John Hagel (Deloitte Center for the Edge) and John Seely Brown describe how companies need to work beyond themselves. One example is GE Appliances starting micro-factories with small groups of people across roles focused on a single run, project or customer need. This is is very much like the French gearbox manufacturer, FAVI, I talked about last week at Enterprise 2.0 Summit (and well documented in several books). In my presentation, there is a natural evolution of social collaboration beyond processes, to cross-employee cooperation, and finally to ecosystems beyond.

Their article in Fortune magazine.

“Rapid advances in technology have led to more volatile demand for products and services, sudden shifts in customer expectations, and an overall need to respond faster and more flexibly to a changing environment. Companies that go it alone will struggle to find the talent and resources they need to compete. Businesses will need to work with others, those outside their walls, to do this.

“Companies need to respond faster and more flexibly to a changing environment. They cannot do this alone.”

-rawn