Looking for examples of business collaboration.

February 27, 2014 3:23 PM

As the title suggests, I'm looking for various examples of business/organization collaboration, especially ones where people from different industries work together in an interdisciplinary fashion. People combining their expertise in different fields to work on a project together would be especially helpful. For profit, non profit, big corporations or the local PTA, all are great. I am also interested in spectacular failures of collaboration, if you can think of any of those.
posted by a fiendish thingy to Work & Money (8 answers total)

The first positive example that comes to my mind is the Arctic Winter Games. They're being held in Fairbanks, Alaska this year: www.awg2014.org. Nonprofits, for-profits, individuals and government working together toward a single goal: accommodating 2,000 athletes and coaches for a full week of competition between nations in the circumpolar north.
posted by summerstorm at 3:39 PM on February 27, 2014

There are a few episodes of Project Runway in which the designers are supposed to work with... entrepreneurs, athletes, or something like that. Certainly some of those outcomes are awkward.
posted by ecsh at 3:59 PM on February 27, 2014

I just did a quick Google search and found this very detailed PDF of business collaborators.
posted by xingcat at 4:46 PM on February 27, 2014

The Jaycees do this kind of thing all the time. A couple larger-scale examples: The Last Fling (Naperville, IL Jaycees) and the Ice Fishing Extravaganza (Brainerd, MN Jaycees)
posted by SisterHavana at 5:53 PM on February 27, 2014

Maybe it's the time of year (I'm not sure if this meets your needs or not), but Girl Scout cookies? 'Tis the season, in Houston at least.

There's an entire supply chain for those cookies. They are made by either ABC Bakers/Interbake Foods, or Little Brownie Bakers, depending on the Girl Scout's location. Bekins used to be the shipper, but now I'm not sure. Is that the type of example you are looking for? Because I'd guess that PTA fundraisers and Boy Scouts run approximately the same way.

Although the others don't offer Thin Mints.
posted by Houstonian at 6:12 PM on February 27, 2014

There are really so many examples it's hard to know where to start. Practically any city that has any kind of event/festival/special days can show that example of incredible business collaboration between merchants, service providers from audio and sound to port-a-potties and food trucks, to performers, set dressing, scheduling, lighting, marketing/PR, banking, transportation, policing, etc. Many such events have a board or committee made up of interdisciplinary members of the business and nonprofit communities in that town.
posted by Miko at 7:51 PM on February 27, 2014

Music festival volunteers are an underdiscussed burnout ecological subsystem.
posted by oceanjesse at 10:38 PM on February 27, 2014

Would something like the Color Marketing Group fit? Basically, representatives from a wide-range of different industries come together to establish color direction for the coming year.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:57 AM on February 28, 2014