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"Collaboration" Examples

Innovation is a team sport. While one person might come up with a blockbuster idea, in today's organizations it takes the collaboration of lots of people to successfully implement the idea. For instance, in an unprecedented display of collaboration, a group of programmers around the world decided to create a new computer operating system. The result is Linux, perhaps the only serious threat to Microsoft's Windows.

Several years ago, Marshall Industries, a major electronics distributing company, discovered that compensation systems can inadvertently create barriers to collaboration. This led them to the elimination of all individual incentive systems including sales commissions and promotions. The resulting collaboration jumpstarted a series of innovations that has rocketed Marshall into a new level of success, including being named as one of the top ten internet companies.

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