At this point, it is necessary to rethink what a Collaborative Model is, and which characteristics must a certain initiative have in order to be consider based on this model.
- In the first place, the model must seek to relate the different but complementary needs of two or more individuals, in such a way that the satisfaction of the need of one individual supposes the satisfaction of the need of the other. Thus, for example, if I need to buy something and you need to sell it, our relationship meets this condition.
- Secondly, it must be a model based on individuals. If in the previous example if those who buy and sell are companies, the relationship will be a business one, but not collaborative; equally if one of the parties is a company, because it will continue to be a business model, governed by business rules. It doesn’t mind that they are not any company or organization; probably someone has to organize it, since even purely collaborative models require an infrastructure that can hardly come out of nowhere.
This individualistic nature is necessary to guarantee two of the basic pillars of any collaborative model:
– Equality between individuals on the same side: my offer must be, or must be able to be, equivalent to yours, without producing a manifest inequality.
– Freedom to set the conditions under which the service is provided, or the property is transferred.
- Thirdly, if there is an intermediary, it must have some basic characteristics in order to continue talking about a collaborative model:
- Its work must be that of a mere connector, not acting as a filter, selector of interveners or playing as a conditioning factor about who may or may not participate in the process (beyond as guarantor of the rules of the game and as supervisor of the maintenance of legal guarantees).
- Its compensation should be the minimum possible and, in any case, not distort the balance of power between the parties. This means that a company can develop a business based on a collaborative model, but its business benefit cannot distort the operations between the parties, because if not, each operation splits into two: one part with the company and the company with the other part.
- Its tasks must focus on guaranteeing the balance between the parties, establishing the mechanisms and rules to ensure that no part, with a relevant situation in the process, cannot distort the model.
- Additionally, the intermediary must complete those aspects that the parties alone cannot cover, from organizational and legal to functional aspects, adding functionalities that the parties are not interested in covering, but which are necessary for the model to work.
- Of course, the intermediary cannot be linked, at all, with any of the parties or with any of the interveners
- Finally, any collaborative model should incorporate, at least in part, the self-management of the parties. With the individuals self-managing of the organization or having presence in decision-making, through different mechanisms. Articulating this aspect can be one of the most complicated task in any collaborative model, but it guarantees a management in which the interests of the parties are always present
Having the answers to our questions, we began to design and develop DreamRoom, the first Entrepreneurial Collaborative Ecosystem, and you are welcome to discover it!
DreamRoom Team ©DreamRoom2022
