The Collaboration Business

CAN Mezzanine, a UK company that rents their three London buildings to 122 charities and social organizations, thought they were in the real estate business.

After all, the value they brought to their customers seemed obvious.
People got an affordable space in which to house an office.
Right?

But after reading their customers satisfaction surveys last year, CAN Mezzanine realized it wasn’t the physical floor space people were most satisfied with.
It was the other renters.
As it turned out, they were actually in the fostering collaboration business.

Sure, sharing a building saved renters money, but the thing tenants often appreciated most was the open floor plan which got companies–and like minded people who worked for them–sharing ideas as well as square footage.

Almost 70 per cent of organizations reported collaborating to save money or increase profits and 90 percent reported interacting in other ways. Three charities involved in fighting domestic violence sometimes submitted joint bids for funding or represented each other at meetings. Two other companies even liked each other so much, they decided to formally merge.

CAN Mezzanine found that customers believed there was actual financial value–i.e. it was worth money–to have access to this kind of synergy and social capital on a regular basis. Customers believed they were getting an unexpected, but incredibly worthwhile social return on their investment.

I love CAN Mezzanine’s observation because it helps me better assess the value of some of the projects I’m involved in. Take STORY, a premier event for the creative class, for example. The obvious draw for many attenders is the content presented by leading creative practitioners on the main stage. These presentations would be the conventional return for people’s investment in purchasing tickets.

But the surprise for many attenders is that the synergy that rises from the audience itself ends up being something they would attach financial value to. Just the chance to spend a couple days rolling ideas and inspiration around with other like-minded creatives? That is the bonus value that makes them walk away feeling like they got double their money’s worth.

STORY is in the event business, but maybe just as or more so, we’re in the fostering collaboration business too.

What about you? What kind of social return does your organization offer on a customer’s investment? How does that raise the value of your services or products in their eyes?