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Collaborative innovation is one trend that is growing rapidly in the world. Here is a brief excerpt of an interview with Harvard Business School professor Alan MacCormack of the research team in terms of collaborative innovation.

Alan MacCormack reveals that there are three main things a role in collaborative innovation.

First, the increasingly complex products, it means the technology used in increasingly sophisticated products are also complex; Second, the number of workers with high skills at low cost in developing countries; and finally, progress in development tools, such as computer-aided design. So if all three are combined, then the collaborative innovation becomes an absolute necessity in the competition.

The main advantage is the reason companies are collaborating to lower costs. But actually, payoff offered not only in terms of cost alone. Collaboration can also do things such as: cut development time and increase capacity, facilitating access to skills, capabilities and intellectual property not owned by the company internally, and enables companies to obtain relationships and knowledge that has never had. So that was all offer their own competitive advantage.

He also describes three important principles that made by the company’s successful collaborative program innovation. Three principles are as follows:
The first principle, companies should develop collaborative strategies that match their business needs means that this collaboration should be able to improve performance, be it in terms of reducing costs and increasing differentiation.

Second, companies need to organize an effective collaboration. The way to overcome such uncertainty in terms of character choices in terms of organizational design teams, contract structure and management of intellectual property.

Last principle is the need to invest in building the capability colaborasi. Many companies assume that they’re quite ready to cooperate with a partner, but did not.

MacCormack explains that there are four areas where companies have to invest, namely people, processes, platforms and programs.
People: Effective collaboration requires people with different skills, then the implications for the recruitment, perngembangan, evaluation and reward system and different

Process: Effective collaboration requires companies to rethink their process.

Platform: companies investing in infrastructure, including development tools, technical standards, and methods of construction, all of which are required to do the job. The more complex a project, the more partners involved, the platform also must be increasingly sophisticated.

Program: Companies that succeed generally manage this collaboration as a coherent program, rather than a stand-alone project. Some companies even have a Chief Collaboration Officer in charge of this collaborative effort.