Contrary to what some people think, or rather, want you to believe, sharing insights, information, and even collaborating sometimes, is a perfectly acceptable business practice even between competing organizations within the same ecosystem. 

After 35+ years of working in the USA, and most of them right-smacked in the 1990s through the information technologies revolution, I was blessed to be in the trenches to witness the birth and explosion of an ecosystem that changed humanity.  With that in my back-pocket, I can confidently attest to how critically vital the sharing of ideas, insights and experiences is to help build successful ecosystems with commercially viable, scalable businesses.  

You can’t be afraid to be in a room with your peers, or your competitors because they may steal your “thunder.”  You can’t isolate yourself because you are afraid that sharing information will give someone an advantage over you or your business.  On the contrary, when you are strong and confident, you share, listen, experiment, and evolve.  Sharing is not a dirty word; it is a sign of strength that comes with thought leader status. No matter how good you are or how great your company is performing today; by being afraid to share and collaborate, you shortchange your own ecosystem, which in turn restricts and stifles your own growth within it.  

I am not suggesting that we all run around handing out trade secrets, but if everyone within the ecosystem consistently and methodically exchanged ideas, shared insights, experiences, and coordinated ecosystem-wide pivotal decisions, the positive impact to all would be invaluable.  When done correctly, the value of sharing insights and learning trickles right down from the ecosystem to the individual companies and eventually to the people within them.  

Sharing and collaborating is even more critical for under-resourced still evolving ecosystems that need to synchronize and organize around common critical evolutionary imperatives.  Take for example our innovation/ technology entrepreneurial ecosystem here in Cyprus.  Other than the usual superficial chatter when we run into colleagues and competitors at the hundreds of redundant events, the signings of meaningless MOUs for the sake of Facebook-pics, do we really care to share with each other and help all of us within the ecosystem to avoid redundancies, waste valuable resources and time, and avoid costly mistakes that cause damaging failures?

Let’s face it, we occupy a small place with limited resources, and we are attempting to pivot and scale our economy to protect our future competitiveness as a nation. Rightly so, we are putting a spotlight on sectors such as innovation/technology, but just saying it at the podium is not enough. In my opinion, the little ecosystem momentum we sensed the last few years is already starting to fade.  Why do I say that? I am in Cyprus 2 times a year and stay for 2-3 months each time. I work very closely every day even when I am away with some of the best entrepreneurs on the island. I have my finger on the pulse of the innovation-technology ecosystem.  However, the last two times I’ve been back, I’ve noticed a slow-down, a little bit of “floundering in the wind” state and I am raising a yellow – caution flag to the stakeholders.  We need to start sharing, communicating, and collaborating before we start moving backwards. 

Imagine how much better we, our ecosystem, would be if we truly communicated and coordinated among us without the fear of sharing.  Imagine if instead of allowing others to lead the way from behind a desk -- who can’t even spell the word innovation, we organized, shared our insights and coordinated our resources to help shape our ecosystem the way we know best. Imagine that…

Andreas Panayi, Co-founder, Managing Director, Kinisis Ventures Limited

Mr. Panayi brings invaluable international perspective, strategic insight, and hands-on experience in new venture building, operating, and realizing shareholder value.  He is a serial entrepreneur and throughout his more than 35 -year career in the USA, he has founded, developed, operated and sold companies in the professional services and information technologies area. Panayi conceptualized, co-founded and launched Kinisis Ventures Limited, a business acceleration company with a specific mission to create growth opportunities for Cypriot innovation companies that previously were unable to benefit from strategic access to USA markets and business networks. Panayi, is also a founding principal and Investment Advisory Committee member of the Kinisis Ventures Fund.

Panayi co-founder TKI, a technology application development company with offices in the USA and India. He serves as a board member at TK Partners, a USA technology holdings company and teaches entrepreneurialism & new venture development classes as an adjunct professor. Prior to focusing his career being an entrepreneur, Panayi worked for a number of NY - Madison Avenue advertising agencies and spent time at a New York based technology incubator / early-stage investment fund.