Question 1
Identify and describe at least four business benefits of collaboration. Which do you feel is the most important and why?Question 2
Why are "conversations" relevant to social business?Answer 1
Business benefits from collaboration are (1) productivity; (2) quality; (3) innovation; (4) customer service; and (5) financial performance. Collaboration helps productivity because people working together on a task can complete the task more quickly. It helps quality because people working together will be more able to correct each other's mistakes. It helps innovation because people working in groups come up with more ideas than those working in isolation. It helps customer service because teams can solve customer complaints more quickly together rather than working in isolation. And as a result of all of these benefits, collaboration helps finance, because collaborative firms have superior sales, sales growth, and financial performance. Student evaluations will vary: for example, the most important of the benefits might be: innovation, because new products, services, and means of production are at the heart of being able to outperform your competitors.Answer 2
Customers, suppliers, employees, managers, and even oversight agencies continually have conversations about firms, often without the knowledge of the firm or its key actors (employees and managers). Supporters of social business assert that if firms could tune into these conversations, they will strengthen their bonds with consumers, suppliers, and employees, increasing their emotional involvement in the firm.