The discussion around the sharing of business intelligence leads to
consideration of the value of industry-specific business associations. One
of the roles of such associations is to provide a forum where competitors
can meet together to share information and launch joint action beneficial
to their industry as a whole. Supporters of these associations see them as
vehicles through which an industry becomes stronger and more competitive
by "raising the bar" in such areas as quality, productivity, standards,
employee relations, and ethics. They are far more than lobby groups. While
competitive pressures sometimes impede cooperation, there are many areas
of sharing and common action short of broadcasting "trade secrets". Some
neutral third parties, such as The Conference Board of Canada, have
continuing member forums in areas such as human resource management. The
purpose of those forums is to share information on best practices, set up
benchmarking exercises, etc.
There is clearly great potential for associations to become useful liaison
mechanisms among individual "learning organizations".
--John Butcher Associates in Planning Inc. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada jbutcher@magmacom.com
=========================== John Butcher Associates in Planning Inc. Ottawa, Canada jbutcher@magmacom.com ===========================
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>