pr firm

The Era of Collaboration

The internet imitates life. Or does life imitate the internet?

I’ve been contemplating this lately. I am fortunate to belong to a network of powerful business owners. These days when we meet, the same theme resurfaces — that the new era of business is all about collaboration. This from even the most crusty Alphas in the group! The trend is away from competition simply for the sake of winning, or watching your competitors bleed. Leaders and smart entrepreneurs are spending more time building alliances, looking for opportunities to collaborate with other businesses.

At first glance, this may not seem revolutionary. Since the beginning of time, successful businesses have been built on relationships. But, this is different. It’s about actively seeking collaboration with similar and complimentary businesses, rather than reserving relationship building for customers. It’s the realtor who collaborates with the accountant, conveyance lawyer, mortgage specialist, and home staging company. In our case, it’s alliances with the PR firm (the Tartan Group), boutique branding/design studio (Ideastream Design), WordPress specialist (Bluelime Media) to create a delicious win-win. Such collaborations mean one stop service for clients, no gaps, overlaps, miscommunications, or turf wars between service providers. For each contributor, it means a wider net for attracting clients and a forum for creative exchange.

Collaboration is what the internet is all about. Wikis, open source software, and mashups are now the norm, proving unequivocally that we can achieve greatness when we decide to work together.

So the question remains, is internet culture shifting real world business or is real world business simply following a course that began long before Google became a verb?

- Moyra Rodger
CEO, Magnify Digital Inc.

Tags: brand design, collaboration, new era, pr firm, women in business, WordPress