In April 2006 when I joined Foldera, I shuttered my analyst company Shared Spaces Research & Consulting. It had been a great vehicle for my research and consulting work, but with becoming a vendor, it had to end. I intended to stop writing a blog, but I felt so incomplete at not doing so–and besides, I couldn’t tease Eric anymore–that I re-started my blogging activity on this site.

In February this year, when I left Foldera, I established Collaboration Success Advisors with a focus on leading people and organizations to success with collaboration, encompassing both the human aspect and the technology side. However, I kept blogging on michaelsampson.net. What was intended originally as a personal blog morphed fully into a work / research / business blog. Thus while there was a formal entity behind my work, the name that was reinforced was not the formal one.

As I’ve wrestled with strategy and contribution and branding over the past few months, I have kept coming back to the concept that my work is my work. I have found this time around that having a separately named formal entity is a hindrance rather than an asset. In particular, for me, what to do with the Collaboration Success Advisors website from a content perspective has been a challenging question.

As a final decision factor, I have a book coming out next year, and I think that moving away now from the Collaboration Success Advisors naming and branding is a good strategic move.

So I have decided to drop the separate name and branding, and have settled on something a lot simpler: The Michael Sampson Company Limited. All the formal things that need to be instigated down here have been done, and now with this post, it’s official.

What does all of this mean? Aside from branding (and some changes to various websites and blogs), not much on a day-to-day basis. My business focus remains unchanged–helping people, teams and organizations improve performance through effective collaboration practices and technology. My stance on independence and vendor neutrality–both are critical–remains unchanged. And my commitment to explaining, coaching and training people to be effective with collaboration is fixed in stone.

Welcome to my new company.