As the business landscape in Australia continues to evolve and we all look for ways to be more efficient, more accurate, more competitive and more profitable there is a rising tide of collaboration which is a great thing indeed.
More and more businesses, especially in the consulting and services sector are having to run very lean operations and as they come under cost pressure. An unexpected outcome of this has been the sharp rise in syndication where talented smaller businesses either come together to pitch for a major piece of work or even more commonly, participate in a large project as subject matter experts for specific workstreams where their involvement fills in the capability gaps for the senior bidding firm.
This makes for some fantastic outcomes on all sides:
- Smaller firms can participate more often in large, complex projects without the risk of having to run substantial payrolls to "get in the game" which builds their sustainability.
- Diverse thinking within projects - when effectively managed - supports innovation, proven best practice across multiple sectors and strong peer review.
- The end user experience is favourable and clients can access impressive outcomes.
- The team of strong individual contributors creates energy and vibrancy beyond the sum of the parts.
This is not at all the death knell for the major global consultancies, their reach and capability proven over successive generations has quite rightly placed them where they are. It is however a positive development that favours the entrepreneurial spirit of many of the young Irish professionals in Australia who have a desire to strike out on their own and create economic activity but fear the loss of a vibrant team enviroment and having to work on lesser assignments.
Collaboration is key in a successful business environment and is of great importance to us at the chamber as well.
This month will see us partner with the ABCC on two major events around the Lions Tour (that's the British & Irish Lions, more co-operation!), we have members travelling overseas who will be teaming up with our contacts back in Ireland, we will participate in activities with sister organisations and we will continue to reach out across the Irish Australian business community and beyond in order to further the aims of our members.
Each of us can do great things individually but we can all do more as part of a team, part of a chamber and part of a business community. We are better together.
