Working Together for a Better World
06/04/2022
“Niaga had a great idea to make carpets more sustainable. But, the entrepreneurs ran into challenges. They could not get the technology scaled up and we happen to be very good at that. We saw the opportunity and stepped in,” writes Dimitri de Vreeze, Co-CEO of DSM. It marks the development and production of the first fully circular carpet. In addition to the know-how and resources for upscaling, DSM also had the technology to circularly connect the carpet and the backing. The cooperation is a wonderful example of an innovation that parties could not have realised independently. The partnership has gained enormous momentum. In the field of carpets, Niaga (since 2021 part of Covestro) is making its patent available to other carpet producers in return for payment, thus setting a flywheel in motion. At the same time, the company started looking for alternative applications. In 2021, this led to the introduction of the first fully circular mattress – developed in cooperation with Auping.
Challenges
Our society faces many social, societal, and environmental challenges. Companies can and are expected to make a contribution, as evidenced by the United Nations’ call on organisations to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, companies do not achieve the renewal that is necessary for this on their own. The example of Niaga and DSM shows that technological breakthroughs often only come about in cooperation between innovative driving forces and established parties. The first group has ideas, the second has capital, knowledge, networks and access to markets through which new products and services can be created and successfully introduced. There are many examples of these types of single collaborations, including Seepje and Albert Heijn, De Vegetarische Slager and Unilever, Kipster and Lidl, Deloitte and Lightyear or Fairphone and Vodafone.
Multi-collaborations
Innovative products and services contribute to a more sustainable, just, and inclusive world. Sometimes, however, tackling societal challenges requires changing systems. Muhammad Yunus’ first concepts of microfinance or the introduction of M-PESA in Kenya have made a significant contribution to opening markets up to people who previously had no access to financial services. Here, entirely new industries have emerged that help strengthen economic empowerment for those at the bottom of the economic and social pyramid. More and more established companies are realising that they must actively contribute to changing the economic, social, and societal chains in cooperation with other stakeholders. As a result, these are known as types of multi-collaborations.
Advantages
Practice shows that tackling and solving societal challenges together offers many advantages that organisations cannot realise alone. At the same time, collaboration in all its phases is difficult. It sometimes works like the poles of a magnet. They attract each other and can create a good click. But if the wrong poles are facing each other they repel each other, and you feel the tension. Virtually every partnership has moments when the parties are at odds and the interests are at odds. It is then important to analyse the problems and find a solution that is acceptable to both parties based on shared vision and values. It sounds simple, but in reality, it requires blood, sweat and tears.
Innovative and established companies
The recently published book ‘Bloed, zweet, maar samen’ (Dutch for: ‘Blood, sweat, but together’) explores the opportunities and challenges of cooperation between innovative and established companies aimed at a better, more sustainable, and more just world. It dwells on various questions that arise in this process. What do these forms of cooperation require? How do they come about? What motivates parties to cooperate and what do they encounter in practice? And last but not least, what do they achieve by working together? After reading the book, you will know what cooperation requires and what numerous start-ups, scale-ups, and large companies have done to bring about change in the interest of themselves, the partnership and the world.
MaastrichtMBA – Executive On-Campus
Harry Hummels – Professor of Ethics, Organisations and Society at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics and one of the co-authors of the aforementioned publication – also performed in the MaastrichtMBA On-Campus programme in the educational week on Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility last February.
MaastrichtMBA is UMIO’s part-time international executive MBA programme; a unique learning journey that enhances knowledge and enriches capabilities through action-oriented learning, encompassing business practice and interactive co-creation with professors and fellow students.
Related experts
Harry Hummels
Professor of Ethics, Organisations and Society
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