A set of new potential partners has emerged, and we are now focusing on the ones that would be most synergistic. During the last year, the collaboration terminology has been used to describe the potential created by a variety of software and management solutions that were supposed to solve most of the world's problems by inducing previously warring factions to magically coalesce into a harmonious community sharing critical information for the benefit of all. To make things worse, these solutions were coupled with management models that did not have the profitability, scalability, robustness, or balance to succeed. Divino's article brings sanity back to this madness. First of all, as he points out, collaboration is an old thing.
Collaboration is about managing relationships, and managing relationships IS business.
But while collaboration was not invented in the last five years, the Internet brings a number of critical advantages as well as some very substantial risks. Divino describes both advantages and risks, and provides a clear and actionable framework for harvesting the real potential of new collaborative models. The implications are clear and pervasive. Ultimately, collaboration is not about technology, but about management. Basic managerial processes and governance principles should not be violated to fit new software models.