An industry founded upon collaboration

As was noted earlier, it is not practical to move gradually from one paradigm to another. There are no in between steps. The change from one perspective to another is a quantum jump, a leap from one way of thinking to another. This is why it is so difficult to envisage a collaborative way of working from within a cooperative framework. To make the necessary paradigm shift, we need some kind of example to show how it works in practice. If we can find such an example, we can think from inside that framework to apply the principles to e-business.

In fact, it is not difficult to find examples of successful collaboration at work; there is a whole industry based upon collaboration: the movie industry. Although there are some very important differences (which we shall deal with later) there are also many parallels with the current world of e-business.

(Note: the descriptions of the movie industry that are used in this book are not meant to apply universally. Like any complex industry there will be many different ways things are done. The descriptions are selective, to extract only the particular aspects of the film industry that are comparable to situations in the world of e-business).

Movie making, like e-business, covers a very wide range of different subject areas and includes huge variations in scale: movies vary from the multi million dollar block busters to small technical documentaries. Despite these variations in subject matter and scale, there is a similarity in the way all movies are created and produced. This is not to say that all movies are made the same way, or, that there is a common set of rules; the common factor is that they can all be produced through collaboration rather than cooperation . It is this aspect that we are interested in here.

The key to understanding the organisational structure of movie making is to realise that the success of any movie cannot be predicted in advance. Having star actors or actresses does not guarantee success, neither is success inevitable if there is a great script, an expert camera crew, brilliant sets or extraordinary graphics and special effects. Not even millions of dollars of finance can ensure a movie will be successful and even the most talented directors and world famous producers can have their failures.

The movie business is about handling risk and uncertainty. It is about intense competition and pleasing customers. In this sense the movie business is very similar to e-business so it can be expected that there is much that e-business entrepreneurs can learn from the techniques that have evolved during a century of movie making experience.