In Japan, sharing ideas across companies is very much a part of the Japanese culture. The Japanese do believe that there is strength in numbers and I guess the country's innovative ways and products speaks for itself. In Ghana, a small country in West Africa where I come from, once someone starts something different for eg. a new type of business that nobody has every thought of everyone starts to copy that idea so fast that the strength of the purpose of that idea is weakened.
In America and most westernized Cultures, our Culture does not encourage the sharing of ideas and this is because we are selfish when it comes to competition. We want to get ahead of the game but most of the time our ultimate goal is to have control over our product thereby reaping the benefits all by ourselves because we believe that since we created it, then why should we share it?
Big firms here in the U.S should be willing to share ideas in an open setting specifically with people in similar industries and this would open up new doors that they never imagined. I believe that infusing that attitude in our culture will help America get ahead and stay ahead of the rest of the world with regards to industries. This sharing of ideas just like everything else in our lives, should have boundaries. By saying boundaries what do I mean? Corporate "teams" from all similar industries for example the auto industry, should be formed and this way they can share ideas and strengthen their products. What i don't agree with is people pitching their ideas for free, I personally don't think it's fair. Anyone with an innovative idea should be able to pitch it and most importantly reap the benefits from it if the idea becomes successful and this way people will be encouraged to come up with innovative ideas and pitch them knowing well that they will reap the benefits if successful. IBM's "Blue Gene" for example, opened up doors for fantastic things when they decided to put it out there but to encourage other corporations to do the same they should be able to see IBM at least reaping off their benefits.
With regards, to Michael Sampson's article on "collaboration tools," I don't agree that to "implement collaboration tools, no cultural change is needed. There is no way we can implement or infuse new ideas in any society without tweaking or having some sort of effect on the society's culture. Culture is who we are. Culture is the way we think. Culture is what we eat and the way we view life. We are the very definition of culture and for that reason, there cannot be change without affecting our culture. Having said that, America as a country needs to find a way to encourage sharing ideas with ourselves in order to stay ahead of this game called innovation and the only way to do that is not to change our culture but infuse these new way of thinking in our culture.
Minus the Wonk
14 years ago
