Customer Reviews

Winning at Collaboration Commerce: The Next Competitive Advantage

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Those of us in the `information business' have heard about "network effects" for some time now, but there is a real dispute amongst practitioners about whether or not "this really changes everything". This new book neatly avoids either side of this argument by not treating these developments as "natural" but rather recognizes them as human contrivances that need to be understood, planned, systematically implemented, monitored, and retro-fitted as needed.

What the book consists of is a "vision document" that blends trends, forecasts, and desirable objectives together into "a (much) better way of doing things". Some of the pieces and aspects are actually in place or underway. Some of the outcomes arise from projecting forward trends that have already proven successful. Some of the elements represent new features of commercial rules or practices that still have to be adopted to "keep the participants honest" and "build the trust" of prospective customers.

As Collins, Gordon & Terra define it, there are 10 capabilities required to design, develop, and execute a successful collaboration commerce business transformation. At this point however, these capabilities are criteria - they have yet to be turned into standards that would specify how much of a particular capability was required, what level of performance would be involved, and how enforcement would be assured. Nevertheless, the outline of these criteria is a very impressive first step for a new paradigm.

* Purpose (what goals or objective will collaboration achieve)
* Identity (what will be the character of the collaborative firm)
* Reputation (how will the collaborative firm be appraised)
* Trust (how will the collaborative firm win customers' confidence)
* Commerce (what internal arrangements will support knowledge sharing)
* Transparency (how will openness be achieved and sustained)
* Networks (who will collaborate and how will they collaborate)
* Boundaries (where will the lines be drawn between collaboration and competition)
* Real-Time Collaborative Enterprise (horizontality for speed and coordination)
* Governance (who leads the process, how are the goals shaped)

There is also one measure proposed to determine either readiness for collaboration, or progress toward collaborative commerce, namely a C-Commerce Intelligence Quotient.
This is indeed a bold vision, and a sorely needed improvement over many prevailing business practices. The authors have made a very good beginning. What I hope to see from them next is a follow-up book that does transform these criteria into standards, and also shows case studies that indicate the extent of acceptance of the new paradigm.

The authors of this book strike me as enthusiastic, good hearted people. I wasn't able to get much more than that from the book. The text is very general and reads like a seminar ad. There are a variety of lists and organizational diagrams, but they didn't strike me as coming from folks who have successfully overcome management inertia and/or hi-tech boosterism.

The authors of Collaboration Commerce have totally got this business model RIGHT! They understand surprizingly well the changing economics, implications of social network, complexity management science, changing role of business strategy and power of technology to accelerate the wisdom of crowds in network business models.

This book is a must read for CEO's and senior executives that are looking to understand the characteristics of creating a collaborative business model. The authors break down clear approaches to governance, strategy, people, culture, process, technology and measurements as an excellent guide to help leaders architect successfully organization's of the future. With liminaries like Thomas Davenport and John Seely Brown backing these authors insights -- this book if Peter Drucker was here would be seminal to him as it is also dedicated to his research and wisdom on the impact of the information worker and knowledge economy revolution. A MUST BUY.