Syndicom

Ray Miles on Collaborative Entrepreneurship

Welcome to Syndicom’s first podcast in its 2008 series!

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In this interview, Walker Thompson, VP Sales and Marketing at Syndicom sits down to chat with Dr. Ray Miles from UC Berkeley, author of the book “Collaborative Entrepreurship”. In this conversation, Dr Miles discusses the companies which inspired the book (set in 2010) and its practices. Focused on collaboration, Walker and Ray discuss whether there is a ‘collaborative personality’ present in such companies and its likely sources as well as the sharing of intellectual equity and whether such a cultural message can be consistent through an organization’s practices. “OpWin”, the fictional company on which the book is based, acts as an exemplar for how collaborations in the founding of a company can be formalized into a way of doing business through engaging in partnerships with those with whom the founders have worked with in complementary markets and with whom they have a high level of trust. Dr Miles provides insight into with ways in which reflecting on collaborative practices in the past, as well as their critique, can flow into the design of future practices and partnerships to build a strong community based in strong values and commitments (see page 52 in the book for Miles’ collaborative entrepreneurship model!).

The book itself provides a blueprint of all the components necessary for a collaborative structure, from business models that create wealth to interdepartmental relationships within a community of firms. While similar to the actions involved with setting up a single purpose firm, the collaborative structure built into the community to which OpWin belonged is inherently more complex. Much of this complexity exists because of people’s fears of collaboration and ‘where it will lead’. For Miles, this comes as no surprise because the ability to collaborate depends on individual expectations and their ability to relate to people and work with them. Very few managers have had experience with formal collaborative models with multiple ‘trusted and trusting buddies’ designed into a structure. In academia, this has been a traditional way of working without contests of credit, because it was always to be shared and these values were reflected in the system. But this has not been the norm in the corporate sector. If companies have been born from a start up environment which is inherently collaborative, this formalization comes much easier but it is not usually the case these days except for those firms in new and emerging industries. Most firms remain very traditionally structured and disciplined and so the book set out to establish a completely different vision of how things could be in both worlds. Trust is essential and exists as a result of equitable transactions between people so that all can benefit from their work together. Once experienced, trust becomes expected and this is what the book was trying to convey, Miles concludes.

Ultimately, personal connections, such as those with ‘trusted buddies’ can be imported into the workplace….as Ray Miles asks “what would you like to have with anyone you work with?”

Kirsten Broadfoot