Laing O'Rourke chief executive Ray O'Rourke has warned that companies that work with a confrontational style will fail.
Speaking at the first Avanti event, part of the DTI-sponsored Partners in Innovation Programme, O'Rourke endorsed the goal for using IT to promote collaborative working.

He said companies that failed to contribute to collaborative methods were "doomed to fail".

O'Rourke added: "He who lives by the sword will be shot by someone who doesn't."

Nick Terry, chairman of the International Alliance of Interoperability, one of the programme's partners, said that Avanti would improve business performance through collaboration.

The Partners in Innovation Programme is to receive £750,000 from the DTI over three years.