Businesses that do not collaborate will be fine.
They can rest, moored up, in their backwaters and the idyllic lagoons that they know so well.
From just over the bank will come the sound of white water. Here, the river courses over the rocks and challenges of the marketplace. And there is another sound. It is the sound of excitement, innovation, creativity and the euphoria of entrepreneurs and leaders riding the rapids.
These foolish, reckless businesses have not turned away from the challenges of the marketplace, The sleepy backwater is not for them, nor the dry dock to preserve or repair their position. It is almost as if they are drawn to raging torrent of the river, to the chaos and the thrill of the ride; as if the currents that carry them along had seduced them with the promise of adventure, new shores, treasures and markets further upstream. For them, these swirling eddies hold the promise of new perspectives.
They know that as they journey along this turbulent tide that they are just one of a fleet of companies taking this ride together.
They know that the rocks and currents will throw them together with competitors and unexpected partners from other sectors.
From time to time they may lash themselves together and explore how their combined mass enables them to better navigate the chaos, to ride even faster or build and launch entirely new vessels into the marketplace.
The journey will not be easy, but it will be exhilarating, and as they emerge changed but strengthened at the end of the rapids, they will look back at what they learned and where they came from, and they will look forwards to the new horizons ahead. They will look around themselves at the new acquaintances they have made, the partnerships they have formed and the lessons and new products borne by that journey they have shared together.
And what of the businesses that chose not to collaborate? Well, they are still fine.
As we look back, far beyond us, we can just make out their masts as they remain, still, unmoving and untroubled, in their peaceful, idyllic lagoon. And now, that peacefulness is almost perfect.
The white waters that surged past them have now abated leaving nothing but dry rocks.
The euphoric din of those other companies recklessy riding and colliding together through the maelstrom has long faded as they coursed many, many miles ahead. The silence is now almost complete interrupted only by the whispered but persistent question being asked repeatedly;
“Where did everybody go?”
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