Amid the deep swells and 40-knot gusts of the perilous Antarctic Ocean, the skipper of a 70-foot racing yacht strategises over a secure satellite network with his support staff back on land. In Zambia, a bank manager gets immediate approval for a time-sensitive loan by sharing documents in an encrypted live meeting with associates in London and Johannesburg. A geneticist from Düsseldorf sits in her office rearranging nucleotides on a floating 3-D representation of a human DNA strand, pausing briefly to welcome colleagues from California and Osaka whose avatars have suddenly materialized hovering above her desk. Sometimes she wishes they would just use the door. Welcome to the new world of Collaboration.

The future of collaboration

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Listen to Dennis McCauley from the Economist Intelligence Unit discuss collaboration with Andy Green and MIT’s Frank Moss.

Perhaps no single issue is more important to businesses today. Collaboration involves a fundamental shift in the way we work, the adoption and implementation of evolving technologies, and a more far-reaching level of cultural understanding than we have been accustomed to. It’s also just the beginning.

That’s why Director of Global Technology Research for The Economist Intelligence Unit, Dennis McCauley, decided to speak with BT’s former CEO of Group Strategy and Operations, Andy Green and Frank Moss, Director of MIT’s Media Lab, about the past, present and future implications of Collaboration. The result: required listening for any executive who wants to take advantage of new opportunities in the 21st century.