Working Together To Solve The Problem

Drastic and immediate has been the impact of this invisible Covid-19 virus on business great and small. Ever since mid-March, it has been attacking the way we all conduct our business. As an entrepreneur, what has been your reaction? 

I will not name names, but some businesses have shown their true colours in deciding to profiteer at a time when household incomes have never been under higher pressure. But there's also been some great examples of people and brands coming together.

I was discussing this topic with my friend and great collaborator Warren Cass. We were recording for the Collaboration Junkie Podcast (coming soon!), and he brought up the awesome example of two HUGE brands getting it right - Apple and Google, but also an interwoven conflicting example of someone getting it badly wrong.

As he put it:

Rather than the usual territorial, protective nature of tech brands (because they do not want to share code and anything like that), what they have done is come together to work on solving the problem of contact tracing.

And they’re not actually profiting from it. What they get is the goodwill because they are doing the right thing. It is a social responsibility for the corporations but, it is more than that.

I really admire the fact that in times of crisis, these two tech giants can put their differences aside and actually collaborate on solving a problem. I like to think that is the best part of humanity.

But it also makes me frown upon the UK government for not saying, “Yes, let’s embrace these two tech giants which the vast majority of the world use and respect” Instead, they focus on developing an app by themselves which nobody downloads. Absolute stupidity.

Here’s my thoughts on why I think this is such a great example

I believe that in Apple and Googles case it’s the absolute essence of a collaborative mindset.

Even with the looming recession bearing down on us, we live in a time of plenty. Great partnerships create more abundance as they are higher than the sum of their part, and these two brands have come together, creating something that solves a problem and has a positive impact on the wider world – an ideal outcome in my eyes.

Collaboration not competition

Partnering makes you stronger, it allows you to adapt in a changing landscape quickly and take advantage of opportunities that arise – imagine the amount of moving parts required to get this one ‘green lighted’ by two of the biggest brands on the planet. If they can do it then we all can. 

Credibility by association

Not that either of these two tech giants needs much more profile, or credibility - but the fact is, that the scale of the collaboration makes you sit up and take notice. It gets more traction than if just one of them had created the app.

That’s the power of partnerships.

It’s not all good news though. A quick footnote on the UK Government deciding that going their own route instead of working in partnership was the best idea. How’s that gone?

Power to the partnership!