As usual, collaboration was born on a casual conversation between two decision makers. As the story goes, Philips CEO Frans van Houten and Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg started talking lights a year ago, when they met at the World Economic Forum. According to Vestberg, what they came up with is an alignment of strategies that is “unique” for two giants the size of Ericsson and Philips.
As the networked society becomes more networked, the amount and types of players involved in this future increases, creating the foundation for eco-systems and transformation across industries. No wonder many news from Barcelona are about former competitors and niche vertical players all joining forces to drive technology innovation…
Not all benefits are good. Those that are good are good for all the agents involved. And society is always one of the main agents. A company must look to prosper (do well) by having a positive impact on the environment (do good).
Singapore is a well known case of a country leading innovative initiatives in the areas of business development, technology transfer or private & public collaboration. It is also a pioneer in the area of co-innovation pushed from public authorities.
Some years ago health and beauty giant Alliance Boots started operating partnerships with several other retailers to get goods up to the far north of Scotland and the southwest corner of England. As its corporate social responsibility director Richard Ellis explained then “the key thing for us is that when our trucks are on the road they are not transporting fresh air”…