Collaboration is a key driver of overall performance of companies around the world. Its impact is twice as significant as a company's aggressiveness in pursuing new market opportunities and five times as significant as the external market environment.
According to a study, “ Meetings Around the World: The Impact of Collaboration on Business Performace”, conducted by Frost & Sullivan and sponsored by Verizon Business and Microsoft Corp., collaboration can bring new businesses to new heights.
The study also showed that a global culture of collaboration exists, but that there are regional differences in how people in various countries prefer to communicate with one another.
"The results show that collaboration can positively impact each of the gold standards of performance - profitability, profit growth and sales growth - to determine a company's overall performance in the marketplace," said Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D., best-selling author and expert on high-performance virtual collaboration. "As a general rule, global companies that collaborate better, perform better. Those that collaborate less, do not perform as well. It's just that simple."
The study, conducted found that the high impact of collaboration on a company's overall performance was consistent across the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific, and across the six key vertical industries that were examined: healthcare, government, high technology, professional services, financial services and manufacturing.
The Meetings Around the World study found that Asia-Pac (Australia, Hong Kong & Japan) professionals plan their communications more than their European (France, Germany & UK) and U.S. counterparts. They stay in constant touch with colleagues and partners and act on opportunities immediately. Asia-Pac leads the world in telecommuting. People in Asia-Pac view collaboration tools such as conferencing as a necessity.
The Meetings Around the World study found that Asia-Pac (Australia, Hong Kong & Japan) professionals plan their communications more than their European (France, Germany & UK) and U.S. counterparts.
They stay in constant touch with colleagues and partners and act on opportunities immediately. PAC leads the world in telecommuting. People in APAC view collaboration tools such as conferencing as a necessity.
The majority of Asia-Pac professionals plan their communication with others in advance and leads with 55%, followed by Europe 42%, U.S. 44%.
Fig. 1: Importance of Planning
Asia-Pac decision makers want to stay in touch spontaneously, when possible, and are more predisposed versus those from other regions to rely on the phone to get work done. This manifests itself in their relatively greater comfort level with and positive attitude toward the phone. While all regions prefer e-mailing, Asia-Pac leads the way in instant messaging, a reflection of their greater preference for realtime, interactive communication. APAC leads in asic phone service with 47% followed by Europe 19% and the U.S. 20%.
Fig 2: Preference of Staying Connected Through Phone
People in APAC like Americans, telecommute at about twice the rate of Europe. Seventy-six percent of people in Asia-Pac like the ability to work from anywhere (home, office, hotel room). Over half say that if it were possible, they would do most of their work from home (using the telephone, online services, or other means). Asia Pacific stands at 28 percent, U.S at 25% and Europe at 10%.
Fig: 3: Preference of Telecommuting
People in Asia-Pac have a high opinion of conferencing. Nearly four in 10 think conferencing is
indispensable, and they lead the other two regions in highest number of new users. They also lead the way in feeling that meetings conducted via conference can be more productive than meeting face-to-face. The preference of conferencing in Asia Pacific is at 38%, Europe at 31% and U.S. at 35%.
Fig.4: Preference of Teleconferencing
People everywhere are stretched for time, but Asia-Pac professionals were more likely to feel that they are over-booked for meetings. However, Asia-Pac execs are less likely to voice a need for times when they don’t want to be reached and will do what it takes to stay connected. Here, again APAC leads with 45%, followed by U.S. at 40% and Europe at 38%.
Fig. 4: Stretched for Time
Globalization has impacted people all over the world. Despite cultural differences, business people in Asia-Pac, Europe and U.S. regions share a common business environment. Competition is intense, and people lead very busy professional lives. Globally, nearly seven out of 10 must collaborate with people in different locations.
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