Is business convergence the key to strategic success?

 

Gone are the days that enterprises rely solely on themselves to stimulate profits. While it may have been acceptable to have an ‘us against the world’ mentality in the past, collaboration is king in the modern enterprise environment.

Progressive partnerships

Consumers are more demanding than ever and ultimately want their lives streamlined and personal and work activities amalgamated. Companies that don’t seek to aid them in achieving just that will likely be left behind. What’s the answer? More progressive partnerships with other organizations, across sectors.

“Many companies such as Google are moving out of their traditional business areas to form new partnerships and new solutions. Customers are not interested in silo based services anymore,” explained Koh Eng Lok, Country Head, Thailand at Frost & Sullivan.

Crossing the boundaries of sector

Companies should look to build agreements with their peers, and make this practice a habit built into their strategy execution. Furthermore, any working relationships should cross the boundaries of industry, with the most forward-thinking companies willing to integrate their offerings as best as possible with others.

Frost & Sullivan foresee a lot more partnerships between energy, security, IT, healthcare, automotive and other sectors,” Mr Koh added.

A further sector that could be greatly affected by more collaboration is marketing. According to Scott Goodson – founder of movement marketing agency StrawberryFrog – convergence is the future of the industry.

In an article published by Forbes, Mr Goodson goes on to explain that “businesses throughout the world are discovering that convergence is fast-becoming a key business model”.

More collaboration is likely to present increased profitability due to the number of relationships that can be built being directly proportional to the amount of potential new customers. Partnerships offer the ability to increase the quality of each party’s products, while also allowing access to more markets.

Convergence is very much an issue for today, with the businesses entering into progressive relationships with others now likely to get ahead and stay there in the future.