Get big and collaborate with your clients

Over the past few years there has been massive investment in networking technologies across the world and we're rapidly getting to the point where every part of the planet can plug into some form of broadband connection.

Alongside this computers have become cheaper and more dispersed with an explosion of associated software - e mail, search engines and workflow engines that can slice and dice packets of work across multiple geographies and then re-assemble them into a product for a particular customer base. These changes have been revolutionising the way we live our lives and do business. We are coming to terms with a very different competitive environment that is knowledge-based and geographically distributed across the globe. Our great big round world has become very flat!

Businesses take advantage of all this through their ability to leverage all the new tools for collaboration to reach further, faster, wider and deeper. A few years ago most sceptics discounted companies like Amazon ($10.7Bn in 2006) and Google ($16.6Bn in 2006) from ever becoming major players in their industry. They lacked physical premises and a few thousend employees, they would never compete with the more established corporations. What they lacked in bricks and mortar they certainly made up in vision and and ability to exploit the internet to reach each and every one of us with some exciting new products and services.

These changes are continuing to gather pace. The current recession will only serve to further accelerate events. We're moving into an era where the small can act big through both evolving technologies and by exploiting collaborations with other businesses to extend products and services beyond their core competencies and become global businesses.

Some businesses take this one more step by collaborating with their customers. A prime example here is Starbucks. Howard Schulz, the founder and chairman, reckons that it is possible to make 19 thousend variations of coffee based on the standard menu. Their branch staff are encouraged to act like it was their business and when many customers started to bring in Soya milk from their coffee they soon rolled this out as a new menu option. Starbucks understand that no matter how big they get their customers want them to listen and give them what they want.

I suspect that many people will argue that this is ok for a business like Starbucks but what else? I used to work in banking and one of the biggest assets was the local branch where the bank met its customers. The local branch manager had a comprehensive view of his customer and flexibility to advise and shape products to fit their requirements. When the financial markets started to look a bit less bullish many banks looked to reduce costs by offshoring services and closing local branches. I don't need to spell out what a huge mistake this was, you just look at how they all now market their services as being highly personalised and promise a long term relationship for their customers.

It's an interesting time to grow a successful business by exploiting technologies that increase your operational efficiencies and help you to reach out further, faster, wider and deeper into your global customer base, while your completitors are 'battening down the hatches'!