Updated July 22, 2022 662 Author: Dmitry Petrov
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. There are words whose meaning is clear to us, but their use turns out to be limited only because we either do not want to seem “smart”, or we know only its one – the most immediate or most common – meaning.
One of these words is synergy, the definition of which is much broader and more interesting than we thought.
Let us make a reservation right away that the term “synergy” is indeed a purely scientific one, and outside science and in everyday life its morphological form – “synergy” – is more often used.
There is no difference between these concepts, but the second option, you see, is more pleasant and digestible for our speech - it just doesn’t hurt the ear as much.
The phenomenon of synergy. A simple explanation of the concept of synergy
My first acquaintance with the concept of synergy took place after entering the Faculty of Economics. This term is popular among pundits, but is almost unknown outside the scientific community. With all this, its meaning is quite simple and quite accessible to people far from science.
Synergy is a combination of factors in economics and other areas when, figuratively speaking, two plus two does not equal four. For example, thanks to the division of labor, a company consisting of only two professionals with a narrow specialization can produce many times more products than a company with numerous but unqualified personnel.
You can also give an example from everyday life. It is given in the famous parable about the many weak twigs of one broom: connected in a bunch, they will become a monolith and will be able to achieve much more than if they were used simultaneously, but separately.
The root of this word syn is borrowed from Greek and means “together”, “together”. The second part of the word ergia means “work”. For this reason, the word "synergy" is often used in economic treatises.
In the terminology of entrepreneurs, there is the designation win-win. It is used in cases where businessmen manage to conclude a mutually beneficial deal or establish mutually beneficial cooperation precisely through the use of the phenomenon of synergy.
Synergy is also called the process reaching a level where quantity begins to transform into quality.
Law of synergy in an organization
Synergy, synergism is a joint, friendly, interdependent action of two or more forces, agents, factors in any one direction. Synergetics studies the special state of complex systems in the field of unstable equilibrium, or more precisely the dynamics of their self-organization.
In economics, the words “synergy” and “cooperation” are often used as synonyms. It should be noted that the “newly discovered” synergy was deeply analyzed by Karl Marx in Capital as a new force, “which arises from the fusion of many forces into one common one.”
In relation to the study of the behavior of socio-economic systems, it would be more reasonable to leave the term “cooperation” rather than replacing it with synergy, especially since synergetics as a concept was originally introduced by Haken in relation to the behavior of thermodynamic systems in physics.
The condition and performance of any organization is influenced by many internal and external factors. According to the property of emergence, the combined effect of several factors almost always differs from the sum of the individual effects. It is this difference, which is usually called the synergy effect, interaction factor or cooperative effect, that is the quantitative expression of synergy.
Synergy plays a very important role in living systems of all types and levels of organization. For a long time it did not receive a decent assessment, because it often exists in a hidden form. Biologists of different directions have considered and designated such phenomena as symbiosis, mutualism, coevolution, but the basis of all these manifestations is a joint action, synergy.
The synergy paradigm is based on the recognition of the fact that in the process of development, the beneficial results obtained by the integrity of the organization are responsible for the well-being of its parts, members. In essence, the doctrine of synergy is an “economic” theory of complexity.
In organization theory, synergy is given great importance. The law of synergy is based on the principle of emergence of complex systems: the joint action of several factors always or almost always differs from the sum of the separate effects.
Law of synergy: any complex dynamic system strives to obtain maximum effect due to its integrity; strives to make maximum use of cooperation opportunities to achieve effects.
For any system (technical, biological or social) there is a set of resources in which its potential will always be either significantly greater than the simple sum of the potentials of its constituent resources (technology, personnel, computers, etc.) or significantly less.
But not only and not so much combinations of potentials are important, but their coordinated behavior and mutually supporting connections.
Even with a clear division of labor and good specialization, it often happens that some part of the individual task of one specialist can be performed more professionally by another specialist. A coordinated exchange of such parts of the overall work can eliminate the mutual “creep” of potentials, provide positive synergy and increase overall efficiency. Therefore, an increase in the overall potential of an organization is equivalent to the acquisition of a new resource, and a decrease in the overall potential is equivalent to the actual loss by the organization of part of the previous resource.
Thus, the synergy effect is not only a favorable combination of resources, but also coordinated behavior, connections, and relationships; in a word, the entire set of parameters characterizing a complex developing system.
From the perspective of organization theory, this law could be called the law of cooperation; Cooperation is the organization of forces, processes, agents, resources, and other things to jointly accomplish a common cause.
Synergy is the ability to evaluate the joint effects associated with a new product or market. The functional structure of any effective organization determines the interaction of its members and different-quality potentials, which maximizes the positive combined (synergistic) effects and eliminates the negative effects of interaction. In order to use joint synergistic effects, it is necessary to know the synergistic characteristics of the company and build a development strategy using the synergistic potential. Some joint synergistic effects can be imagined as follows.
Synergy of "scale"
As the organization becomes more complex, the role of cooperation and synergy will increase. The more diverse the system, the greater the potential for synergy. Economies of scale mean that a large production unit has lower unit production costs than several small ones that together have the same sales volume. For the same amount of investment, a firm producing the entire set of goods may have lower costs than several individual competing companies. A firm that optimizes this effect carefully selects products and markets, gains greater market share through low prices, and attracts investors again.
Combination of labor as the unification of heterogeneous efforts
The economic and production principle of the division of labor from the point of view of the law of synergy looks, rather, not like a division, but like an association (for example, a conveyor belt).
Sales synergies
Sellers unite and use the same distribution channels, warehouses, transport, and personnel to sell various goods.
Operational synergy
Allows more efficient use of fixed assets and personnel: joint training, large purchases of equipment and transportation from abroad, distribution of overhead costs, etc.
Investment synergies
It manifests itself through the joint use of short-term and long-term loans, production space, research and development, a common technological base, etc.
The "common goods" model
In economics, common goods are produced through interdependent cooperative efforts. Modern forms of organization, such as Japanese keiretsu, allow us to achieve the highest quality and win competition in the world market.
Creating a collaborative enabling environment
In nature, every living organism, in the course of its life activity, inevitably “spoils” something in its environment. Plants deplete the soil, sucking moisture and nutrients from it, and leaving behind dried stems and leaves. Animals eat plants and other animals and pollute the earth with their waste and remains. Imagine what would have happened on Earth over millions of years if there were no “cleaners.” In fact, there is practically no garbage in nature. Various organisms - bacteria, fungi, worms, insect larvae, various saprophages, together with plants and animals - form complex cooperative networks of feeding and processing various organic wastes in the ground, water and air, jointly creating and regulating the favorable composition of the environment. This is why we need biological diversity.
The diversity of different industrial productions in a single compact territory allows the use of the effects of cooperation and synergy, when waste from one production can serve as raw materials for another, increasing the closeness of material cycles in industrial units.
In this regard, it is useful to recall that, unlike the economics of nature, the economics of the human economy demonstrates a significant openness of the technogenic cycle.
Management synergy
Growing companies tend to lack competent senior management. Any improvement in leadership creates significant synergies. This effect increases if the company's management has already encountered similar problems and has experience in solving them. If the problems are new and unknown, and the manager has no experience in resolving them, then there is a threat of a negative effect from the decisions of incompetent management. Thus, management synergy, like other types of synergy, can be both positive and negative. A competent manager, having systemic knowledge about the organization, can significantly improve its performance indicators; an illiterate one, on the contrary. Whether the firm's potential synergies become actual depends on how production is managed.
In short, the firm seeks combinations in which the sum effect is greater than the sum of the effects of the parts. All target synergistic effects can be described by three variables:
- increase in profits;
- reduction of operating expenses;
- reducing the need for investment.
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The phenomenon of synergy in business
Synergy is a moment of interaction between disparate objects in which their combined efforts produce a greater or lesser effect than the simple mathematical sum of these efforts. For example, two employees of one company can produce less products than two entrepreneurs who are independent of each other.
Such a drop in performance will occur if these two colleagues do not find a common language with each other. That is why it is very important to be able to suppress your pride and find a compromise if you have to work not alone, but in a team.
A typical example of such an organization of joint activities is brainstorming. Thanks to the pooling of efforts and their joint direction in the right direction, it is possible to find unusual solutions that most likely would not have been found by the disparate participants in this assault.
In the business sphere, unexpected synergies are also observed. For example, in a certain deserted place there is one small store, the owner of which barely makes a meager profit due to too few clients.
If several large chain stores appear in its neighborhood, customers will flock to them. A certain part of them may be interested in the goods offered by a small store, and it will increase its turnover despite its proximity to “business sharks”.
That’s why it makes sense to open an expensive pharmacy next to a cheap one, where there are always queues at the counter. Surely, more affluent buyers would prefer not to waste time and pay 10-20 percent more just by walking next door.
Synergy in natural sciences
Synergy, as a result of mutually beneficial cooperation, gives an effect that cannot be achieved using individual components.
This is the main advantage of using synergetic laws. And they work in almost every area of human activity.
In medicine, in particular, this term is used in relation to the healing process. As a rule, the patient is prescribed complex treatment , consisting of several types of medications and/or procedures. If you remove at least one component, the treatment process may be delayed or may not give the expected result.
In this case, the properties of all combined measures aimed at improving the patient’s health will produce synergy, and one of the components is not always a drug.
Medical synergy is when each element of therapy complements each other, reveals its properties more widely and gives a significantly greater effect than if the drugs used were used separately.
However, synergy is not always beneficial. So, for example, a combination of certain components can lead to the opposite result, thereby worsening the patient’s condition.
In pharmacology they talk about drug synergy. The principle is the same: the combination of two or more components enhances the healing properties of the drugs. Therefore, the patient is prescribed some additional drug to the main drug, which will reveal the potential of the first drug.
For example, every hypertensive person knows that if you take a pill for high blood pressure along with a diuretic, your blood pressure numbers will return to normal faster.
In psychology, synergy means the disclosure of certain qualities of a person who was influenced by another, stronger, wiser, experienced or competent person.
Let's say the man was a completely ordinary person, without any special talents, merits or outstanding qualities. But after meeting and creating a relationship with a certain lady, he was literally reincarnated. The man began to advance in his career, felt confident and strong. Sometimes unexpected talents are discovered this way (what is that?).
And we are talking not only about people from a person’s “everyday” environment, but also about the relationship, for example, of a psychotherapist with his ward. There is a positive facilitation effect here – classic synergy.
However, the opposite may well be true. The most obvious example would be about a bad company that a child got involved with. The influence of his friends revealed his negative tendencies, helped them to come out and express themselves in full force.
As you can see, each industry puts its own meaning into the meaning of synergy. Therefore, the term must be applied based on the specifics of a particular area.
Human synergy
It often happens that several gifted people together achieve much greater success than they could by realizing their talents alone.
A typical example of such fruitful cooperation is the famous British TV show about cars Top Gear.
Each of its presenters is a bright personality, but it was their creative union that made them legends of automotive journalism. That is why their record of popularity could not be repeated by any of the foreign versions of Top Gear, nor by the British team that replaced them.
Examples of synergy manifestations
Synergy is the increase in the total effectiveness of the efforts of two or more participants in a certain process as a result of combining these efforts. As a rule, it leads to the achievement of a much better result than what would be obtained by simply adding up these efforts without combining them for a common goal.
Examples of such interaction are:
- synergy of several connected fragments of a radioactive substance, after reaching a critical weight, more energy is released than as a result of simple addition of the radiation of each of these fragments;
- the skills and abilities of fruitfully cooperating people are mutually complementary, which results in them achieving impressive collective success;
- The revenues of several firms after their merger often become greater than the sum of their revenues before the merger.
A few words about Synergy University
This is in no way an advertisement or a recommendation, since there is too much ambiguous information about this largest private university - MFPU , or Moscow Financial and Industrial University.
And there are catastrophically few confirmed facts in this mass of scandalous information, although VGTRK reporters in Vesti Nedeli tried to present their investigation in the form of factual material.
According to the authors of Wikipedia, the issue dated February 12, 2012 was about poor quality education. Among other “formal universities” where you can simply buy an education, Synergy was also mentioned, uniting within its walls about fifty thousand students, 75% of whom study either part-time or remotely (via Skype).
Thanks to this report, based largely on letters and reviews from former students and graduates, Synergy became involved in a high-profile scandal. As a result, the Ministry of Education and Science conducted an inspection of the quality of education at the Moscow Financial Educational Institution in December of the same year.
Based on the monitoring results, the university was recognized as “effectively operating” and continued its activities. You can judge for yourself how well this activity lives up to its name by watching this 11-minute video:
Religious synergy and natural science synergy
In the Orthodox and Catholic traditions, synergy is the unification of human and divine desire for salvation.
Synergy is also called:
- coordinated work of different parts of the body in order to reach the most convenient mode of movement;
- in biology, synergism is understood as primary systemogenesis, somatogenesis, morphogenesis;
- In medicine, synergism refers to the total effect of drugs that exceeds the effect of each drug separately.
