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Strange Bedfellows:Unexpected corporate collaboration - Ashwin - Water Cooler
Strange Bedfellows starts with Strange Bedfellows may be a misnomer, maybe they are perfectly natural bedfellows? Maybe these are natural partnerships. What are some examples of unique partnerships?
Unique partnerships:
WalMart + Saatchi S
Columbia Forest Products: http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2008/04/14/the-promise-and-perils-taking-green-products-mainstream
Clorox and Sierra Club” http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/01/20/clorox-expands-green-works-line
CEMEX + NGO or reproductive health workers: CEMEX was putting out a small amount of building materials to build extensions to houses and needed distribution partners. As it turned out the best people to reach people was the women’s reproductive health workers who had essentially established a distribution network through their own work. The health workers received sales commissions, the community was strengthened through upgraded buildings and CEMEX got to sell cement.
EDF + Climate Corps: Net Impact places MBA grads in businesses to find energy efficiency
EBay + Net Impact: Net Impact focused on identifying new resources for social intrapreneurs, profiled best practices on intrapreneurs, it was a perfect marriage.
Ebay+Bicep: 5 companies collaborating to advocate in Washington for Climate Change, companies are unlikely to be regulated, unlikely to benefit, but care enough to put a stake in the ground. (I.e. companies that don’t have a dog in the fight.) Advantage: had caught the eye of the president and thanked eBay,
Seventh Generations + WAGES: A group of cleaning operatives owned by immigrant Hispanic women, 7th generation has sponsored with them to provide capital, and they are also green certified.
BP and BP (internal partnership) Pepsi and Coke working together
Green Exchange Nike, Best Buy, and Creative Commons (open sourcing sustainable materials)
Conversation: What is the primary motivator? These are primarily examples of fluffy bunnies and massive polluters collaborating is this the only model? Example: Strange bedfellows: Techie and CFO of a company bridging conversations inside organization. That they communicate together, and one person “got” the other person, and because of that, the organization changed. Internal collaboration and dialogue, how do you facilitate it? “What is the driver that wants the connection?
Tip: Once the common drivers are defined – it’s easy to facilitate.
A few models of this: Each partner brings an element of value the other doesn’t have One part brings credibility and one part brings relationships (e.g. the women health workers had the relationships and the company); or provides information that is valuable in a different context. Someone had the audience, and someone else has the way to monetize that audience. Captive audiences are a very valuable, who else could benefit to generate new value? When you embark on a new partnership there is a lot of resistance. How do you create the partnership?
Tip: Sometimes you have to expand the idea of what a community or organization thinks its mission might be.
Example: Starting a recycling program at University of Vermont. The most important people were janitors. It was a re-conceptualization of value.
Tip: Implementers are very powerful decision makers.
Charles and EBay: We have these building - these information factories. Nobody knows the value of what they are creating. I am wandering through the corporation asking what is the value you think you create? We are trying to find people’s beliefs; most people will have a belief or idea that will only go a few levels. We are looking for the “Truth between two dots.” You know something to be true. And you know a correlation, maybe one more. We are trying to collect that knowledge base – and chart beliefs. I’ve connected the dots between all our organizations, all the way up to here. Dynamic, one step is only one way, inherently adaptive, should have wiggle room. Looking at the belief systems and is a way to understand how the collaborations occur –the associated languages and how they actually work together. And that’s where you find your interesting partner….because x believes like I do.
Challenges: Lack of Common interest Lack of Charles Lack of common language Stakeholder resentment Lack of obvious interest Lack of boundaries Lack of market Conventional thinking
What works? Culture that open to risk taking Flexibility Research and Development Environment of Innovation Willingness to innovate and try new ideas Shared incentives Don’t see themselves as competitors in that area (banks couldn’t let go of what they thought was part of their core offering) A prior failure – we tried doing it ourselves and it didn’t work. (not all companies)
Examples of Failure Swiss Watch/Mercedes SPUN OUT Cheetoes perfume (too cheesy) EDF: any examples of partnerships that didn’t work Time/AOL
Why failed: Profit driven Tip: Museum of Failed Products – check it out!
In a perfect world: Dreaming up the Best Bedfellows: Exxon mobile work on changing values in the American Consumer – How can we get a better sense of good – how good? If Exxon teamed up with micro mediation organizations to go places such as Ecuador and clean up some of the messes. Re-think IP. WalMart Sustainability Index is a locus for partnership EPA, Energy Star for systems, everyone wanted the bar to below. Using idle time to do energy metering: Intel and Facebook
New models for collaboration: Citizen collaboration – very valuable, structures or containers to facilitate self organized collaboration – craigslist, resources, services, more barter, we are starting to see that – like in Marin County, (don’t tell the IRS). Tool lending Library Freecycle.org Couchsurfing.com
Conclusion: (more or less) It comes back to changing a value system. How we are in our communities spills over in our companies. Letting people see value where they didn’t usually see value.
Unique partnerships:
WalMart + Saatchi S
Columbia Forest Products: http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2008/04/14/the-promise-and-perils-taking-green-products-mainstream
Clorox and Sierra Club” http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/01/20/clorox-expands-green-works-line
CEMEX + NGO or reproductive health workers: CEMEX was putting out a small amount of building materials to build extensions to houses and needed distribution partners. As it turned out the best people to reach people was the women’s reproductive health workers who had essentially established a distribution network through their own work. The health workers received sales commissions, the community was strengthened through upgraded buildings and CEMEX got to sell cement.
EDF + Climate Corps: Net Impact places MBA grads in businesses to find energy efficiency
EBay + Net Impact: Net Impact focused on identifying new resources for social intrapreneurs, profiled best practices on intrapreneurs, it was a perfect marriage.
Ebay+Bicep: 5 companies collaborating to advocate in Washington for Climate Change, companies are unlikely to be regulated, unlikely to benefit, but care enough to put a stake in the ground. (I.e. companies that don’t have a dog in the fight.) Advantage: had caught the eye of the president and thanked eBay,
Seventh Generations + WAGES: A group of cleaning operatives owned by immigrant Hispanic women, 7th generation has sponsored with them to provide capital, and they are also green certified.
BP and BP (internal partnership) Pepsi and Coke working together
Green Exchange Nike, Best Buy, and Creative Commons (open sourcing sustainable materials)
Conversation: What is the primary motivator? These are primarily examples of fluffy bunnies and massive polluters collaborating is this the only model? Example: Strange bedfellows: Techie and CFO of a company bridging conversations inside organization. That they communicate together, and one person “got” the other person, and because of that, the organization changed. Internal collaboration and dialogue, how do you facilitate it? “What is the driver that wants the connection?
Tip: Once the common drivers are defined – it’s easy to facilitate.
A few models of this: Each partner brings an element of value the other doesn’t have One part brings credibility and one part brings relationships (e.g. the women health workers had the relationships and the company); or provides information that is valuable in a different context. Someone had the audience, and someone else has the way to monetize that audience. Captive audiences are a very valuable, who else could benefit to generate new value? When you embark on a new partnership there is a lot of resistance. How do you create the partnership?
Tip: Sometimes you have to expand the idea of what a community or organization thinks its mission might be.
Example: Starting a recycling program at University of Vermont. The most important people were janitors. It was a re-conceptualization of value.
Tip: Implementers are very powerful decision makers.
Charles and EBay: We have these building - these information factories. Nobody knows the value of what they are creating. I am wandering through the corporation asking what is the value you think you create? We are trying to find people’s beliefs; most people will have a belief or idea that will only go a few levels. We are looking for the “Truth between two dots.” You know something to be true. And you know a correlation, maybe one more. We are trying to collect that knowledge base – and chart beliefs. I’ve connected the dots between all our organizations, all the way up to here. Dynamic, one step is only one way, inherently adaptive, should have wiggle room. Looking at the belief systems and is a way to understand how the collaborations occur –the associated languages and how they actually work together. And that’s where you find your interesting partner….because x believes like I do.
Challenges: Lack of Common interest Lack of Charles Lack of common language Stakeholder resentment Lack of obvious interest Lack of boundaries Lack of market Conventional thinking
What works? Culture that open to risk taking Flexibility Research and Development Environment of Innovation Willingness to innovate and try new ideas Shared incentives Don’t see themselves as competitors in that area (banks couldn’t let go of what they thought was part of their core offering) A prior failure – we tried doing it ourselves and it didn’t work. (not all companies)
Examples of Failure Swiss Watch/Mercedes SPUN OUT Cheetoes perfume (too cheesy) EDF: any examples of partnerships that didn’t work Time/AOL
Why failed: Profit driven Tip: Museum of Failed Products – check it out!
In a perfect world: Dreaming up the Best Bedfellows: Exxon mobile work on changing values in the American Consumer – How can we get a better sense of good – how good? If Exxon teamed up with micro mediation organizations to go places such as Ecuador and clean up some of the messes. Re-think IP. WalMart Sustainability Index is a locus for partnership EPA, Energy Star for systems, everyone wanted the bar to below. Using idle time to do energy metering: Intel and Facebook
New models for collaboration: Citizen collaboration – very valuable, structures or containers to facilitate self organized collaboration – craigslist, resources, services, more barter, we are starting to see that – like in Marin County, (don’t tell the IRS). Tool lending Library Freecycle.org Couchsurfing.com
Conclusion: (more or less) It comes back to changing a value system. How we are in our communities spills over in our companies. Letting people see value where they didn’t usually see value.
Ariel360 |
Latest page update: made by Ariel360
, Aug 9 2009, 11:11 PM EDT
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