Publication: The BusinessTimes, p 38-39

Date: 12 September 2015

Headline: Mastering effective collaboration

OLlABORATlON
is an important
asset that differen
tiates highly inno
vative

organisa

tions from lag

gards.

Essential

are collaborative
teams, ie

of two or more people with

complementary skills, committed to a

common purpose and performance goals.
A classical case is Wait Disney's team of
cartoon animators who created not only a
new art form but also a lucrative business
innovation.

Collaborative

innovation

feeds on unifying goals, complementary

capabilities, respectful communication,
trust and diversity. "A-ha" moments are
more likely to happen if team members
are markedly different from one another
and when potentially inevitable destruc
tive conflicts are nipped in the bud.
A structured innovation environment
is the hallmark of most Hidden Champi
ons, ie those (mostly family-run) private
companies with up to 500 employees and
US$5 billion in revenues who are among
the top three in the global market. An ex
ample is DELO, a world-leading manufac
turer of industrial high-performance adhe
sives. A core element of its award-winning
innovation system is the project informa
tion team - comprising members from
top management, research & develop
ment, engineering, product management,
marketing and distribution. This diverse

grourrof specialists is involved throughout

the innovation process from idea genera
tion to market launch and decides every
step during the various project phases.
Customer wishes, collected globally, serve
as impulses for innovations. Reputable "pi
lot customers" are invited to test new
products very early during the develop
ment phase which in turn facilitates the
go-to-market process.
The use of collaboration tools is critical

Mastering effective
collaboration

DIVERSITY PAYS

The power of multi-disciplinary

teamwork in creating innovative
prototypes based on systematic
research and user feedback has been
documented. PHOTO, AFP

it underpins the entire innovation process from ideation to the successful

commercialisation of a novel product or service. By Thomas Menkhoff
communities of practice to connect teams

poorly constructed, chances are that its

align key business activities around it dur

quests to "work together" and to "inno

of scientists, researchers and/or consu

creators did not perform well as a collabo

ing the "market evaluation" stage. Any sus

vate", a difficult challenge even with tech

mers. To source for the best strategic inno

rative team.

vation ideas, sufficient time must be devo

The power of multi-disciplinary team

ted for diverging, ie moving or extending

work in creating innovative prototypes

in different directions from a commonly

based on systematic research and user

perceived market gap. Strategic manage

feedback has been documented in a vi

ment tools can help to spot new trends,

deo, featuring the efforts of IDEO (a de

anticipate hidden organisational intlexibi

sign and consulting firm from Palo Alto,

lities or create blue oceans of uncontested

California) to develop a new, cost-eftec

market space. Collaborative workshops

tive shopping cart concept aimed at better

such as the visualisation of cultural arche

manoeuvrability, more enjoyable shop

types (extracted from stories collected

ping behaviour, and enhanced child safe

through anecdote circles) are useful to

ty.

identify and combat barriers towards

change. Jointly drawing characters who

tps:llwww.youtube. cam/watch?v=ta}O V- Y
Cief) provides insights into IDEO's design

typify one's organisational culture (eg the

approach and key ingredients of collabora

overly cautious "lurker" who is careful of

tive innovation, such as trusting relation

what he or she says) can be effective to un

ship or openness towards internal col

The

recording

(available

at

ht

freeze an organisation towards a more col

leagues and external stakeholders. Team

laborative innovation culture.

members trained in ethnography and solu

tion-focused design thinking are critical to

tainable revenue generating mechanism

tools designed to enhance intra-organisa

requires some form of collaboration man

tional connectivity, such as social network

agement - be it to identify suitable hosts

as in the case of Airbnb (a website for peo
ple to rent out lodging) or when entering

ing sites, due to the reactive nature of this

type of remedial collaboration. Progres
sive collaboration, in contrast, is more val

into a licensing agreement with licensees.

ue-added and durable as collaborators are

Network innovation

They are passionate about sharing and ex

Once the business model is established,

the innovator has to figure out how to
manufacture the innovation. The "produc
ti'on" engineering stage requires specific
capabilities, such as good contracting and
platform development know-how as ex
emplified by Apple's network innovation
approach when it developed the iPod to
gether with external partners such as
Sony, Toshiba, Texas Instruments etc. Dur
ing the tinal "market testing", "full-scale
manufacturing" and "market launch" sta
ges of the innovation process, close collab

throughout the innovation process. Right

Models & prototypes

translate unmet needs into innovation op

at the start of the "ideation" phase aimed

The goal of the "development" stage is to

portunities.

at defining the innovation content, collec

construct models and prototypes of tl1e in

Figuring out how to make money from

tive gap analyses can be conducted to dis

novation. Functional prototypes allow for

an innovation is a key concern from the

cover new insights and to determine how

experimentation and testing to find out

design phase onwards. Prototypes and

to win. Ideas for innovation can be gene

whether the new product works well in

models without a viable business model

rated with the help of associational thin

line with consumers' expectations. Com

are doomed to fail. The business model

king practices, insights from science &

puter-generated 3D models illustrate how

well-documented business procedures

canvas by A Osterwalder et al is a great vis

technology or lab work. Related tools in

which require informal workarounds in or

the final outcome of the innovation effort

ualisation tool to chart the value proposi

der to get things done. Team members

clude structured idea management or

might look like. If a "rapid prototype" is

tion of a new product or service and to

find themselves overwhelmed with re-

oration with customers and other stake

holders are just as important as during the
initial steps.
Sometimes, people in organisations ex
perience collaboration overload as a result
of unclear priorities or the absence of

Source: The Business Times Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

committed and know what to shoot for.

panding their knowledge driven by vision
ary (shared) innovation goals as well as
the desire to learn from one another. I n
case innovation managers are clueless
about internal collaboration patterns and
the whereabouts of subject matter experts
(capable of innovatively addressing pain
points of customers) and their diverse ties,
a social network analysis can help to map
them in support of strategic innovation
goals.
To sum up, the entire innovation pro
cess from ideation to the successful com
mercialisation of a novel product or ser
vice depends crucially on working well
with others and the mastery of collabora
tion tools.

The writer is professor of

organisational behaviour and human re
sources (education) at the Singapore
Management University Lee Kong Chian
School of Business, and academie direc
tor of SMU's Master of Science in lnnova. tion programme