A CMM for collaborative networks

Over the last year months a group of cluster facilitators and network coaches in Northern Ireland, including myself, have been working under the auspices of the Cluster Facilitators Forum, to try and develop a non-proprietary open model to guide how collaboration can develop between businesses through clusters and networks.

Schtuff and Writeboard provide good wiki functionality for free

The wiki market is maturing nicely with the arrival of some excellent hosted wiki services which are totally free within average levels of usage. Two of these free wikis which caught my attention are Schtuff from JanRain Inc and Writeboard from 37 signals.

Unique Jam event will focus the collective brainpower of virtual crowds on the world’s worst problems

From December 1-3, the Habitat JAM online event will bring together tens of thousands of people from around the world to discuss and debate some of the most urgent and controversial issues that face our rapidly urbanizing planet:

The world’s first international standard for managing collaborative business relationships is to be developed by the British Standards Institution (BSI) in collaboration with PSL (a joint DTI and CBI 'not-for-profit' venture).

It will provide a framework for businesses to manage their internal and external relationships effectively within their supply chains.

Frank Post, Marketing Director of British Standards said,

Collaboration is one of the 6 key areas being exploited by Web Smart 50 companies

Businessweek reports in The Web Smart 50 that..."the Web is not only cool again: It's hot. Sure, this time around it's different. The excitement, so vaporous in the bubble years, now pays dividends in hard coin. Productivity soars, costs plunge, and new markets come to life".

How to identify someones main worry about a coming change. I found this technique in a book a long time ago – "The Secret Language of Success: Using Body Language to Get What You Want" by Dr. David Lewis (1989). I confess I never got round to testing it properly but it sounded intriguing so I pass it on - "buyer beware".

The Observer reports in “Nurses' co-op to bid for NHS work”, by Nick Mathiason on Sunday November 13, that throughout the country doctors and dentists are beginning to form themselves into employee-owned co-operatives in a bid to win contracts from National Health Service commissioners. But they are finding it hard, as there appears to be a bias towards giving work to mainstream businesses’.

I presented "Virtual Enterprise Networks - A proven network partnering model for SMEs" at the 14th National Quality Conference in Istanbul, Turkey on Thursday November 17, 2005.

Here is a collection of my 7 most popular articles on collaborative and virtual business networks based on user feedback and page views:

The Jack Welsh approach to change management

At recent Institute of Directors lunch for 600 business leaders in London Jack Welch, former head of GE and voted the most respected business leader of all time, when asked about the relative importance of right values versus making the numbers said: