relationships are more rooted in contract than egalitarian principles.

I worked on a large project where the consortium failed due to the conflicting objectives of the members and the customer had great difficulty getting what it wanted (and after all it was paying the bills). The answer - restructure so one partner took the lead, and the others essentially became suppliers to the lead.

Collaboration is a bit like communism; great in theory but oft fails in practice.

PM me if this is what you are looking for and need more details.

Originally Posted by blueto

Some of the principals I will be covering are

· Highlight how organisations balance the business value of collaboration with the reality of risk management and compliance?
· focus principally on the risks associated with informal collaboration and strategic restructuring activities
· Identify how it can be done in a manner that doesn't sacrifice business value and preserves as much of the egalitarian values of collaboration as possible
· Consider the opportunity costs and, preferably, establish benchmarks which organisations can measure whether the hoped-for outcomes of collaborating are really worth the investment they are making.
· Understanding that risk management in collaboration will not happen unless it is properly resourced. This includes the provision of people, time and in some cases finance to make it happen.
· Illustrate that clear partnership outcomes are essential to ensure risk management is taken seriously and that there must be open communication between partners involved about the key risks that partnerships face in achieving their objectives.


These do fall under Joint ventures, mergers, Informal collaboration or strategic restructure. Id like to know if people had been involved in any such activity. Did it work? And maily what they felt were the risks associated with collaboration.

The sort of definition I am using is “Collaboration is especially valuable for moving beyond the internal boundaries of the corporation and creating integrated and tighter relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners. Collaboration can take many forms, from the most informal agreement to work together on a one-time project, to multi-year joint ventures or full-blown mergers that involve substantial resource shifts and changes in organisational structure”

Firstly, do you mean principals or principles? They are slightly different and could affect the way you set out your dissertation.

What sort of business are you looking at? In the first bullet point you say the business has a value of collaboration, not every business does so you're already looking at a specific business. If you wanted to investigate wider you should be looking at whether collaboration should be a business value. Risk management and compliance are things that businesses generally have to adhere to anyway, not necessarily related to collaboration.

Second bullet point. Informal collaboration implies loose working agreements, ad-hoc teamwork, etc which again seems unrelated to strategic restructuring which the word 'strategic' implies it has been thought about, planned and implemented formally. Two different concepts here I think.

Third bullet point. I presume 'it' (third word in sentence) refers to collaboration which you've said in your first bullet point is a business value; so in this bullet point you're asking whether your business value of collaboration can be done without sacrificing your business value. Doesn't make sense.

Fourth bullet point, that's more like it - that's where you can get your qualitative and quantitative research to evidence one way or another whether collaboration is worth it (ie, profitable, in a strict business sense)

Fifth bullet point. People and time are finance. Investing people and time automatically includes finance, unless you're talking about allocating additional capital expenditure (possibly outsourcing) to researching a collaboration project.

Sixth bullet point. You mention risk management again. Is this dissertation addressing whether collaboration makes business more profitable or less risky? Two different concepts. A lot of risky businesses are very profitable. Also, there is no point spending time illustrating that clear communication is key to people achieving their objectives. That's not ground-breaking stuff!

I have a few examples which I think would be helpful, from a local government perspective. Local authorities commonly work together particularly on joint procurement exercises, and on grant applications. But the issues come out of how to work together, and who bears the financial risk.

[Bri w]

The company I work for has had several 'joint ventures' with global collaboration agreements in the last ten years.

Depending on 'local' markets the agreements included sharing of Sales projects, R&D, costs, labour.

In some cases the Boards haven't exactly agreed on direction, and typically there has been 'own agendas and ambitions' to contend with. There has also been issues surrounding the workforce (we're not loved, no one wants us - stormin, normin, formin etc) of one of the companies 'offloading' staff, and ultimately selling that part of their business to us.

There has also been issues of customer loyalty, preferred supplier, trust and friendship.

Branding subsequent products; who has the bigger typeface. And what label will have most customer impact.

Investment issues, inc % of profit going into what aspects of the respective businesses and joint ventures. Capitalising projects... who's bank etc.

More recently the make up of the Company Board has changed, along with its ethos. This has led to a restructing of the Board, and a buy out of options.

PM me if you want more detail.

as a layman may i humblely suggest it may be worth a trip to the bar
pubs often put on bands most who play for free or next to nothing yet the pub takes a financal risk on many fronts, will paitrons stay while this lot are playing ,will more come, risk for bands actions (if they swear of act up the pubs liable) ,noise regs ,extra security, there are many risks and rewards in this type of colaboration, yet is is genrally a very informal agreement which could without proper sourceing go very wrong
hth

Originally Posted by blueto

Hi Ed.

Some of the principals I will be covering are

· Highlight how organisations balance the business value of collaboration with the reality of risk management and compliance? liabilty for actions of band
· focus principally on the risks associated with informal collaboration and strategic restructuring activities takings up or down, extra layout for security/elec bills etc
· Identify how it can be done in a manner that doesn't sacrifice business value and preserves as much of the egalitarian values of collaboration as possible,doing it on a normally quiet night etc
· Consider the opportunity costs and, preferably, establish benchmarks which organisations can measure whether the hoped-for outcomes of collaborating are really worth the investment they are making. simple cost vs reward whats the layout compared to probable upturn in takings
· Understanding that risk management in collaboration will not happen unless it is properly resourced. This includes the provision of people, time and in some cases finance to make it happen. all cover with the above
· Illustrate that clear partnership outcomes are essential to ensure risk management is taken seriously and that there must be open communication between partners involved about the key risks that partnerships face in achieving their objectives. if you lot **** about you wont play here again and i'll make your name muck in the area/ pub could take a massive hit on fines/ loss of custom etc


These do fall under Joint ventures, mergers, Informal collaboration or strategic restructure. Id like to know if people had been involved in any such activity. Did it work? And maily what they felt were the risks associated with collaboration.

The sort of definition I am using is “Collaboration is especially valuable for moving beyond the internal boundaries of the corporation and creating integrated and tighter relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners. Collaboration can take many forms, from the most informal agreement to work together on a one-time project, to multi-year joint ventures or full-blown mergers that involve substantial resource shifts and changes in organisational structure”

looks to me like your local landlord could be a goldmine for this sort of thing cos after bands youve got colaboration with the brewery for offers and merchindice etc
again i am a layman but i hth
dave

Dave, you've taken a very different stance on the subject but understood the concept entirely and proven the ability to think outside the box. Have you considered doing a masters?

different stance? i went route 1 "to the bar"