Discover the benefits of business collaboration – BizEquals

Collaboration is a powerful business tool for companies, regardless of their size or industry. It typically refers to organisations working together to address problems and achieve goals that seem to be out of reach when working alone.

By combining the effort and expertise of different organisations, all partners in the network are better able to innovate and grow, and increase their competitiveness on many levels.

Key benefits of business collaboration fall under several categories:

Financial benefits – for example, the ability to boost domestic or export sales, to tender for larger contracts or cut costs by sharing resources.

Human capital – for example, the ability to develop employees’ skills and capabilities, safeguard jobs, increase employment and encourage staff motivation.

Physical capital – for example, the ability to share facilities, resources, equipment and raw materials.

Intellectual capital – for example, the ability to tap into combined expertise, knowledge and capabilities.

Business networks may provide member companies with access to resources that would otherwise be beyond the scope of a single business. Individual businesses can face several limitations when trying to compete in global markets. This may include scale and expertise.

Through collaboration, businesses can often complement each other and specialise in different areas to compete in markets usually beyond their individual reach.

Large companies have established market share, resources and varying degrees of responsiveness to innovative processes and technologies. Historically, large companies have had their own R&D departments and have rarely, if at all, been willing to consider sharing results with partners.

With internal departments typically less responsive to fast-moving markets and the pace of technological innovation, developing new forms of open, collaborative innovation can help larger companies navigate their competitive environment more effectively and successfully.

Small, new companies are, by their very nature, lean and reliant on superior product innovation and customer focus as they have neither the incumbent advantages nor the resources to compete head to head. Working with larger companies that have deeper pockets, greater access to market share and a better overview of the competitive landscape can help accelerate the innovation cycle and create faster, better responses to market changes than either party could achieve on their own.