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Starting Your Own www VO

An active collaboration such as a Virtual Organisation (VO) often starts with a visionary individual or organisation that sees the benefits of using the www to collaborate rather than compete. An effective VO can operate at many levels; from an existing organisation that builds a network of contracted colleagues to undertake project work as a VO, to setting up a new independent VO operation that works with its participants to generate and perform work in its target markets.
 
Who would form a VO?
An organisation that resources projects with contractors rather than employees;
Self-employed individuals or organisations with a common interest contracting through an independent VO;  
A Not For Profit or Professional Society seeking to add value by facilitating collaboration within its membership;
People and organisations with a genuine desire to gain Life Work balance;
An entrepreneur seeking to build or extend a modern, flexible and equitable business.
You and your colleagues?
 
A VO starts to gain momentum when key participants in the operation experience the real benefits of doing better in the marketplace by muscling-up and using the www to work with each other as a  VO. If they value their individual independence and the business they have already built, participants working through an independent VO also appreciate that an active collaboration is a viable and attractive alternative to the often unwelcome impacts of the traditional growth-by-acquisition or merger approach.

Yes, the participants in a VO can do their own branding as the prime contractor. However, an independent VO's market presence can also be powerfully established as a brand in its own right. This allows all of the collaborating VO participants to use the enhanced market presence and the larger scale of their independent VO to leverage their own brand, contacts and resources to market, sell, deliver, support and get paid for supplying their products and services to larger markets more effectively than they could do so on their own.

A collaborative VO can be established by an existing business to run a 'contracting business' that provides professional services to an appreciative marketplace. As it grows, this business can be expanded by its source organisation or, if ownership is important to the participants, evolved into an independent collaborative VO that has its own distinctive market branding and provides a range of products and services to larger appreciative markets.

A startup VO will flourish and make progress toward achieving its full scale and potential when it attracts and retains a core group of active particiants who have a common interest and the will, resources and skills to establish their VO as a significant player in its target market. When WIIFMs evolve into and can be satisfied by WIIFUs then the VO members can really collaborate to build a bigger pie through a successful VO rather than continue to compete with each other for smaller pieces of a potentially shrinking pie.

 With both Leadership and Management, Active Collaboration in a VO can Thrive

Leading a VO:
Understand the benefits of the VO Approach.
Enrol a group of trusted colleagues who have a common interest.
Establish your VO WIIFUs, Purpose, Values, Core Strategic Vision, Strategic Plan and your own WIIFMs.
Develop and implement strategies and actions (What, Who, When) that fulfil your VO Strategic Plan.
Establish a powerful presence on the web for your VO customers and your VO members. Progressively develop, refine and implement structures, practices, processes and systems that are consistent with your VO strategic direction.
Develop and nurture your VO culture to attract and retain the right people; appreciative VO customers and competent, motivated and professional VO members. People and organisations who know how to collaborate, share your passion about what your VO stands for and are keen to satisfy their WIIFMs by thinking and acting in accordance with the VO WIIFUs.
Motivate and inspire your VO customers and members to build a great operation that delivers real value to your customers, your members and your VO.

 Managing a VO:
Develop and use an equitable VO Business Model and related structures, practices and processes.
Generate opportunities for your VO to add value by delivering products and services.
Ruthlessly control your VO costs. 
Always deliver excellent outcomes to your VO customers and your VO members.
Ensure the quality of the member goods and services supplied through your VO. 
Always invoice your VO customers for your VO deliverables and ensure you receive their payment. 
Always ensure your members receive the agreed VO Fees for the VO Roles they perform. 
Do all of this in a professional, transparent and timely manner. 
Take care of the VO's compliance, legal, financial, reporting and administrative requirements.
Enhance your VO products, services, structures, practices, processes and systems by continuously reviewing them and implementing what works.

Free Download:

'Starting Your Own' by Ian Howard (36kb .pdf Document)

'How a Virtual Organisation (VO) Works' by Ian Howard (103kb .pdf PowerPoint)

Our Invitation:

1. Learn more about VOs from Welcome to Your VO
2. Explore your own WIIFMs and WIIFUs
3. Share this concept with colleagues with a common interest.
4. Have a good look at our Tools and Services
5.  Get Serious to see if we can assist.

"No army can resist the strength of an idea whose time has come"                 Victor Hugo

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