The Future.org

According to William E. Coyne, Senior Vice President for Research and Devel opment at 3M, "Most modern companies now recognise that the best way to inc rease corporate earnings is through top-line growth, and the best route to top-line growth is through innovation". The ability to innovate, however, c omes from a skill that is underdeveloped in most companies: collaboration. Knowing how to collaborate helps a company to create and transfer knowledge . Knowledge creation and utilisation, in turn, lead to innovation. Companie s that understand this long-linked process, and make the appropriate invest ments needed to establish and maintain it, will be the big winners in the t wenty-first century global economy. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ ts reserved.