The Economics of Collaboration – the Dealer Network January 20, 2009
Posted by Dan Herman in Auto, Collaboration, Economics.Tags: Auto, Collaboration, Economics, Industry
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Amongst the things making news today is the hook-up between Italian carmaker Fiat, and struggling, if not near-dead, American icon, Chrysler. The deal, if approved, would give the Italian auto maker a 35 per cent stake in Chrysler. Given that some believe that Chrysler has a book value near zero, one might question how much that stake is actually worth.
But the actual deal between the two is less about cash then it is about technology exchange and access to their respective dealerships. Fiat, for example, is keen to bring its line of compact cars to the US, and is willing to trade access to its successful small-car platforms and fuel-efficient technologies to do so. Seems like a high price to pay for real estate, non? (more…)
Workplace democracy November 24, 2008
Posted by Dan Herman in Management, Technology.Tags: Collaboration, Management, Technology
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Would you be willing to have your colleagues decide on how much you make and what value you bring to the organization?
This type of radical transparency is bound to make a lot of people uncomfortable but it’s exactly the type of visibility that employees at Semco, a Brazilian industrial manufacturing company, have into the operations of the company.
Employees set their own wages, productivity targets, schedules and even choose their managers. Moreover, for important strategic decisions Semco each of the company’s 3000 employees votes – whether it’s about a merger, an acquisition, or plant relocations. For other less strategic discussions employees have two open seats on the Board of Directors that anybody can occupy on a first-come first serve basis. And finally in order to stimulate new ideas, the company holds a monthly “idea meeting” to put creative employees in touch with those with budgetary control – an internal VC club.
Key to enabling this culture (more…)
The Eco-Patent Commons September 19, 2008
Posted by Dan Herman in Collaboration, Environment, Technology.Tags: Collaboration, Environment, Technology
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Back in January, nGenera colleague Derek penned an interesting post on the Eco-Patent Commons, a consortium of large private sector organizations each of whom pledged to release a portfolio of dozens of environmentally focused patents to the public domain. As many of these patents have been lying dormant in the R&D labs of these companies, releasing them to the public as a means of seeing whether outside experts might be able to do something with them carries little risk. But it does mark a departure from the usual process of monetizing unused IP/patents. In fact, given the thrust towards green-tech and environmental sustainability you might question why you’d give up valuable IP in this space, and subsequently one might question the quality/value of these now available patents. (more…)
