The Culture of Collaboration

Collaboration Requires Systems that Talk

Recently, I wanted to use some frequent flier miles for a trip on a U.S.-based airline’s international partner. When I called, the representative told me that to use my miles on the partner airline, he would need to enter my requested flights into the reservations system. Then he would need to send a message to the partner airline requesting confirmation that the seats were available using miles. The agent asked me to call back in 24 hours to learn whether the booking would be confirmed. In 24 hours, I called back and learned that there were no seats available. I then selected other dates, repeated the process and got the same result.

 

After four tries, I decided to call the partner airline directly to find out available dates. The agent informed me that the dates I wanted had wide open availability for miles-based tickets. So, I tried calling the U.S.-based airline again to request those dates. Again, the result was “unconfirmed.” There was clearly a partner collaboration problem, and systems seemed like the likely culprit.

 

I called senior leaders of the airline. When the partnership manager investigated, he determined there was indeed a systems-not-talking issue. Nobody using miles could book any flights on the partner airline. My call was the first indication to the airline that there was a collaboration issue involving systems. I didn’t send a bill, but I did get the seats.

 

For that same trip, I submitted hold requests via the Web or automated phone systems for three daily newspapers and the U.S. mail delivered to my home. I entered a hold date one day before my travel date, so that I could make sure the papers and the mail would stop. Of those four requests, only The Wall Street Journal stopped delivery as requested. The other two newspapers plus the U.S. mail came despite my request.

 

This was a security risk in that a pile of newspapers and mail overflowing from the letter slot is an invitation to burglars. In this case, the information I entered into systems was not reaching the newspaper delivery people and the letter carrier. These were internal collaboration issues involving systems, and the lack of collaboration was jeopardizing customer relationships. An easy way to lose a customer is to compromise the customer’s security.

 

Collaboration involves breaking down barriers and silos. For this to happen, both people and systems must talk. Unnecessary manifestations of hierarchy, fear and formality create barriers that poison collaboration. I made that point on the first episode of CNBC’s “Collaboration Now.” You can view that video clip from the show here. Sometimes, though, we take the systems part for granted.  Highly-collaborative organizations get the culture part right, but they also make sure that the organization uses common systems and processes. Proprietary systems and processes accessible to a single function or business unit reinforce information hoarding, which inhibits collaboration.

 

Within enterprises, common systems and processes are key to collaboration. Among enterprises, systems need to talk for collaboration to succeed.

Cisco, Tata and Taj Hotels Bringing Telepresence to Smaller Companies and the Public

As I walked into Cisco’s new public telepresence suites yesterday at the WebEx tower in Santa Clara, California, I was greeted by a video receptionist. “Hi, may I help you?,” the receptionist said. I immediately sensed professional intimacy, because of the quality of the visual experience. “I’m here for a Cisco telepresence session,” I explained. The receptionist then invited me to help myself to the catered breakfast in the outer lobby. I then grabbed a cup of milky, cardamom-spiced Indian coffee, which hinted at the global nature of what was about to happen.

 

Down the corridor were several public telepresence rooms of different sizes. Cisco people including Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of the emerging technology group, were in one room with Peter Quinlan, director of telepresence managed services for Tata Communications. I was in another room with the research director of The Culture of CollaborationÒ Institute plus a few journalists and analysts.

 

Joining from his home in Bangalore, India was Wim Elfrink, Cisco’s chief globalization officer, presumably conducting his last meeting of the day at 11:00 p.m. Bangalore time. In London, Vinod Kumar, chief operating officer of Tata Communications, and his colleagues participated. From Boston, Taj Boston Hotel General Manager David Gibbons joined us from the Taj’s new telepresence public room. From New York, an industry analyst was also connected.  So, our group spanned the globe—six connections in four time zones. However, we felt almost as if we were sitting across the table from each other.

 

Cisco and its partners are challenging the notion that telepresence is an exclusive tool for Fortune 500 executives. “We have found that the largest users of telepresence are the mid-management level in our organization,” says Kumar of Tata Communications, a subsidiary of the $62.5 billion Tata Group. If you’ve been to India, you know that the Tata name is everywhere—on motor vehicles, industrial equipment, and even tea. In recent years,Tata has become a global company.

 

Tata is a highly-strategic relationship for Cisco in that besides its communications business, the Mumbai, India-based conglomerate has holdings in engineering and building, services, chemicals and consumer products. Taj Hotels, a Tata company, is providing public telepresence rooms in Boston, London, Bangalore, Mumbai and other cities throughout India. “Small and medium-sized businesses will be the greatest users,” predicted Gibbons of the Taj Boston Hotel. There will be a hundred public TelePresence (note that Cisco capitalizes the “P” in its trademarked product name) suites globally by late 2009, according to Cisco. Hourly fees currently range from $299 for a 1-2 participant room to $899 for an 18-participant room.

 

Unlike office buildings that typically close nights, weekends and holidays, hotels are open 24/7 every day of the year and provide perhaps the best opportunity to maximize a global business environment through pay-per-use telepresence. It’s a holiday in your city, but you need to connect intimately with colleagues in another region where it’s a regular work day? Hotel-based telepresence addresses that issue.

 

Significant from a technical perspective, Cisco and Tata are providing secure, encrypted conversation through any company’s firewall. “This has not been possible before with any technology,” noted Marthin De Beer of Cisco. Tata Communications delivers converged voice, video and data over Internet protocol (IP). Tata’s strategy is to get companies used to telepresence through public rooms and work on migrating some companies to invest in their own telepresence rooms.

Cisco says it has integrated 300 telepresence systems into its own operations globally. Some senior leaders including De Beer have their own systems, and Wim Elfrink, Cisco’s chief globalization officer, joined yesterday’s telepresence session from his home office in Bangalore, India.

 

While much has been made about videoconferencing and telepresence reducing long-distance travel, these tools can also reduce local travel and commuting. De Beer noted that he saves an hour per day by using telepresence instead of driving to meetings on and around Cisco’s campus. As telepresence becomes more widespread, people will gain the opportunity to work globally while reconnecting with their physical—as opposed to virtual—communities. Telepresence will also allow for better work/life balance and potentially take social responsibility to the next level.

 

After the session, as I said goodbye to the video receptionist, I wondered whether receptionists in Mumbai, Manila and Montego Bay will soon be greeting visitors in corporate lobbies in Memphis, Modesto and Milwaukee. Well, Cisco’s Marthin De Beer, who is based at the company’s headquarters in California, has a video assistant who works from Texas and virtually greets visitors to his office. So, Cisco is clearly practicing what it’s preaching.

CNBC Featuring The Culture of Collaboration

CNBC’s 5-part series on collaboration premieres this Sunday, October 12 at 8 p.m. Eastern time (5 p.m. Pacific time) and will re-air at 1 a.m. Eastern time (10 p.m. Pacific time). The series called “Collaboration Now,” sponsored by BT (British Telecom), will also air on CNBC Europe, CNBC Asia Pacific, and other affiliates. You can view the global air schedule here. I’m one of the guests in the first episode dubbed “Collaborating to Compete.” You can read about the episode here. 

 

My participation is in episode one’s block or section about trust, one of the Ten Cultural Elements of Collaboration that I describe in The Culture of Collaboration book. During the trust block, CNBC airs a taped story on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which involves an incredible amount of collaboration and trust among Boeing and its global design partners. I put the 787 in perspective by explaining the significant shift in process between the 777 and the 787. The discussion touches on some other key aspects of trust and collaboration.

 

You can watch this discussion after the first commercial.  It immediately follows the satellite interview with former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. I’m on set with host Donnie Deutsch; Chrystia Freeland, U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times; Richard Tait, former CEO of Cranium and Miles Everson, partner with Pricewaterhouse Coopers. The series features several highly-collaborative organizations featured in my book including Boeing, the Dow Chemical Company, and Mayo Clinic.

Check out the show on Sunday or the archived video which will be posted here.