January 18, 2021
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.
Synergy and personal finance
If you don't have a business, you can also use the law of joining forces. To do this, you just need to find friends, relatives, colleagues or just strangers with similar goals and combine efforts to achieve the optimal result.
Let me give you a few examples.
Joint vacation . When going on vacation with friends, it is not necessary for everyone to drive their own car. You can use several cars to accommodate everyone. This will give you the opportunity to save on gasoline. Dishes, cauldrons and blankets can also not be taken by everyone, but only enough to be enough for the company.
Joint purchases . There are special sites where this works. That is, for the seller it looks like a wholesale sale. But not for us, buyers. We simply combine based on demand and place a general order. At the same time, the cost of purchased products is significantly lower compared to prices in stores. Many people have been buying certain products this way for 5-10 years. People are very happy that they are saving personal financial resources.
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.
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:
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.
Example of your own business
Many people dream of owning their own business. But it is worth noting that not all dreamers start, but only a few reach the end. But why? After researching this issue, people came to the conclusion that the whole point is that business is a versatile process. And to start your own small business on your own, you need to be gifted in almost every area that requires knowledge to open and run it. And this is impossible in principle.
If a person knows how to do something very well, he physically cannot do other things just as perfectly. What to do? Should I just give up on building my own business? Of course not! You need to apply the law of synergy - and the goal will be achieved. Let's look at an example.
To start making money on the Internet, you need to create a website, fill it with high-quality and unique content, promote it and monetize it. Let’s say there are several like-minded people, one of whom knows how to write websites, another knows unique texts, and the third knows about promotion and monetization. Think about it, if each of them starts writing a website, and then moves on to the other points, will the end result be equally high-quality websites? Of course not!
An ideal website will only come from someone who knows how to make it best. Consequently, they will visit this site more and more often. What is the point then for others to take up the implementation of this project if their sites are not competitive?!
Now let's consider the option with synergy, in which responsibilities will be divided, and everyone will take on the work that he can do best. Yes, in this case there will be one project for everyone. But it will be a high-quality, competitive and unique site that can be easily promoted and monetized. Therefore, everyone will benefit from this result. And this benefit will be significantly greater than from implementing 3 projects separately.
Now you know about the law of synergy, you can apply it not only in organizing a business, but also for the purpose of saving personal funds, which is relevant today. Know that this law is applicable in almost every area of human life and activity.
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.
Synergy and economics
In business terms, synergy refers to the economic and production benefits that are achieved by combining the work of two or more companies. The process uses the experience, knowledge, production resources, and distribution channels of all participating firms.
The cost of the overall project almost always exceeds the costs of its individual components when considered in isolation.
When companies merge or are acquired, optimally effective synergies are the main goal. After all, it is with its proper organization and use in work that profits will increase significantly.
As part of a study of financial processes around the world, scientists have identified mutually reinforcing connections from individual procedures and systems. The economy was supposed to be considered as a special synergetic system. The effect and, accordingly, the performance of each component when combined increased several times.
A high-performing team is much more valuable than the contribution of each individual employee. It is functional cross-teams that create synergy between various business functions. The results will exceed all expectations if each player gives his best and strictly performs his part of the work.
The law of synergy is applicable in any area of entrepreneurship. The main thing is proper planning and setting real tasks for each participant in the process.
The following stages of synergetic work are distinguished:
- setting a production or economic goal;
- identification of participants and individual systems of the future synergetic association;
- brainstorming – employees actively come up with methods for solving assigned problems, constantly complement each other’s theories and offer new options;
- definition of the work concept;
- start the process;
- performance assessment and results analysis.
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.
What it is?
Synergy is a beneficial interaction, the effect of which significantly exceeds the effect of each element separately. Translated from Greek, “synergy” means “interaction”, “cooperation”. In other words, synergy is the force that is created in the process of combining systems or individual parts. Productivity and the final result with synergy are significantly higher than what would be obtained by summing up the results of performing all processes separately.
If you look closely, examples of synergy can be seen everywhere:
- A piece of music performed by an orchestra sounds much more impressive than the playing of each instrument participating in it separately.
- A herd of animals has greater strength than the combined strength of each member.
- The performance of a team of athletes will be higher than the sum of the results of each of them.
- With two hands a person can do much more than with each hand separately in total time.
- The combined effect of different drugs on the body provides more effective treatment.
