Collaboration Officer

Collaboration has become increasingly important over the years and this importance and increased in depth and breadth of collaboration partners and activities to the point where it is important to create the role of a Collaboration Officer to ensure the necessary focus within the organization. At this point collaboration coordination and activities are much too important to leave to the individual participants and requires a focused and coordinated strategy for both internal and external partners. The marketplace and demands are changing at such a velocity now that no single participant in the market can hope to support all of the demands, driving the types and volume of collaboration activities across the market in order to deliver and maintain new capabilities and services at a rate that supports the demands.




Collaboration as a concept has been in vogue for a very long time and it's been one of those concepts that everyone agrees on the importance while at the same time being challenged in living the concept. Many have talked the talk and found it difficult to walk the walk because collaboration, at least in my opinion, requires a partners to give up some control and this can be very difficult for some leaders. Control for many leaders has been key competency and allowed them to build the concept and brand that has been successful. Now, however, while the concept has not lost importance the implementation of the concept requires flexibility and collaboration to deliver.




I see a cycle in the maturity and success trajectory where the initial concept development requires a focus on the development that is driven by the leader to deliver on the concept. This cycle continues while the concept take hold to ensure the vision is maintained and the concept gains acceptance and traction in the marketplace. This changes though relatively quickly though after a wider acceptance though to require collaboration and new partnerships to retain the success trajectory and also ensure the continued growth of the concept. This change requires a shift in focus to partnership and collaboration and most importantly a shift to a shared success plan utilizing increased collaboration and partnership to continue the success trajectory. You see this type of collaboration and partnership in small businesses and support of the small businesses with a good example being the American Express initiative to support small and local businesses.




This is much different though for the large retailers and legacy partners where they must focus on change to meet the new demands. These entities must out of necessity focus on the collaboration and partnership concepts to maintain their own success trajectory. This is important because these retailers must realize they must sense and respond to support the changing demands on their offerings, shopping and purchasing practices which requires increased and robust collaboration with partners to meet the demands.




The retailers must pivot the majority of their focus on collaboration and partnerships and must build the capabilities utilizing these practices to develop new products in order to maintain their success trajectory. These retailers would do well to support a concept and type of skunk works that encourages and feeds new programs, products and capabilities in a lab type environment that allows and encourages failure in a manner that supports a concept delivery cycle. The large retailers have wasted a massive head start in both creativity and building the delivery cycle by focusing on reductions rather than identification of the next big thing.