Coopetition and community

I thought I’d close out January with a quote from an article in Harvard Business Review by Thomas J. Tierney (Collaborating for the Common Good, July 2011):

Collaboration among competitors is an unnatural act—but sometimes it’s the best way to reduce costs, leverage strength, accelerate scale, or amplify influence in order to generate results. Useful lessons lie in how collaboration among unlikely allies is achieving change in the world of social enterprise.

Businesses pursuing social enterprises can achieve greater results by dampening their competitive instincts and collaborating with peers. They can also promote collaboration among the organizations they fund or support efforts whose business model is collaboration.

Collaboration isn’t easy—that’s why it is still far too infrequent across all forms of social enterprise. But when peer organizations honestly embrace shared goals and clearly articulate how they will achieve them, collaboration works. Most important is believing that a group—even of “competitors”—can accomplish what no one member could do alone.

This perfectly encapsulates my thought about many of the professional relationships that exist within the SharePoint community. At the end of the day, its all about serving our customers and solving real-world problems. Every time I am out the door, attending or speaking at an event somewhere in the world, I am reminded that I get to work with some really great people in this community.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at #SPC14 and/or #ESPC!