"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." -- Napoleon Hill, American motivational guru and author of Think and Grow Rich.
Scoring Synergy With Outside Sources |
In chemistry, a "synergistic reaction" occurs when two substances interact to generate a greater effect than either would alone. This can have dangerous consequences, as when bleach and ammonia mix to produce chlorine gas. On the other hand, adding specific impurities to a silicon semiconductor can greatly boost its performance. In a situation like this, the whole proves greater than the sum of the parts.
This principle can apply to human behavior as well. Consider the famous duos of Bezos and Page, Jobs and Wozniak, and Gilbert and Sullivan. Each member's creative, intellectual, and/or entrepreneurial gifts reinforced the others', producing a sum greater than 1 + 1. Admittedly, synergy is never a foregone conclusion in any field of human endeavor, even when the conditions seem perfect. But the potential always exists, assuming those involved complement each other in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities, and make a genuine effort to tap that potential. Interactive Leverage
Synergy need not be limited to members of a single group. Two or more unrelated groups in partnership can also leverage each other's strengths in such a way they profit more from working together than they would have separately. Take the inventors of the ice cream cone: one fellow sold waffles at a World's Fair, while the entrepreneur in the next stall sold ice cream. When the ice cream vendor ran out of cups, he and his neighbor made cones out of thin waffles to hold the treat. The rest is history. Here are a few ingredients conducive to business synergy:
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1. Mutual Benefit. All partners must profit from the association. Even if it's just a relationship between a software business and the vendor supplying its coffee, the business may profit as productivity increases, which may spur them to give the vendor a bonus and introduce them to new buyers; and so synergy blooms on both sides of the relationship.
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2. Complementary Strengths. Each partner must contribute some mix of knowledge, skills, abilities, products, and services the other can leverage successfully. A gunsmith and an ammunition maker, for example, can come together to create a very synergistic relationship.
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3. Sharable Assets. Each partner offers assets the other can leverage: customer lists, vendor relationships, processes, real estate, etc. An all-night call center and a 9-5 travel agency can easily share premises, for example. Businesses can split rental, maintenance, and utilities costs, and even use the same business machines. Both come out ahead because they've saved money, and can use those savings to build their businesses.
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The 2013 STACK Attack! |
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Hotlinks |
Check out my article in Time Management Magazine! The publisher is giving an exclusive deal to all my fans to have 3 months FREE access! Enter current subscriber code: ThreeMonthsFree after clicking the yellow subscribe button! Watch this video for complete details of how to get the magazine and use the code: http://bit.ly/WijNFn |
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