Understanding differences in nature of supplier collaboration

Integration may mean different things to different organisations. For instance large companies in the automotive sector have thousands of customers in many parts of the world. Clearly within this large pool of individuals there will be many with ideas for improvement, there will be others who can advise on the process of improving, and there will be many that simply want to use the product and are not interested in more involvement.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are project based companies, eg construction or software developers, who use their skills and knowledge to develop a solution to for one customer. In such cases the processes used to engage with open innovation are likely to be significantly more collaborative and supported by closer relationships.

As you go through this video, ask yourself:

• Which aspects of collaboration have you found yourself in (as a customer or as a supplier)?
• How do you think processes can be developed for benefiting from this integration?
• Are there any other types of collaboration?