Why collaboration at work matters more than ever – and how to develop it faster than your competitors

Since 2015, Costco has consistently outperformed Walmart across every key indicator, including stock price, net profit, and customer KPIs. Why? The answer lies not in scale or cost efficiency, but in collaboration. Costco has built stronger connections across its supply chain, ensuring every team member understands their role and communicates effectively to deliver exceptional service. Add to that better pay, working conditions, and healthcare plans, and the result is a culture where employees are motivated to go the extra mile.

By contrast, Walmart has faced criticism from Olivier de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, for low wages and inadequate benefits. The lesson is clear. Collaboration underpinned by a strong organizational culture, is not a soft skill but a competitive weapon.

Today, collaboration is more critical than ever, driven by three forces: Complexity, Competition, and Customer.

Complexity: Tackling Wicked Problems 

In a recent leadership meeting, Jean Jereissati, CEO of a major Brazilian beverage company, observed: “Business is in constant crisis.” He urged leaders to move beyond technical, “tame” problems and confront the complex, ambiguous “wicked” ones that define today’s business landscape. The distinction, introduced by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber in 1973, remains vital. Tame problems such as heart surgery or bridge building can be solved with established methods.

Wicked problems, however, are messy, multifaceted, and lack definitive solutions. There is no recipe from previous experience that we can draw on, including challenges such as redefining company culture, navigating digital transformation, or dealing with changes of AI, that require new approaches. As one leader put it, “We are being asked to fly a plane while building a new one.” Patagonia offers a powerful example of tackling a wicked problem: sustainability in fashion.

Rather than treating it as marketing, Patagonia used a collaborative approach to restructure its entire model around a circular economy. Involving leaders at all levels and partners, they launched repair-and-resale programs, encouraged customers to buy less, and even transferred ownership to a trust and a nonprofit dedicated to fighting climate change. By embedding purpose into every aspect of the business, Patagonia shows how adaptive leadership and collaboration can address problems with no clear solutions, redefining success around stewardship instead of profit.

Competition: Winning Through Partnerships 

In today’s hypercompetitive environment, speed and scale matter. Leaders must harness collective intelligence inside and outside the organization to innovate faster than rivals. Starbucks’ readytodrink coffee success illustrates this perfectly.

By partnering with PepsiCo in 1994, Starbucks combined brand strength and product innovation with PepsiCo’s unmatched distribution capabilities. The collaboration turned bottled Frappuccino into a household name, leaving rivals like Nestlé and Dunkin’ struggling to catch up. The takeaway is that collaboration transforms potential weaknesses into winning advantages.

Customer: Breaking Down Silos 

Our global research with hundreds of executives shows silo working is the single biggest sabotage to collaboration. Fragmentation prevents organizations from delivering the multidisciplinary solutions customers demand. Spotify’s rise in music streaming demonstrates the opposite. Data scientists, product managers, designers, and engineers worked seamlessly together to personalize features and deliver a frictionless experience across devices. By breaking down silos, Spotify outpaced Apple Music and Amazon Music, securing global leadership. Collaboration across disciplines is what turned diverse expertise into unified innovation.

The Three Pillars of Collaboration: Purpose, People, Process 

So how can CEOs build fast and effective collaboration? The answer lies in the 3Ps: Purpose, People, and Process.

1. Purpose: Research by Professor Raj Sisodia found that purpose-driven enterprises grew by 1,681%, compared to the S&P average of 118%. When collaboration lacks a clear purpose, engagement and commitment collapse. Starting slow with clarity of purpose helps organizations go fast.  People will be willing to flex or walk the extra mile to achieve collective goals. Professor Morten Hansen, faculty member at Apple University and an experienced researcher in the area of collaboration, noted ‘Some tasks and some projects simply don’t require people to work together’. Leaders at all levels of the organisation need to ask, does this project have a purpose that requires collaboration, or can this be done better by individuals?
2. People: Google’s landmark Project Aristotle proved psychological safety is the cornerstone of high-performing teams. When members speak in equal proportion and show “social sensitivity,” collective emotional intelligence rises. Empathy, listening, and developing others are not soft skills but are critical for driving hard business outcomes.
3. Process: Even with purpose and people, collaboration fails without a clear framework. CEOs must establish how progress will be monitored, conflicts resolved, and energy sustained. A transparent process for collaboration is the glue that keeps collaboration productive and resilient.

In summary, fast and effective collaboration is vital in a changing and challenging business environment. CEOs need to consider the 3Cs (Complexity,  Competition and Customer) as well as the antidote of 3Ps (Purpose, People and Process) .

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Written by Guy Lubitsh and Mike Brent.