Collaboration and Communication in Business
Increasingly, employees are in jobs where interaction is their primary value-adding activity (Laudon & Laudon, p. 90). List and describe collaboration and communication tools that you use regularly. How do they improve your work both in terms of the process and the product? What is the approach that organisations could adopt in relation to these tools to improve organisational performance?
Fortunately (or unfortunately), I have been working with the same organization for the last 19 years. As a result, I have been witness to the evolution of my organization globally in terms of being “tech savvy” towards effective use of communication and collaboration tools. In my opinion, the more the business is facing turbulence in terms of market and/ or competitors, the higher the need emerges for collaboration and communication. In the good old days of 90’s, when we used to do business in countries, with little or insufficient IT infrastructure and capabilities, we used to still manage effectively the customer relationships and profitability of the business through telecommunication links like fax and telephones as well as F2F meetings with the stakeholders involved. Somehow, it appeared to be relatively easier to make business dealings under such circumstances. Although, it is worth mentioning, that the core value proposition of the products and/ or services during those times were considered by our customes, to be due to the high technology and streamlined product development processes of our company.
With the advent of internet as a viable channel of communication and information sharing and the diversification of business into different market segments and geographical regions, it became imperative for the organization to look for easier ways of communication and collaboration. Moreover, the decline of experts with know-how or knowledge of the entire value chain of the product/ service, also calls for involvement of experts with specific domain knowledge, who
Fortunately (or unfortunately), I have been working with the same organization for the last 19 years. As a result, I have been witness to the evolution of my organization globally in terms of being “tech savvy” towards effective use of communication and collaboration tools. In my opinion, the more the business is facing turbulence in terms of market and/ or competitors, the higher the need emerges for collaboration and communication. In the good old days of 90’s, when we used to do business in countries, with little or insufficient IT infrastructure and capabilities, we used to still manage effectively the customer relationships and profitability of the business through telecommunication links like fax and telephones as well as F2F meetings with the stakeholders involved. Somehow, it appeared to be relatively easier to make business dealings under such circumstances. Although, it is worth mentioning, that the core value proposition of the products and/ or services during those times were considered by our customes, to be due to the high technology and streamlined product development processes of our company.
With the advent of internet as a viable channel of communication and information sharing and the diversification of business into different market segments and geographical regions, it became imperative for the organization to look for easier ways of communication and collaboration. Moreover, the decline of experts with know-how or knowledge of the entire value chain of the product/ service, also calls for involvement of experts with specific domain knowledge, who