What kind of collaboration is right for you

Mohammad Obeidat

LDR700

Wilmington University

AGENDA

Explore the four basic modes of collaboration

Advantage and challenges of these modes

When to use each mode

Intro

In this era great idea come from any corner in the world and the IT has dramatically reduced the cost of accessing them.

Should you open up and share your intellectual property with the community?

Should you nurture collaborative relationships with a few carefully selected partners?

Should you harness the “wisdom of crowds”? 

COLLABORATION OPTIONS To select the right type of collaboration option

for your business, you need to understand the four basic collaboration modes.

These mode differ along two dimensions:

1- openness (can anyone participate or just select player?)

2- Hierarchy (who makes key decisions)

WHAT QUESTION TO ASK

All too often firms jump into relationships without considering their structure and organizing principles

How open or closed should your firm’s network of collaborators be?

And who should decide which problems the network will tackle and which solutions will be adopted?

WHAT QUESTION TO ASK

In totally open collaboration, or everyone (suppliers, customers, designers, research institutions, inventors, students, hobbyists, and even competitors) can participate.

Closed networks, in contrast, are like private clubs. Here, you tackle the problem with one or more parties that you select because you deem them to have capabilities and assets crucial to the sought-after innovation.

THE FOUR BASIC MODES OF COLLABORATION

1- A Closed and hierarchical network (an elite circle)

2- An open and hierarchical network (an innovation mall)

3- An open and flat network (an innovation community)

4- A closed and flat network (a consortium).

Open Network

In the open, hierarchical mode, anyone can offer ideas but your company defines the problem and chooses the solution.

Threadless.com

In open, flat mode, anyone can solicit and offer ideas, and no single participant has the authority to decide what is or isn’t valid innovation.

Closed Network

In the closed, hierarchical mode, your company select certain participants and decides which idea get develop

In the closed, flat mode ,a select group is invited to offer ideas. But participants share information and intellectual property and make critical decisions together.

Advantage and challenges

Open network

You receive a large number of solutions from domains that might be beyond your experience or knowledge, and usually get broader rang of interesting idea

• Challenge: screening all that ideas is time consuming and expensive.

• When to use:- When you can evaluate the proposed solution cheaply .

- You don’t know what the user want.

Advantage and challenges Closed network

Receive solution from the best experts in a selected knowledge domain .

• Challenge: identifying the right knowledge domain and the right parties.

• When to use:- You need small number of problem

solvers- You know the correct knowledge

domain and parties to draw on.

Advantage and challenges

Hierarchical:

Control the direction of innovation and who capture the value from it.

• Challenge: the right direction maybe unclear

• When to use:

You have the capability and the knowledge you need to define the problem and evaluate the solution.

Advantage and challenges

Flat:

Players share the cost, the risk and the technical challenges of innovation.

• Challenge: all parties must arrive at mutual beneficial solution.

When to use:

- processes and rules that drive parties to work in concert to achieve common goals.

- No single player in the network has the capability to solve the problem.

Matter of strategy

Different modes of collaboration involve different strategic trade-offs.

Case of apple - Close approach developing first generation of

iPhone- Elite circle to develop early applications- open approach 2008