公司也要成为社交达人
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不论在世界的哪个角落，我们购买的品牌服装背后都有一家鲜为人知的公司——利丰公司（Li & Fung）。这家总部位于中国的企业拥有一个全球性的服装工业供应链网络，其中包括10,000多家商业合作伙伴。 利丰之所以让人印象深刻，不仅仅是因为它的规模和多样化。如果有人问起利丰的合作伙伴，为什么要加入利丰的网络，他们给出的首要原因是，与单打独斗或加入其他网络相比，加入这个网络，他们可以学得更快。利丰非常清楚，在一个竞争异常激烈的行业，帮助业务合作伙伴不断提高，对于保持持续的优势至关重要。 二十世纪七十年代，冯国经与冯国纶两兄弟接管了这家家族企业，从那时起，他们便开始着手进行公司的转型，使其成为一个老练的组织者，管理着一个覆盖全球的、庞大的供应链网络。在这个增长缓慢的传统行业，利丰一直保持两位数的增长速度。 利丰从服装厂挖掘管理人才，组成公司的管理核心，这是它成功转型的根本原因。利丰的管理人员只需花15分钟在制造商的工厂里走上一圈，就可以摸清它的生产能力，即使工厂经理说的是另一套。 通过这一用人举措，同时，基于两方面的关键因素，利丰获得了潜在合作伙伴的信任，并与他们共同确立了学习流程。首先，利丰的潜在合作伙伴意识到，坐在谈判桌对面的人对己方的运营状况知根知底，没法做手脚，必须本着诚信的原则进行合作。其次，潜在合作伙伴也开始看到，对方在服装制造行业见多识广，己方有机会从对方身上学到东西 ，或许还可以根据对方提供的见解，改善自己的运营。 利丰公司的商业合作伙伴网络代表了一种理想的动态商业生态系统，即不同市场参与者组织在一起，互相协助，共同完善。这种生态系统可以充分利用多家公司的资源和能力，支持组织者以及其他参与者的商业计划。这种生态系统的组织者不是以僵化的眼光看待公司的资源，而是致力于帮助体系参与者加快学习的速度，稳步提升公司的业绩，使现有的资源实现增值。 许多公司高管都非常清楚，通过与其他公司合作可以达到事半功倍的效果。但是商业合作伙伴通常只能通过律师和公司的业务发展类型来了解公司，对公司的运营情况却知之甚少。原因在于，我们通常以静止地眼光看待合作伙伴能为我们提供的资源。这样，问题就迅速变成了如何切分现有的“蛋糕”，因此需要谈判高手来确保我们获得尽可能多的利益。 静态 vs. 动态商业生态系统 作为最常见的商业合作类型，静态生态系统存在先天的缺陷，即无法充分挖掘参与者的潜力。公司高管建立这种系统是因为他们意识到与第三方合作的价值，这一点是值得肯定的；但同时，静态的生态系统认定建立合作关系的潜在利益是有限的——这种利益固定不变，唯一的任务就是找出利益所在、占有利益。当然，要使这种有限的生态系统有效运行，所有参与者必须有利可图，比如可以获得互补产品或服务，或者有价值的信息等。 静态生态系统通常采用中心辐射型组织结构，在这种结构中，参与者与组织者保持双向沟通，但与同一系统的其他参与者却很少有联系。组织者也不会投入时间和精力来培养参与者的能力。结果，在这种生态系统中，个体参与者的学习主要是通过事后的思考孤立进行的。 即使最受欢迎的大众外包方法也是一种静态生态系统。组织者从中获得的利益远远高于参与者。例如，网飞公司（Netflix）希望通过大奖赛的形式获得更有效的客户推荐运算法则，而截至目前，主要的受益人是网飞公司自身。 在动态生态系统里，更多的合作伙伴之间可以交换信息，相互学习。因此，可以为市场提供的总价值将以更快的速度增加，进而创造更大的经济“蛋糕”，供所有参与者共同分享。在这种系统中，每个参与者很少因为利益分配发生争执。参与者之间彼此学到的越多，相互的信任度便会越高，进而形成一个良性循环。 静态系统倾向于培养“零和”世界观——即一方有所得，另一方必然有所失。这种世界观不鼓励彼此的信任，会破坏长久合作的基础。 如何建立动态商业生态系统 公司可以从传统的静态生态系统出发，逐步建立信任，创造相互学习的机会。100多年前，利丰在创立之初扮演的便是一个传统的“月老”角色——将西方服装设计师介绍给中国的制造商，从中收取佣金，而合作的方式则由双方自行确定。 或许在最开始可以采取这样的温和措施：将双方的业务主管人员介绍给彼此，推动双方制定出绩效改良方案（而不仅仅是降低成本），由双方共同执行。 如果企业想要发展自己的商业生态系统，应该把自己当作派对的主人。如果第一批到场的客人聪明迷人，那么，很容易就能吸引到其他人参与其中。当然，不能停留在这个阶段，而应该把客人介绍给彼此认识，使他们可以相互学习，同时提出有趣的问题来作为谈论的话题。动态生态系统正如这种派对——它们要求公司付出更多的努力，但回报也同样惊人。
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Behind many of the labels on clothing we buy in stores throughout the world, there is a company few know about -- Li & Fung. This company, based in China, runs a global supply network for the apparel industry that includes more than 10,000 business partners. It is not just the scale and diversity of this network that is impressive. If you ask Li & Fung's business partners why they are part of this network, the top reason they offer is that they learn faster as part of this network than they ever could on their own or as part of any other network. Li & Fung understands that helping their business partners improve is a key to building a sustainable advantage in an extremely competitive industry. Two brothers -- Victor and William Fung took over the family business in the mid-1970s and began to transform it into a sophisticated organizer of a vast, global network of companies. Li & Fung has enjoyed a sustained history of double-digit growth in a traditionally low growth business. The company's transformation largely stems from its decision to hire a cadre of former managers of apparel manufacturing plants. These folks could do a 15-minute walk-through of a manufacturer and tell you exactly what the plant could do, even if the manager was claiming otherwise. With this move, Li & Fung built trust and launched the learning process with its potential partners for two critical reasons. The prospective Li & Fung partner realized that the person sitting on the other side of the table had a deep understanding of its operations, so they couldn't pull a fast one on them and they needed to play it straight. The prospective partner also began to see that there was an opportunity to learn from someone who had seen a lot of different manufacturing operations and could probably provide interesting insight on how to up their own operations game. Li & Fung's network of business partners represents an ideal example of a dynamic business ecosystem, a gathering of companies where different players help each other get better faster by working together. These ecosystems take advantage of the strengths and capabilities of many companies to support the business initiatives of their organizers and other participants. Rather than treating the resources of these companies as fixed, the organizers of these ecosystems are dedicated to finding ways to help participants learn faster so that they can steadily improve their performance and increase the value of their resources. While many executives understand that they can do more with less by connecting with other companies, our business partners often only see us through the lawyers and business development types that may know very little about the operational aspects of the businesses they are dealing with. That's because we generally take a static view of the resources available from our partners. With a static view, the issue quickly becomes who gets what share of the existing pie, hence the need for skilled negotiators to make sure we get as much as we can. Static vs. dynamic business ecosystems Static ecosystems are the most common type of business collaboration, but they often do not take full advantage of the participant's potential. Executives establish these ecosystems when they realize the value of connecting with third parties. That's fine, but it assumes that the potential benefits of setting up a relationship are finite -- they are what they are and the only task is to find them and take advantage of them. Of course, for even these limited ecosystems to work, all participants must find some value in participating, such as access to complementary products or services, or valuable information. Static ecosystems are typically organized in a hub and spoke fashion, where participants maintain two-way communication with the organizer but have little contact with other participants in the same community. The organizer invests little time and effort in developing the capabilities of participants. As a result, any learning in such an ecosystem is largely an after-thought, driven by individual participants working in isolation. Even the popular method of crowdsourcing operates as a static ecosystem. It benefits the organizer much more than the contributors. Netflix (NFLX) was, by far, the main beneficiary of its contest to gain a better recommendation algorithm for customers, for example. With dynamic ecosystems, however, as more partners exchange information and learn from each other, the total value that can be delivered to the market grows at a much more rapid rate, creating a rapidly expanding economic pie that can be distributed among participants. In that kind of world, there are far fewer battles over who gets what split of the pie. The more participants learn from each other, the more they trust each other, spawning a virtuous circle. Static ecosystems tend to foster a "zero-sum" view of the world -- if you win, I will have to lose. This view doesn't encourage trust and undermines any efforts to keep the collaboration alive. How to build a dynamic business ecosystem You can start with a conventional static ecosystem and take incremental steps to build trust and learning opportunities. Li & Fung started over 100 years ago as a conventional matchmaker ecosystem -- Li &Fung would introduce one Western apparel designer to one Chinese manufacturer, take a commission and leave it to the two parties to find ways to collaborate. Perhaps a first, modest step would be to introduce operating line managers from both sides to each other and urge them to come up performance improvement initiatives (not just cost reductions) that they could pursue together. As you look to develop your own business ecosystems, think of yourself as the host of an exciting party. The initial guests, if they are smart and engaging, will make it easier to attract others. But don't stop there -- introduce guests to each other who might be able to learn from each other and pose an interesting question to get the conversation started. Dynamic ecosystems are like those kinds of parties -- they require a lot more work but the rewards can be quite phenomenal. |
