Competition is a natural part of the business world, so it is perhaps a little out of the ordinary when companies join together to work towards shared goals.
Nonetheless, that is exactly what three perfume companies have done, the Los Angeles Times has reported.
According to the newspaper, Scentevents, a small Los Angeles-based perfume company, has joined forces with two other companies from the same industry in a bid to boost its levels of success.
Neal Harris explained to the LA Times that he realized his firm, which "sells fragrances as a marketing tool to enhance movie premieres, parties and products" could seriously benefit from the expertise of its competitors.
In the article, For three fragrance firms, joining forces sometimes makes scents, it is revealed that he came to this realisation when Scentevents needed to create a product to go with a book about a dog capable of 'seeing' colors.
Mr Harris told the newspaper: "Our areas of expertise and competency were complementary, and together we could work to help each other in some of our business.
"Together we are accomplishing more than we could ever imagined."
Motivation, it seems, is another key element of keeping a business running smoothly.
An article in the Miami Herald entitled Firms with happy employees more likely to weather economic storm revealed that one company has managed to maintain its success levels by being very encouraging with its staff members.
El Dorado Furniture, a furniture company based in south Florida, recently organised a series of motivational seminars for its workforce.
Held over a three-day period, the seminars focussed on how the business has been affected by the global economic downturn.
Jesus Capo, chief information officer at El Dorado, explained to the Miami Herald that bosses want to show their workers that there are reasons to be positive and their jobs are safe.
He was quoted by the paper as saying: "We told them how the recession has affected us and told them what they could do as employees and members of the community.
"We wanted to make sure employees on the floor, in our decorating department, on our cleaning crew are working toward the same goal and treating our customers with respect."
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