Skip to content
Technology & Innovation —

Companies Collaborating, and Online

A positive outcome of global economic meltdown is that corporations are increasingly working together for social change, and many are harnessing social networks to do so.
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

What’s the Latest Development?

An exciting trend to emerge from the fallout of the global economic crisis is a heightened awareness of connectivity, both offline and online, in the corporate sphere. And thanks to the Internet and social media, more people than ever are getting involved in positive change. The rise of corporate collaboration falls into four broad categories: increased involved in socially transformative thinking or actions; partnerships for change; direct participation with NGOs; and working to assist governments.

What’s the Big Idea?

“These cross-sector collaborations demonstrate the recognition by all parties that the challenges we face are now too large, complex and deeply entrenched for any individual, company or government to fix alone. Each effort is an inspiring example of how we can find and apply smarter scalable solutions if we chose to adopt a ‘We First’ attitude and build a better world together.”

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people
Related
Guest Thinkers
Happy New Year
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth). Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay. Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
Surprising Science
Business Model innovation for the Health Insurance Provider
Our idea offers a solution for how the for-profit health insurance provider business model can be innovated on to not only allow for active participation and collaboration by policyholders in the creation of value, generate additional revenue and help finance the cost of health plans, but also provide for the realization of an improved, and invariably more productive alignment of interests and strategies across the entire healthcare value network.
Surprising Science
Business Model innovation for the Health Insurance Provider
Our idea offers a solution for how the for-profit health insurance provider business model can be innovated on to not only allow for active participation and collaboration by policyholders in the creation of value, generate additional revenue and help finance the cost of health plans, but also provide for the realization of an improved, and invariably more productive alignment of interests and strategies across the entire healthcare value network.
Up Next