I’d like to reintroduce a radical
concept something I believe can really
change the way that startups and
established corporates work and
accelerate our technological evolution
I’m talking about collaboration in the
business world
I don’t think innovation is about
individual brilliance it’s about
leveraging collective strengths that’s
where true innovation appears yet in
today’s business environment the focus
perhaps even the obsession is on
competition disruption these days all we
hear about our startups they’re out to
disrupt corporates because corporates
suck startups have superb
entrepreneurial blueprints deep
technology capabilities they can think
on their feet act on a new idea a
refreshing business model a growth hack
all within minutes of conception no red
tape
no millions of committees just one good
idea or a great piece of engineering and
bam let’s do it whereas corporates they
often struggle to innovate by the time
an idea or interesting resources filter
through all the bureaucratic hurdles and
red tape it’s too late now hold on let’s
be objective a corporates competitive
advantage lies in their rich proprietary
data sets these firms corporates have
established channels to market they have
relationships with customers in huge
numbers they have an ability to scale
they know the ins and outs of the very
industry that others are trying to
disrupt the icing on the cake they’re
experts at being big businesses can you
say the same for startups
certainly not for the vast majority of
them who struggle in almost all of these
Kodak and Blockbuster Video are classic
examples Kodak invented the first
digital camera long before it became
mainstream but they didn’t pivot fast
enough holding back for fear of hurting
their own lucrative film business
same thing with Blockbuster Video in
fact Reed Hastings started Netflix
because one day he was said to have
rented Apollo 13 from his local
blockbusters store lost it and was made
to pay a $40 fine
in 2000 Netflix approached Blockbuster
and offered to be their online service
provider Netflix believed the future of
watching movies was online and would
someday become big business Blockbuster
rejected the partnership the 50 million
dollar acquisition price practically
laughing out loud
whose valued at 85 billion dollars and
laughing now you know for those of you
not part of this silly venture capital
vacuum that I live in think Elton John
and Eminem
Alexander Lange and H&M both unlikely
pairings came together to go in a
direction to create something unique
which either party would have failed at
alone one day I was at Omaha Beach with
my business partners watching the waves
roll as a small venture capital group at
Goat we’re sitting on experiencing
commercial strategies we’ve been there
in modern entrepreneurship we have a
team of PhDs in computer science it was
sort of a retreat to id8 audacious
business ideas – pipe dream I remember
we were ID ating how a I would have a
profound effect on the legal industry
and delivery of legal advice
I remember my business partners cut me
off and decided there was no opportunity
you have to understand my business
partners are reasonably cynical they
have far more experience than I do in
investing but after all we’re not
lawyers with domain knowledge we didn’t
have the data we’d be starting from zero
zero in a sewn up market until I said
what if we approached minter ellison the
largest law firm in Australasia and
offer them the opportunity to start this
business together they could begin using
the AI engine right away to 10x their
efficiency we’d be getting real human
legal expertise to guide us straight to
their market and customers they’re a
goldmine of the data needed to train AI
systems effectively my business partners
looked at me as if I’d fallen from the
moon one of them actually said you you
just can’t walk up to his potentially
your biggest competitor the very people
you are trying to put out of business
and ask them to collaborate no company
worth their salt would agree to that it
would be an unholy marriage I just said
why not just because it hasn’t been done
before
don’t they dream about the same things
we do so that’s what we did he owns a
small country one of us knew someone who
met their CEO we had a meeting and
that’s how McCarthy Finch was born
we both Co invested 5050 into a
partnership but neither party had to put
in a ridiculous amount of money or risk
because by joining forces well it’s a
start-up with the best of both worlds
the amazing capability in technology
innovation and strategy further
supercharged with terabytes of data a
premier channel to customers and the
industry-leading expertise needed we
complement each other beautifully and
this sort of thing is happening
elsewhere Ford and GM two of the biggest
competitors in the automotive market
have brought together their engineering
teams to develop 9 and 10 speed
transmissions to be used in their trucks
together
they’re spending less achieving better
results by pooling talent and surging
ahead of the pack another one PepsiCo
coca-cola unis leave a Red Bull they’ve
all pulled the resources together to
develop natural refrigeration to reduce
co2 emissions and help against global
warming so if the biggest competitor is
out there can lay down their weapons and
leverage their collective strengths even
if momentarily in a big to make greater
things happen for everyone anyone can do
it and back to us the formula didn’t
just work once we start thinking about
the multi-billion dollar tax and audit
industry afterall small and mid-cap
companies focused on growth and strategy
are hampered by regulation there are so
many ways you can predict financial risk
automate administration and give
business advice these possibilities are
some things a I will have a profound
impact on and we wondered if we could
pull it off
who would our biggest competitor be and
there we had it we proceeded with one of
the big four the perfect fit for
collaboration so what does this all mean
well it means there’s more than one way
of doing business it means that
seemingly opposing forces can come
together and achieve greater results
than if they were to go at it alone it
means that the whole as one is greater
than the sum of its parts
and it also means with these kinds of
accelerated technological partnerships
it is not just startups or corporates
who stand to gain
McCarthy Finch is not just about
increased efficiency from mentor Ellison
it’s about making legal services more
accessible to those unable to pursue
legitimate help due to cost or lack of
clarity essentially we’ve accelerated
the democratization
of legal services making it affordable
and effective to those who really need
them now here’s my advice about how to
do it successfully collaborations like
this mean that you should be spending a
lot of time taking action spend much
less time thinking about what action to
take
without velocity you’ll rustam bling
trying to figure out how or why it might
work
it’s an action oriented mindset that
will set you both in your stride
it’s that momentum that will turn the
big vision into reality come up with a
solid idea get in touch with someone on
the other side who’s significantly
different and just get acting secondly
know your greatest strengths but also
your weakest vulnerabilities own them
particularly when collaborating with
those on the extreme opposite to you and
lastly always value the importance of
competition
I never said stop competing competition
is critical just leverage the special
difference between competition and
isolation versus collaborative
competition and here’s my challenge to
you think of your biggest competitor and
how you could collaborate with them
after all everyone is partnering with
those who have similarities you stand
everything to gain by partnering with
those who are quite different maybe
that’s the real disruption disrupting the competitive ethos thank you
concept something I believe can really
change the way that startups and
established corporates work and
accelerate our technological evolution
I’m talking about collaboration in the
business world
I don’t think innovation is about
individual brilliance it’s about
leveraging collective strengths that’s
where true innovation appears yet in
today’s business environment the focus
perhaps even the obsession is on
competition disruption these days all we
hear about our startups they’re out to
disrupt corporates because corporates
suck startups have superb
entrepreneurial blueprints deep
technology capabilities they can think
on their feet act on a new idea a
refreshing business model a growth hack
all within minutes of conception no red
tape
no millions of committees just one good
idea or a great piece of engineering and
bam let’s do it whereas corporates they
often struggle to innovate by the time
an idea or interesting resources filter
through all the bureaucratic hurdles and
red tape it’s too late now hold on let’s
be objective a corporates competitive
advantage lies in their rich proprietary
data sets these firms corporates have
established channels to market they have
relationships with customers in huge
numbers they have an ability to scale
they know the ins and outs of the very
industry that others are trying to
disrupt the icing on the cake they’re
experts at being big businesses can you
say the same for startups
certainly not for the vast majority of
them who struggle in almost all of these
Kodak and Blockbuster Video are classic
examples Kodak invented the first
digital camera long before it became
mainstream but they didn’t pivot fast
enough holding back for fear of hurting
their own lucrative film business
same thing with Blockbuster Video in
fact Reed Hastings started Netflix
because one day he was said to have
rented Apollo 13 from his local
blockbusters store lost it and was made
to pay a $40 fine
in 2000 Netflix approached Blockbuster
and offered to be their online service
provider Netflix believed the future of
watching movies was online and would
someday become big business Blockbuster
rejected the partnership the 50 million
dollar acquisition price practically
laughing out loud
whose valued at 85 billion dollars and
laughing now you know for those of you
not part of this silly venture capital
vacuum that I live in think Elton John
and Eminem
Alexander Lange and H&M both unlikely
pairings came together to go in a
direction to create something unique
which either party would have failed at
alone one day I was at Omaha Beach with
my business partners watching the waves
roll as a small venture capital group at
Goat we’re sitting on experiencing
commercial strategies we’ve been there
in modern entrepreneurship we have a
team of PhDs in computer science it was
sort of a retreat to id8 audacious
business ideas – pipe dream I remember
we were ID ating how a I would have a
profound effect on the legal industry
and delivery of legal advice
I remember my business partners cut me
off and decided there was no opportunity
you have to understand my business
partners are reasonably cynical they
have far more experience than I do in
investing but after all we’re not
lawyers with domain knowledge we didn’t
have the data we’d be starting from zero
zero in a sewn up market until I said
what if we approached minter ellison the
largest law firm in Australasia and
offer them the opportunity to start this
business together they could begin using
the AI engine right away to 10x their
efficiency we’d be getting real human
legal expertise to guide us straight to
their market and customers they’re a
goldmine of the data needed to train AI
systems effectively my business partners
looked at me as if I’d fallen from the
moon one of them actually said you you
just can’t walk up to his potentially
your biggest competitor the very people
you are trying to put out of business
and ask them to collaborate no company
worth their salt would agree to that it
would be an unholy marriage I just said
why not just because it hasn’t been done
before
don’t they dream about the same things
we do so that’s what we did he owns a
small country one of us knew someone who
met their CEO we had a meeting and
that’s how McCarthy Finch was born
we both Co invested 5050 into a
partnership but neither party had to put
in a ridiculous amount of money or risk
because by joining forces well it’s a
start-up with the best of both worlds
the amazing capability in technology
innovation and strategy further
supercharged with terabytes of data a
premier channel to customers and the
industry-leading expertise needed we
complement each other beautifully and
this sort of thing is happening
elsewhere Ford and GM two of the biggest
competitors in the automotive market
have brought together their engineering
teams to develop 9 and 10 speed
transmissions to be used in their trucks
together
they’re spending less achieving better
results by pooling talent and surging
ahead of the pack another one PepsiCo
coca-cola unis leave a Red Bull they’ve
all pulled the resources together to
develop natural refrigeration to reduce
co2 emissions and help against global
warming so if the biggest competitor is
out there can lay down their weapons and
leverage their collective strengths even
if momentarily in a big to make greater
things happen for everyone anyone can do
it and back to us the formula didn’t
just work once we start thinking about
the multi-billion dollar tax and audit
industry afterall small and mid-cap
companies focused on growth and strategy
are hampered by regulation there are so
many ways you can predict financial risk
automate administration and give
business advice these possibilities are
some things a I will have a profound
impact on and we wondered if we could
pull it off
who would our biggest competitor be and
there we had it we proceeded with one of
the big four the perfect fit for
collaboration so what does this all mean
well it means there’s more than one way
of doing business it means that
seemingly opposing forces can come
together and achieve greater results
than if they were to go at it alone it
means that the whole as one is greater
than the sum of its parts
and it also means with these kinds of
accelerated technological partnerships
it is not just startups or corporates
who stand to gain
McCarthy Finch is not just about
increased efficiency from mentor Ellison
it’s about making legal services more
accessible to those unable to pursue
legitimate help due to cost or lack of
clarity essentially we’ve accelerated
the democratization
of legal services making it affordable
and effective to those who really need
them now here’s my advice about how to
do it successfully collaborations like
this mean that you should be spending a
lot of time taking action spend much
less time thinking about what action to
take
without velocity you’ll rustam bling
trying to figure out how or why it might
work
it’s an action oriented mindset that
will set you both in your stride
it’s that momentum that will turn the
big vision into reality come up with a
solid idea get in touch with someone on
the other side who’s significantly
different and just get acting secondly
know your greatest strengths but also
your weakest vulnerabilities own them
particularly when collaborating with
those on the extreme opposite to you and
lastly always value the importance of
competition
I never said stop competing competition
is critical just leverage the special
difference between competition and
isolation versus collaborative
competition and here’s my challenge to
you think of your biggest competitor and
how you could collaborate with them
after all everyone is partnering with
those who have similarities you stand
everything to gain by partnering with
those who are quite different maybe
that’s the real disruption disrupting the competitive ethos thank you
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