Business Without Boundaries: An Action Framework for Collaborating Across Time, Distance, Organization, and Culture
by Don Mankin, Susan G. Cohen
Category: Business & Economics

Traditional forms of collaboration are not sufficient for competingeffectively in the more complex and dynamic environment oftoday’s business world. Face-to-face meetings between peopleof similar backgrounds have given way to increasingly complexworking relationships. Organizations must be able to gain rapidaccess to knowledgeable people to meet constantly changingconditions and demands. More fluid, flexible, and easilyreconfigurable collaborative relationships are necessary to producethe innovations that can make or break organizations¾evenentire industries¾ and provide the opportunities that attractthe talented and motivated employees who will make the differencebetween success and failure. Business Without Boundaries helps managers addressthese challenges. The authors explore a number of wide-ranging,real-world cases to identify hands-on principles for successfulcollaboration. They offer managers and executives practical stepsand tools for creating, facilitating, and supporting complexcollaborations throughout their organizations. And they explain howto “team” across boundaries in the new global economy.The recommendations are specific enough to apply to particularforms of complex collaboration (for example supply chains, globalproduct development teams, interorganizational alliances) butgeneral enough to apply to new forms that have yet to emerge.