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Deloitte Au Dae Collaborative Economy Google Report 2014
Deloitte Au Dae Collaborative Economy Google Report 2014
Deloitte Au Dae Collaborative Economy Google Report 2014
Google
2014
Contents
Executive Summary
1 Introduction
2 What is collaboration?
13
13
14
16
17
18
23
25
25
28
3.4 Innovation
29
30
3.6 Growth
32
3.7 Profitability
34
37
37
38
39
40
42
5 Collaboration trends
45
45
47
48
6 Collaboration strategy
51
52
58
59
61
Appendix A : References
65
Appendix B : Methodology
68
What is collaboration?
Collaboration is employees communicating and
working together, building on each others ideas to
produce something new or do something differently.
A collaborative organisation unlocks the potential,
capacity and knowledge of every employee,
thereby generating value, innovation and improving
productivity in its workplace.
WORKING TOWARDS
SHARED GOAL
EXTRACTING
KNOWLEDGE AND IDEAS
CREATING
VALUE
UNLOCKING POTENTIAL
COMMUNICATION
BUILDING ON WORK
AND IDEAS IN AN
ITERATIVE WAY
PEOPLE WORKING
TOGETHER
Main Findings
The Collaborative Economy
Australias collaborative economy is worth $46 billion
Collaboration could be worth an extra $9 billion a year by improving strategies
Executive summary
Google commissioned Deloitte Access Economics
and Deloitte Digital to prepare a report on
collaboration in Australian workplaces. It builds on
previous reports commissioned by Google on the
value of the internet to the economy and the role
of digital technologies in modern workplaces.
This report assesses collaboration in the Australian
workplace and provides insights on how
organisations can respond to emerging trends in
collaboration. The report considers key aspects
of the role collaboration plays in the modern
economy, including its value to the economy,
benefits for business and employees, as well as its
barriers and difficulties.
What is collaboration?
Collaboration means different things to different
people and there are a range of views on the
meaning of collaboration, with perspectives
varying between company leaders, government
and academia. There are also different views
across disciplines, including economics,
information technology and the creative arts. At
the same time, the form of collaborative activities
varies according to context be it a traditional
business, a start-up firm or an education and
learning environment.
Canvassing a raft of definitions and case studies,
this report identifies seven pervasive and essential
elements of workplace collaboration. The seven
elements interact and complement each other to
deliver the optimal collaboration outcomes.
Putting this in context, workplace collaboration
is employees communicating and working
together, building on each others ideas to provide
something new or do something differently. A
collaborative organisation unlocks the potential,
capacity and knowledge of every employee,
thereby generating value, innovation and
improving productivity in its workplace.
Collaboration is everywhere
32%
No Change
32%
0
20
23%
4%
60%
40
Workspace
Design
Culture &
Governance
Technology
Workplace design
Technology
Social interactions
Break-out space
Telephones
Kitchen
Meeting rooms
Smartphones
Diversity
Small offices
Video conference
Collaboration strategy
Outdoor areas
Social media
Intensity of interactions
Workplace hierarchy
Network policy
Electronic document
management systems
05
Make collaboration
a strategic
business focus
Changing culture
with the right
incentives
A tailored
implementation
Ensuring effective
collaboration
1 Introduction
Google commissioned Deloitte Access Economics
and Deloitte Digital to prepare a report on
collaboration in Australian workplaces. It builds on
previous reports commissioned by Google on the
value of the internet to the economy and the role
of digital technologies in modern workplaces.
Collaboration in workplaces has many contexts.
Our starting point for looking at collaboration
is the economy. With a range of emerging
pressures on businesses the need to respond to
digital disruption, lift productivity, and be more
innovative leaders and managers are looking for
new ways to stay competitive in the marketplace.
In many ways, collaboration is nothing new it
is simply about employers and managers working
together to come up with better ideas. But ask
people what collaboration is or why it is beneficial
and you will get a multitude of different answers.
Thats why defining collaboration is the first
task of this report. We also try and measure
collaboration, and quantify its benefits for
businesses and the economy.
Business
benefits
Time saving
Quality & innovation
Employees & profitability
Jobs & employment
Economic
benefits
Labour-input measure
Productivity, quality
Potential for the future
Collaboration
across the economy
Age & gender
Industry & occupation
Trends & tools
Collaboration
strategy
Features & importance
Links to activity
Barriers
Next steps
What is collaboration?
2 What is collaboration?
Collaboration in workplaces is
a common feature of business
strategies around Australia and the
world.
Collaboration is widely discussed in business
literature as important for driving innovation and
productivity in firms. It is common for business
leaders to argue that collaboration is important for
the long term success of their company.
However, the very core elements of collaboration
that differentiate it from mere co-operation, teamwork or communication are difficult to define.
Does time spent in a meeting automatically qualify
as a collaborative activity, even if everyone in
the room has the same initial viewpoint, or if no
meaningful outcome is achieved? Is collaboration
different from teamwork, and if so, how? This
chapter provides a framework for understanding
the fundamentals of collaboration that answer
these types of questions.
In this section we survey the different perspectives
on collaboration, collaborative workplaces in
action and the essential elements of collaboration.
13
15
Staff
Managers
60
50
40
30
20
10
Te
am
w
or
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Sh
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ul
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ia
17
1
PEOPLE
WORKING
TOGETHER
2
EXTRACTING
KNOWLEDGE
& IDEAS
3
COMMUNICATION
19
Communication
Collaboration also requires communication. As
noted above, the form of communication is
flexible, such that interactions may occur through
discussions face-to-face, over the phone or online,
preferably in real time, but sometimes also with a
time lag. What is critical is some form of reciprocal
interaction between people. Leveraging someone
elses idea from an online knowledge portal does
not constitute collaboration, as communication is
lacking.
BUILDING ON
WORK & IDEAS
IN AN ITERATIVE
WAY
5
UNLOCKING
POTENTIAL
6
WORKING
TOWARDS
SHARED GOAL
7
CREATING
VALUE
Business benefits of
collaboration
This research paper finds that collaboration has a range
of commercial benefits for business.
23
5%
Not important
18%
4%
Dont know
16%
26%
Somewhat
important
Impossible to
work withouth
collaboration
Takes longer to
do my work
Critical
49%
35%
Very important
25
23%
24%
Same amount
of time
Source: Deloitte UK
News Corp Australia: doing things once and working across geographies
News Corp is a global, diversified media and
information services company. Headquartered in
New York, its activities are conducted primarily
in the United States, Australia, and the United
Kingdom.
27
9%
18%
14%
59%
No change in quality
Quality of work improved
I could not produce the same quality on my own
Dont know
Source: Deloitte Access Economics,
Stancombe Research and Planning (2014)
3.4 Innovation
An innovative solution is often a combination of
ideas, from conception to delivery. Robert Weisberg
once suggested that creative production results
from chains of connected ideas that flesh out
original thinking. Collaborating with a group of
open-minded people, who can quickly validate the
merits of an idea and help build upon that idea can
accelerate the process of iterative thinking and bring
a faster pace to the innovation process.
Indeed, a study by the Department of Industry
found that collaborative businesses innovate 17%
of the time and are 70% more likely to innovate
than businesses that do not collaborate. More
interestingly, diversity of collaboration is found to be
the most important factor; a comparable increase
in collaboration intensity has only between 20%
and 25% the impact of collaboration diversity on
the degree of novelty of innovation (Department of
Industry, 2006).
32%
No Change
32%
02
04
23% 4%
0
60%
Note: Some impact (32%) Great impact (23%) Complete transformation (4%)
Source: Deloitte Access Economics, Stancombe Research and Planning 2014
29
13%
39%
39%
43%
5%
Source: Deloitte UK
31
Furthermore, improvements in
workplace collaboration have also
had a profound impact on employee
engagement.
Furthermore, improvements in workplace
collaboration have also had a profound impact
on employee engagement. The proportion of
employees who reported feeling proud of their
company rose from an initial 38%, after 2 weeks,
to 58%, after 8 months. Alongside productivity
growth and more flexible working, lifting
employee engagement is one of the less wellknown dividends of collaboration.
3.6 Growth
In this paper, we found that 52% of businesses
who integrated collaboration as a core component
of their corporate strategy have grown faster than
their competitors, compared to 20% that didnt
have a collaboration strategy. More importantly,
Overall growth
Faster than
competition
Same pace as
competition
Slower than
competition
N=
52%
37%
11%
222
30%
62%
8%
216
No Collaboration Strategy
20%
60%
20%
183
Employment growth
Considerable
Some
Increase
increase
Decline
N=
Collaboration is a critical
component of corporate strategy
32%
33%
21%
14%
232
Collaboration is somewhat
important
10%
41%
35%
14%
231
No Collaboration Strategy
7%
30%
43%
20%
250
33
No change
3.7 Profitability
A key benefit businesses see in a collaborative
workforce is the opportunity to reduce costs. Cost
reduction can be achieved by sharing capabilities,
knowledge and resources across an organisation.
A workplace that collaborative effectively only has to
perform a particular task once. The outcome of the
task can then be utilised and benefit the organisation
as a whole. Repetition of tasks across the
organisation is a waste of time and resources and
can be avoided through more effective collaboration
between employees. Substantial profitability benefits
can also be derived through productivity, quality of
output and innovation improvements.
Profitablity
Considerable Some
No change
Decline
N=
44%
11%
7%
213
16%
57%
21%
6%
212
10%
40%
33%
17%
216
Increase
increase
Collaboration is a critical
component of corporate strategy
38%
Collaboration is somewhat
important
No Collaboration Strategy
Australias Collaborative
Economy
37
Figure 4.1: Average employee spend 10% of their day collaborating Division of typical workday for Australian workers
39%
Individual work
46%
Working or interacting
with people
(Colleagues, customers,
suppliers, staff)
5%
Personal tasks or
non-work activities
Other tasks
16.8%
12.6%
9.9%
6.5%
Routine
Communication
Routine
Tasks
Collaboration
Socialising
39
10%
Australias
Collaborative
Economy
41
1.5%
7.9%
Collaborate
50% more
21.2%
6.9%
Collaborate less
62.5%
Same level
Collaboration trends
Collaboration exists in parallel across all sectors of
economy, among different professions, and between
genders and age groups.
5 Collaboration trends
45
47
Collaboration strategy
6 Collaboration stategy
25%
26%
25%
24%
No Strategy
Dont know
Collaboration is important part of strategy
Collaboration is of middling/ least important strategy
51
Workspace
Design
Culture &
Governance
Technology
Workplace design
Technology
Social interactions
Break-out space
Telephones
Kitchen
Meeting rooms
Smartphones
Diversity
Small offices
Video conference
Collaboration strategy
Outdoor areas
Social media
Intensity of interactions
Workplace hierarchy
Network policy
Electronic document
management systems
53
65.3
65.8
55.5
60.0
53.7
52.2
54.3
47.3
50.0
43.4
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Social
interactions
Empowering the
individual
Incentives and
reward
Diversitiy of
workplace
Collaboration
strategy
Intensity of
interactions
Workplace
hierarchy
Technology
The second lever available to businesses to
encourage workplace collaboration relates to making
available, and encouraging the use of facilitating
technology. The eight indicators associated with
this lever encompass the range of options that
can be used in collaborative activities from the
traditional desk phone and email, to internal social
media networks and real time electronic document
management systems that allow multiple users to
make changes to a file simultaneously.
70.0
68.4
60.0
48.8
37.1
50.0
40.0
33.5
30.4
30.0
20.0
16.6
15.5
14.0
10.0
0.0
Phone calls
55
EDMS
Video
conferencing
Social media
Tablet and
laptop
Workplace design
The other main way in which firms can encourage
workplace collaboration is through workplace
design. This captures the extent to which different
physical spaces are made available to employees to
undertake collaborative activities.
52.3
48.4
50.0
42.6
40.0
32.4
30.0
38.2
31.6
22.1
20.0
10.0
0.0
Small offices
Kitchen
Outdoor area
57
30.5%
35
22.7%
30
21.5%
20.5%
19.3%
25
16.1%
20
14.0%
15
13.4%
12.3%
11.1%
7.5%
10
2.3%
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59
05
Make collaboration
a strategic
business focus
61
Changing culture
with the right
incentives
A tailored
implementation
Ensuring effective
collaboration
63
Conclusion
With these steps, businesses can change how they
think about collaboration, devise a strategy, link it
to tools, technology and other strategies, and try to
lift the level and effectiveness of collaboration over
time. The results of this report suggest that these
changes can have a profound impact on how we
work and have significant benefits for business and
the economy in the long term.
Appendix A
References
Adler, P., Heckscher, C., & Prusak, L. (2011). Building a Collaborative Enterprise. Harvard Business Review.
Anecdote. (n.d.). Building a collaborative workplace. Accessed 22.04.14 via http://www.anecdote.com/papers/
AnecdoteCollaborativeWorkplace_v1s.pdf.
ARC CCI. (2013). Australian Creative Economy Report Card 2013. Accessed 22.04.14 via http://www.cci.edu.au/
Creative_Economy_report_card.pdf.
Bonabeau, E. (2009). Decisions 2.0: The power of collective intelligence. MITSloan Management Review, 50(2).
Business Council of Australia. (2009). Embedding workplace collaboration: preventing disputes.
CEDA. (2012). Collaborative workplaces and industries key to productivity. Accessed 22.04.14 via https://www.
ceda.com.au/news-articles/2012/05/nsw_productivity.
Davenport, T. H. (2005). Thinking for a living: how to get better performances and results from knowledge
workers. HBS Press.
Deloitte. (2013). Digital Collaboration, Delivering innovation, productivity and happiness.
Deloitte Access Economics. (2013). The Connected Workplace.
Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources. (2006). Collaboration and other factors influecing
innovation novelty in australian businesses. Accessed 22.04.14 via http://www.innovation.gov.au/Innovation/
ReportsandStudies/Documents/CollaborationInnovationNovelty.pdf.
Forrester Consulting. (2012). The total economic impact of google apps. Accessed 22.04.14 via http://
managedadmin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/The_Total_Economic_Impact_of_Google_Apps_2012.pdf.
Frost and Sullivan. (2006). Meeting Around the World: THe impact of Collaboration on Business Performance.
Genlser. (2013). Rebalancing the workplace - a preview of the 2013 US workplace survey. Accessed 22.04.14
via http://www.gensleron.com/work/2013/6/26/rebalancing-the-workplacea-preview-of-the-2013-us-workplace.
html.
Gensler. (2013). 2013 U.S. Workplace Survey. Accessed online via http://www.gensler.com/track-u/2013_US_
Workplace_Survey_07_15_2013.pdf.
Hansen, M. T., & Ibarra, H. (2011). Getting collaboration right. Harvard Business Review. Accessed 22.04.14 via
http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/05/getting-collaboration-right/.
Hecht, B. (2013). Collaboration is the new competition. Harvard Business Review. Accessed 22.04.14 via http://
blogs.hbr.org/2013/01/collaboration-is-the-new-compe/.
Herman Miller. (2012). What it takes to collaborate. Accessed 22.04.14 via http://www.hermanmiller.com/
content/dam/hermanmiller/documents/research_summaries/wp_What_It_Takes_to_Collaborate.pdf.
IBM. (2008). The new collaboration: enabling innovation, changing the workplace. Accessed 22.04.14 via http://
www-935.ibm.com/services/au/cio/pdf/new-collaboration-white-paper.pdf.
Johns, P. (2014). Bumping: Which office design best promotes collaboration creativity and the p-word,
producivity? Human Resource Monthly. Accessed 22.04.14 via https://www.ahri.com.au/resources/
hrmonthly/2013/hrmonthly-december-2013-january-2014/18-WorkplaceDesign.pdf.
KPMG. (2012). Modelling the Ecnomic Impact of Cloud Computing. Accessed 22.04.14 via https://www.kpmg.
com/AU/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/modelling-economic-impact-cloud-computing.pdf.
McAfee, A. P. (2006). Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration. MITSloan Management Review,
47(3), 20 - 30.
Appendix B
Methodology
This appendix provides some additional
methodological detail for our study.
Survey design
The survey was designed by Deloitte Access
Economics in consultation with Google and
Stancombe Research and Planning.
The survey was implemented by Stancombe
Research and Planning in June 2014 as an online
survey, successfully completed by 1014 employee
and manager respondents across Australia.
The targeted respondent of this research was
broadly representative, with the exception of
those who were not working and under 18, who
were excluded from the analysis.
Key characteristics including age, gender, role,
occupation and industry were used to weight
survey responses to ensure that the survey would
broadly reflect economy wide measures.
In addition to a range of questions that were used
to classify respondents, by income, educational
background, occupation, industry etc, the survey
covered different aspects of collaborative working
environment, including benefits, costs, tools,
trends, and workspace design.
Survey responses included self-reported business
performance metrics and time allocation metrics
from employees. It is important to note that there
are inherent issues in interpreting survey data, and
that these should be considered in interpreting the
results. However, we believe that our results are
nevertheless indicative of the true value/measure
within a reasonable margin.
Consultations
The consultations were conducted by the Deloitte
Access Economics team during March 2014 to July
2014. Five consultations were specifically chosen
to cover multiple industries.
The interviewees responded to a number
of questions on collaboration, corporate
strategies, workplace design, incentive design
and technology use. The consultations provided
insights into the current state and future planning
of the organisation.
The following interviews were conducted:
News Corporation Tom Quinn (CIO)
Woolworths Deon Ludick (Leap program
director)
Xero Chris Ridd (Managing Director ANZ)
Kogan Ruslan Kogan (Founder and CEO)
Another major Australian firm
Ric Simes
Partner
Tel: +61 2 9322 7772
email: rsimes@deloitte.com.au
Frank Farrall
Partner
Tel: +61 3 9671 6562
email: ffarall@deloitte.com.au
John OMahony
Director
Tel: +61 2 9322 7877
email: joomahony@deloitte.com.au
Jason Qu
Analyst
Tel: +61 499 993 367
email: jasonqu@deloitte.com.au
Contact us
Deloitte Access Economics
ACN: 149 633 116
Level 1
225 George St
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
Tel: +61 2 9322 7772
Fax: +61 2 9322 7001
www.deloitte.com/au/economics
Deloitte Access Economics is Australias pre-eminent economics advisory practice and a member of Deloittes global economics group. TheDirectors and staff of Access Economics
joined Deloitte in early 2011.
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