To become self sufficient is hard and an entrepreneur cannot grow his business fast and far unless it has the collaborative value. Collaboration is about aligning value, enhancing the capacity and support to achieve goals that advance mutual interests. To get the synergy, collaborative partners should operate in complementary domains.
The collaborative structure can either be hierarchical or flat, professional or general. The collaborative time frame can be ad hoc, short, medium or long term. The fields of collaboration are primarily on innovation or marketing, and intellectual property.
Shared vision aside, the task-based collaborative mission is to prove the collaborative concept with early success stories. For example, one of my vision is to re-create a 'Fragrant Harbour" in Hong Kong eg customers can smell signature scents in professional offices and lifestyle establishments. I would like to collaborate with individuals or businesses that have the capacity to develop the Hong Kong market eg in innovating signature scents for professional or lifestyle brand customers.
I think the value proposition of a flat and professional mode of collaboration should be attractive to startups, as the costs and risk should be low while the intellectual input and the future promise are high. Self-interest and individual actions aside, the common mission is to deploy knowhow to capture, create and deliver value. Furthermore, any probable new business standards eg the use of smell marks as trade identifiers, and customer-oriented sensory marketing practices would advance economic, social and cultural impact!