This chapter discussed horizontal integration. This is not a new concept, as many companies have been doing this for awhile now. I agree that this is what companies need to be doing, especially including employees in the decision process. This bottom up approach has been used at Toyota for years. If any employee has ideas, and it leads to cost savings, they get a share of the savings as a bonus. Some get put on the management fast track.
Wiki’s may not be the next wave of the future, as many workplaces ban using Wikipedia. China also has firewalls that prevent people from using it. If the most populous country in the world can’t use it, then in a globalized world economy, mass collaboration is not going to take off in my opinion. Rather, it is just a new tool in the manager toolbox. The authors even say so, “Added collaboration tool to palate”. I believe this means that mass collaboration is not going to replace the current way of doing things.
I think the multiplayer games for group meetings that Geek Squad uses is a great idea. I think other firms should experiment with it, as I would lie to see if it works in other settings.
I remember the Star Wars stunt. It was covered in the Canadian news, and thought it was hilarious. More companies should have wacky ideas like that, but they are too conservative and risk averse for that I think.
Finally, this book needs a better editor in the next edition. The spelling, grammar and wrong word errors are getting annoying and distract from the point the authors are trying to make.
3 comments:
I thought this chapter was particularly annoying. I hate that the authors keep taking ideas that have been around forever, and already in use, and twisting them to look like their new and related to mass collaboration. Even though they have great ideas and examples, and I agree that mass collaboration will change they businesses work, I agree that it will be a PART of a successful business' strategy.
I agree that this book could have been better organized and presented in a more clear and concise manner.
But, this chapter was one of my favorites.
I did not know that Wikipedia was practically banned by China. You make a very good point that mass collaboration will not work if the government gets in the way.
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