World Leaders Call for Collaborative Leadership

At the conclusion of the annual schmoozefest known as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the world's leaders called for "a new kind of collaborative leadership." At no other annual event can you find country presidents and prime ministers mingling with CEOs of the largest multinational corporations, listening to talks by thought leaders from around the globe. The theme of this year's event was "The Power of Collaborative Innovation." Collaboration is, more and more, the driver of corporate success; but by choosing collaboration for this year's Forum theme, Davos is acknowledging that collaboration is also the key to solving the most pressing global issues. In previous years, the Davos meeting received more attention for the anti-globalization protesters outside the gates, but this year's theme doesn't seem to have offended anyone.

Presentations included Matt Parker, of Nike, describing their Nike Plus gadget -- a device that you put on your shoe and hook into your iPod, that also connects you to the Internet. The system allows runners to communicate, to come together and organize races for example. Reuters' Tom Glocer described their company's internal innovation program, where employees are encouraged to submit ideas in a quick one-page document.

In a typical Davos event, CNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo interviewed Bono, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell. They announced their support for the (RED) initiative (if you purchase a product that is "red," the selling company makes a donation to fight AIDS in Africa). Soon after that, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined a powerhouse panel that included the CEOs of Cisco and Pepsi, to discuss why it makes business sense for corporations to establish social responsibility as a priority alongside profits.

One of the press releases to emerge from Davos was titled "Collaboration Key To Success As New Initiatives Are Launched In The Field Of Humanitarian Relief At Davos." Members companies and the United Nations announced two initiatives to bring together the private sector and the humanitarian community, to harness their collective power collaboratively.

This year at Davos, the theme of collaboration had five sub-themes. I was particularly intrigued by the first: "Competing while collaborating." This is a central topic of Chapters 9 and 10 of my new book, Group Genius. It sounds counterintuitive; but, over and over, the most innovative companies are the ones that figure out how to build collaborative webs with partners, customers, and even with their competitors. And because my book's subtitle is "The Creative Power of Collaboration," you know I'm excited to see the importance of collaboration recognized at such a high-profile event.

Comments

[loki]

collaboration between business happen all the time. It use to be called price fixing and illegal. But now its called inventive marketing or strategical pricing and is completely over looked by those who are suppose to enforce the laws.

[joebaggadonuts]

Perhaps the reason Neanderthal died out when he met Homosapiens is that despite his greater brawn and larger brain, he went it alone and Homosapiens worked together.

Criminals working together can only go so far before they turn on each other.

[godlessclif]

Hitler needed collaborators too; when he tried to take over the world like the multinational are doing today.

[FogBelter]

As long as it doesn't undermine the US Constitution and the lives of the American People, Collaborative Leadership is fine with me ...


Otherwise ... to Hell with it.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Haven't they been doin about enough of that 'collaboration' all this time, isn't that sort of how we ended up in this mess to begin with? Stop the flow of the funny money, let's have a full audit of OUR government before they go making any more deals with ANYbody. Period.

Everyone else needs to start using the UN as their common venue. Reform. It's healthy. Stops organized crime. Gets the representation back in representative government. And all that.
If it means closing the US stock market to outside investors, then 'get er done'. D.C. needs to clean their fiscal house.

[mmckinl]

Until the world's banks and financial institutions evolve form debt based money and develop credit based money the situation will only deteriorate.

How can undeveloped countries serve their populations when they are shackled by ever increasing debt? Yet under the current system that is exactly what they have to do to expand their money supply.

The only collaboration I see is the corporate privatization of other people's resources and the destruction of their domestic markets.