I really appreciated a note published yesterday by Jeremie Berrebi. In it, he offered to make his know-how and technology available to potential competitors, should they feel the urge to use Zlio as a starting point and try to do better.
I mentioned this post to a few of my ‘brick n’ mortar’ friends (yes, I do have a few of those) who found the idea at best suicidal, at worst completely idiotic and irrational. Even those commenting on his note, who are inevitably a little more aware of the new strategies emerging with the new models of the ‘not quite bubble’ Internet 2.O, have reactions that leave us a little surprised and a few questions.
Personally, I find this post very interesting insofar as it is the perfect expression of a new understanding of the market and the win-win synergies that can be put in place between direct competitors if you think for two minutes and leave your blinkers on. And why am I interested in all this? Because this episode can be widely re-used to explain certain intra-company contexts where a certain form of autism and paranoia prevents the development of winning synergies.
Let me explain.
The logic of the entrepreneur
If I had to decipher the message (which is entirely up to me…):
– use my API, you legitimise my technology
– come to my market and communicate you help me sell my concept
– let’s all use the same technical bases, so let’s be compatible, it’ll make it easier to get together
– be less good and I’ll be a leader, be different (or even better) and you’ll give me ideas.
– make the market competitive, that will make it more dynamic for everyone’s happiness.
In short… a real opportunity where everyone has something to gain.
Or as I like to put it: in an environment so vast that you can’t deal with it alone, it’s better to organise the players than to fight against them.
So, back to my original idea.
The logics of interpersonal partnerships in business
What individual logics can be identified in a company?
– I don’t talk about my projects for fear they will be stolen from me
– I pull the rug out from under potential competing projects
– I want them to be implemented by me alone
What I mean by this is:
– I don’t have the time to make a proposal in time, or it’s not finished yet
– I struggle to master all the aspects of a problem
– I reinvent the wheel every week
– my management never gives the green light to my proposals
– when I do get the green light, nobody wants to be part of my team, or my team drags its feet and isn’t involved in the success of the project.
Of course because:
– by not talking to anyone I’m depriving myself of internal sponsors. I’m just an isolated voice, whereas if several voices are raised, the decision-makers will realise that something needs to be done. So first of all I’m wasting my time, then I’m not responding to an identified issue.
– I’m also depriving myself of resources. Hence the fact that I often arrive after the battle with a poorly thought-out project.
– I can’t count on the support and help of those who have the impression that I’ve been working behind their backs.
– I can’t count on those who were working on another project based on the same idea. They’re not going to help the man who sowed banana peels in their path. So if I get the green light, it’s impossible to get everyone together.
– It’s also impossible to know whether anyone is thinking along the same lines as me and is further ahead than I am.
– Since in the end I’d rather fail alone than succeed with others, I’ll never be involved in a major success. So goodbye promotion and I’ve worked silently for nothing.
So we’re seeing internal competitors everywhere when we should be trying to identify sponsors and a few strong partners. The complexity of today’s projects and the short amount of time available mean that we need to be really agile as a team.
The fact remains that the idea is struggling to catch on.
Related articles:
Does education cause a lack of collaboration ?
How Enterprise 2.0 can help managing and improving organizational capital to support strategy
Enterprise 2.0 : the CISCO case
Enterprises far beyond enterprise 2.0
Coordinated social media strategies by 2016 ? Why 2016 ?
CE0 concerns : network driven business models
