What if your future depends on collaborating with competitors?

The technology revolution is taking place at an astonishing pace. Cloud computing, artificial intelligence, robotics and automation, the internet of things and other maturing innovations are all making it clear to the business leaders I speak with that there's no room for complacency. Convergence is shattering industry boundaries.

But as industries converge, how do we adapt and set ourselves apart from the competition? I find that one of the biggest questions business leaders are grappling with today is if they should compete or collaborate with others.

Recently my team and I convened over 100 forward-thinking companies from 16 sectors near Silicon Valley at the EY Convergence Lab. It gave us a unique opportunity to understand how these leaders are reshaping their businesses and industries, and to test out future ecosystems for ourselves. A few things stood out for me:

Value is created in the nodes where industries converge

As industry lines blur, new value is being created in the nodes between industries. It's in these areas of intersection that hot spots are appearing. Four particular areas we are seeing involve: the future of cities, healthcare, investment and financial advice, and payments.

New ways of working and shopping, new modes of transport, new forms of urban landscape and the digitization of both products and services are all challenges that require input from multiple industries (see below).

Current ecosystem for future of cities

To meet future challenges, even more industries will need to be included:

• Utilities, not only for utility services but also to enable city-wide predictive distribution optimization algorithms
• Health services, as aging populations create greater need for in-community and in-home care and distributed services
• Finance, given the huge investment and new investment models needed to counter the effects of urbanization and automation
• Educational institutions, to up-skill, up-grade and introduce new skills critical to the future workforce and citizens

How can you balance the needs of different groups of people (such as drivers, business, government, cyclists and pedestrians), all the different industries above and the impact of the technology revolution (which makes new solutions possible at breakneck pace) if everyone's working in silos, looking only at their own challenges? How can we solve the bottleneck around sharing data and protecting privacy? What will fractional ownership – homes, cars, parking spaces, etc. – do to cities if it takes off?

What's really interesting is that to create value in these intersections, new ways of working are needed.

Seek out an ecosystem

Will future ecosystems develop through competition, collaboration or a mix of both? Well, at the EY Convergence Lab a chief technologist poignantly expressed the point: “Competition is inevitable. It keeps us sharp. But as a human race we have to collaborate. No one company has a monopoly on the best ideas.”

Another resounding affirmation came from the head of a large UK PLC, who said, “It's uncomfortable when you have to pivot and work differently... We have to collaborate because we don't have all the skills we need.”

These leaders are not alone. The overwhelming view of the 100 companies at our forum was that collaboration is the way forward. Despite this clarity, there are still many issues, such as identifying the best model, determining what you should share and what you should protect and determining the key stakeholders needed in your ecosystem.

Make the right connections

Concerns around collaboration are clearly not understated. Early indications from our upcoming, inaugural EY Growth Barometer survey, to be launched in June, shows that small to medium-sized companies (what we refer to as the Middle Market) fear losing out to their competitors. Companies of all sizes, shapes and sectors need to go outside their comfort zones and collaborate. And, not just with competitors (which are harder to figure out these days given they are coming from everywhere), but also with people from industries that we're not used to talking to or whose worlds we know nothing about.

The FinTech industry has learned how to do this in recent years. There are many great examples of ecosystems out there, with FinTech players collaborating on supply chains, technology adoption, go-to-market capabilities and funding.

Unfortunately, collaboration isn't something most businesses are good at. Current business models are all about beating the competition. The mindset around alliances for large companies tends to be, “how can you fit into my organization?” while smaller companies are more flexible.

We need to approach collaboration with a completely different mindset and ask: how can we work together to create something completely different?

These are exciting and unsettling times – times in which industries themselves are being redefined. This means looking for answers in ways and places that we haven’t before. To succeed, we need to look beyond current industries and silos to broaden our thinking and relationships to embrace collaboration – whether through partnerships, alliances, networks or ecosystems.

One of the most encouraging comments I heard at the EY Convergence Lab was “we arrived competitors; we left collaborators.” This is where the future is heading. Let’s work together to reset our thinking and embrace collaboration, which holds the potential for more inclusive and sustainable growth for all.

Between 7-11 June, EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017? Forum will convene the world's leading entrepreneurs and businesses to discuss how uncertainty can be seized to find the best opportunities for growth. Join the conversation by following #WEOY, #BetterQuestions, #GrowthBarometer and visiting betterworkingworld.ey.com.