SAMq2 2013 non-member Edition by ASAP

“The Rhythm of Business has helped us to grow our alliance management capabilities so that now our team has the professionalism and expertise that I would expect of a much larger organization.” José Ochoa, Vice President Strategic Alliances & Business Development Emergent BioSolutions, Inc.

www.rhythmofbusiness.com

Don’t Just State the Obvious

Find the deeper insights all alliance managers need to succeed – in ASAP’s Fourth State of Alliance Management Study It’s clear that the alliance management profession has come a long way since the first ASAP State of Alliance Management Study in 2001. But the what, how, and why of our progress as a profession – and especially where we’re headed and what we need to do to improve – are not so obvious. Deeper answers require deeper research and analysis. With three more editions of the study conducted over the course of a decade, our fourth version, The State of Alliance Management: Past, Present, Future, provides this unparalleled and unprecedented depth. Contact ASAP today to order copies for you and your colleagues. Inside this crucial survey of 272 individuals representing 230 companies across the world, you will find powerful insights about: n Alliance success rates – and factors that influence outcomes n The evolution of alliance professionals and roles n The effectiveness of proliferating alliance tools n The growing focus on the importance of alliance culture

Order your copies today!

The State of Alliance Management: Past, Present, Future is $59.99 for ASAP Members and $99.99 for nonmembers. Contact Pam Goodell at +1 781-562-1630 ext. 202 or pgoodell@strategic-alliances.org to get your copy today! www.rhythmofbusiness.com

960 Turnpike St, Canton MA 02021 USA Tel: +1- 781-562-1630 strategic-alliances.org info@strategic-alliances.org

You too could be a 2014 ASAP Alliance Excellence Award Finalist or Winner! But ONLY if you submit an Alliance Excellence Award Nomination. Get started TODAY. ASAP’s Alliance Excellence Awards Committee is now accepting nominations for the 2014 ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards. Start thinking NOW about how to tell the story of an alliance or program that has taken your company (and even the world) to new heights! Be recognized by your peers at the March 2014 ASAP Global Alliance Summit—the premier event in alliance management—as a leader in partnership success and innovation. Award categories include: n Alliance Program Excellence n Individual Alliance Excellence n Innovative Alliance Best Practice n Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility

Join the prestigious ranks of finalists and winners that have included F. Hoffmann–La Roche, SAS, Citrix, Schneider Electric, Oracle, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Teradata, Deloitte, SAS, Coherence, IBM, SAP, Cisco, HP, Xerox, Turkcell, Novartis, Eli Lilly and Company, Ipsen, Inspiration Pharmaceuticals, P&G, Harley Davidson, Starbucks, and Federal Express, among others. Learn more and begin your application TODAY at strategicalliances.org/alliance-excellenceawards/

Strategic Alliance Magazine

up front

ASAP Media 3.0

At Our Two-Year Anniversary, We’re Realizing Our Vision and Looking to Take Our Editorial Platform to the Next Level By Art Canter

THIS ISSUE MARKS THE START OF THE THIRD YEAR of Strategic Alliance Magazine as well as ASAP’s publishing arm, ASAP Media. It’s a milestone we would not have reached without the help of Charter ASAP Media Sponsors Eli Lilly and Company, Quintiles, Phoenix Consulting Group, The Rhythm of Business, Vantage Partners, and Xerox. Thanks to those companies and a host of Charter Benefactors who stepped up during the publication’s first year, we have been able to produce content that provides fresh, relevant, valuable perspectives to our readers. In fact, our members now rank Strategic Alliance Magazine as the most-utilized benefit of ASAP membership. “I’m an avid reader and often forward articles from the magazine. I refer to it as a journal—the articles are more instructive, and break a lot of new ground rather than just reporting on association-related events. It’s not just a membership communication vehicle or extended newsletter,” said Michael W. Young of ASAP Corporate Member PPD. Just as important, to be financially viable, we have built a platform that enables any organization to enhance its brand and reputation. This is reflected in our sponsor base, which has only gotten stronger—and larger—since the publication’s inception. Eli Lilly and Company recently renewed its sponsorship for a third straight year. Meanwhile, several new sponsors have come aboard over the past few quarters, including AbbVie, which has turned to ASAP to help the newly formed Abbott Quarter 2, 2013

Laboratories spinoff assert its leadership within the alliance management community. In addition, consultancies Alliancesphere, 7ContinentsCollaboration, and Simoons & Company have harnessed ASAP Media sponsorship to reach their clients and prospects.

help us create new distribution channels for our rapidly growing body of content— which includes the just-released ASAP Handbook of Alliance Management, along with Strategic Alliance Magazine, ASAP eNews monthly newsletters, archived webinars, and the Collaborative Buzz blog.

We have come far—and fast! But in many ways we are still at the beginning of what ASAP Media can do to serve its readership, to elevate and promote alliance management, and to support the people and companies looking to make an impact at the hub of the profession. To start, we are unveiling our Strategic Alliance Magazine Advocate program, which enables any individual or organization to be recognized as a leader in this discipline; it fits just about any budget and it requires no more than a credit card and a click of a button to join (no P.O. or contract necessary!).

As our platform evolves into “ASAP Media 3.0,” we will be able to offer even more of that “win-win” arrangement that those of us in the alliance management space constantly strive for—in other words, all boats rise when we strengthen our partnership, and the more our readers, contributors, and sponsors engage, the more we all benefit.

Next, with the support and guidance of a newly formed ASAP content task force, we are looking to evolve our media platform to help alliance-minded organizations further bolster the value of their brands, organizations, and partner communities through closer collaboration with ASAP. This will

We won’t rest on our newly earned laurels. We are taking ASAP Media to the next level, and we want you to join us side-by-side for the ride. n

Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP, is executive publisher of Strategic Alliance Magazine. 5

in this issue

Quarter 2, 2013

The magazine of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals AN ASAP MEDIA PUBLICATION www.ASAPmedia.org www.strategic-alliances.org EDITORIAL TEAM Art Canter, Executive Publisher +1-781-562-1630 ext. 201 acanter@strategic-alliances.org John W. DeWitt, Publisher +1-978-544-1866 jdewitt@ASAPmedia.org Jon Lavietes, Editorial Director +1-415-572-4408 jlavietes@ASAPmedia.org Michael Burke, Editor-in-Chief +1-413-345-1624 mburke@ASAPmedia.org Greg Caulton, Creative Director +1-413-461-7096 gcaulton@ASAPmedia.org Matthew Wimmer, Design and Online Media Manager +1-774-316-0916 mwimmer@ASAPmedia.org Michelle Duga, Sponsorship Coordinator +1-978-544-1866 mduga@ASAPmedia.org Emily Bayard, Image Researcher +1-413-461-7096 emily@gregcaulton.com Ben Olson, Graphic Designer +1-585-245-4796 1benolson@gmail.com ASAP STAFF Art Canter, President and CEO +1-781-562-1630 ext. 201 acanter@strategic-alliances.org Pam Goodell, CA-AM, Vice President of Operations +1-781-562-1630 ext. 202 pgoodell@strategic-alliances.org Lori Gold, Senior Manager of Membership Services +1-781-562-1630 ext. 203 lgold@strategic-alliances.org Michele Shannon, CA-AM, CMP Senior Meeting & Event Manager +1-781-562-1630 ext. 204 mshannon@strategic-alliances.org Kimberly T. Miller, Marketing Manager +1-781-562-1630 ext. 208 kmiller@strategic-alliances.org Brendan Ward, Administrative Support +1-781-562-1630 ext. 200 bward@strategic-alliances.org Diane Lemkin, Accounting Manager +1-781-562-1630 ext. 206 dianel@strategic-alliances.org Jennifer Silver, Certification Coordinator +1-781-562-1630 ext. 205 jsilver@strategic-alliances.org Michele Yudysky, Membership Coordinator +1-781-562-1630 ext. 209 myudysky@strategic-alliances.org © Copyright 2013 Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals. All Rights Reserved.

n COVER STORY

An Outsized Task

Facilitating a Partnership Between a Big and Small Company Presents Unique Challenges | By Jon Lavietes

If you didn’t know any better, you might think a smaller company would have to take measures to protect itself from being strongarmed by its bigger partner. Although this is true in some instances, it is usually not the case. More likely, the two organizations just have to iron out a few operating issues that are unique to this type of alliance.

n ALIGNMENT OPTIMIZATION

Applying Hard Data to a “Soft” Subject

Everyone Agrees on the Importance of Alignment in an Alliance, but What Does It Really Take to Achieve It? | By Michael Taylor

Most business professionals strive to have their teams, organizations, and, yes, their alliances “in alignment” with their work colleagues and company objectives. However, alignment is an intangible concept for most of us; we either feel we have it, or we don’t. Our guest author’s research and methods bring some science to the art of deriving value from alignment, and mitigating the costs of misalignment, in teams.

n GLOBAL ALLIANCE AWARDS

Ushering in ASAP’s Exciting Next Chapter

RTP, New England, Silicon Valley, and Midwest Chapters Honored for Their Contributions in Strengthening ASAP’s Value Proposition | By Jon Lavietes

The Alliance Excellence Awards weren’t the only honors handed out at the 2013 ASAP Global Alliance Summit. ASAP’s New England, Midwest, Silicon Valley, and RTP chapters were recognized for their efforts to spread ASAP’s value proposition to their local regions and align themselves with the association’s broader objectives. 6

n GLOBAL ALLIANCE AWARDS

ASAP Unveils 2013 Alliance Excellence Award Winners

Takeda, SAS, Teradata, exactEarth, KSAT, BipBop, and Schneider Electric Honored at Annual Ceremonial Dinner | By Jon Lavietes

In 2012, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Schneider Electric, exactEarth, KSAT, Teradata, and SAS utilized creative alliance management practices to achieve great results from their partnerships. Their inventiveness and success earned them 2013 ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards.

n GOVERNANCE DESIGN

Goodbye for Now

How Effective Alliance Wind-Down Can Put You on Course for Future Success | By David Thompson, CA-AM, and Steven E. Twait, CSAP

The authors of this four-part series on alliance governance deliver the final installment, which examines the “Wind-down” phase of an alliance. This article offers direction to the alliance manager tasked with handling the logistics and emotions of an alliance that has been terminated. Like the “Start-up” and “Steady State” phases, the Wind-down contains significant business and human risk, along with plenty of legal uncertainties. Effectively managing this phase is important to set the stage for success with future alliance partners. Sponsored by Eli Lilly & Co.

n CEO FORUM

Q&A with Nils Brauckmann, President and General Manager, SUSE

At its roots, collaboration has always been a core principle in the open source world. Now companies like SUSE are trying to advance that culture to meet the needs of the enterprise. SUSE’s president and general manager Nils Brauckmann talks about this evolution and more.

Regular Features: 5 n UP FRONT At Our Two-Year Anniversary, We’re Realizing Our Vision and Looking to Take Our Editorial Platform to the Next Level 11 n COLLABORATIVE BUZZ Alliance News Briefs | People in the News ASAP & ASAP Partner Calendar of Events | ASAP Chapter Updates Quarter 2, 2013

15 n ASAP MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Royal Wisdom For More Than a Decade, the Alliance Management Function Has Helped Philips Evolve to Manage Its Burgeoning Partner Portfolio

Quarter 2, 2013

The magazine of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals

in this issue

ASAP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Russ Buchanan, CSAP ASAP Chairman of the Board Vice President, Worldwide Alliances, Xerox Corp. Jack Pearson, CSAP ASAP Vice Chairman Managing Director & Chief Alliance Officer, Alliance Development International, LLC Harry Atkins, CSAP ASAP Treasurer Senior Director, Corporate Development, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Inc. Brian Handley, CA-AM ASAP Secretary Business Development, Emerson Corp. Christine Carberry, CSAP Chairman, ASAP Knowledge Base & Research Committee Vice President, Program & Alliance Management, EnVivo Pharmaceuticals Snehal Desai, CA-AM Chairman, ASAP Marketing Committee Global Marketing Director, The Dow Chemical Company Grif Morrel, CSAP Chairman, ASAP Chapter Presidents’ Council Senior Manager, Sales Business Development and Operations, Cisco Systems, Inc. Alistair Pim, CSAP Chairman, ASAP Professional Development Committee Vice President, Global Strategic Alliances, Schneider Electric Jan Twombly, CSAP Chairman, ASAP Program Committee President, The Rhythm of Business, Inc.

n YOUR CAREER

At the Heart of Every Alliance Is a Great Networker

Developing the Ability to Connect with Colleagues and Partners Is Key to the Alliance Management Role and to Career Advancement | By Michael Burke

The skill of networking is critical to the alliance manager’s job function, and to his or her career aspirations as well. Done properly and respectfully, it can provide a wealth of connections that pay dividends over time, often in unexpected ways, as “what goes around comes around” to mutual benefit.

n ALLIANCE CHAMPION New Horizons | By Jon Lavietes Longtime Telecom Industry Veteran’s Solo Venture Brings Alliance Management to New Sectors and Market Segments

For many years, Pascal Goursaud managed telecom-related alliances, primarily as a Cisco alliance executive. Now he is trying his hand at facilitating partnerships for SMBs representing a variety of industries that are relatively newer to strategic alliances.

54 Strategic Alliance Magazine is published quarterly. Publisher is The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, 960 Turnpike Street, Canton, MA 02021, +1-781-562-1630. Subscriptions are $99 for one year, $189 for two years. Canadian subscriptions are $149 per year. All other international subscriptions are $199 (using air mail). Subscription inquiries: +1 781-562-1630. Periodicals postage is paid in Chicopee, MA, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE, 960 Turnpike Street, Canton, MA 02021. Copyright 2013, The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For reprints, please contact The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, +1-781-562-1630. 8

n THE CLOSE

The Collaborative Era Should Be Our Oyster

If Alliance Management Doesn’t Lead the Way, Who Will? Answer: Someone Else By John DeWitt

Alliance managers can be the engine of innovation in 21st-century business—if we’re truly prepared to lead, perform, and deliver breakthrough value in a fastmoving collaborative world. Strategic Alliance Magazine

O r g a n i z a ti

Strategy Alliance Portfolio Management

o gy d ol

ctu

ho et

Strategies and Skills for Enabling Successful Alliance Execution

tr u

Individual Alliance Management

Results

Cul tur

e e & Peopl

Join our team October 8th and 9th at the Harvard Faculty Club in Cambridge, MA for a two-day intensive alliance management training program Program Features n

Strengthen the personal skills that are essential to managing complex working relationships through a series of interactive round-table discussions, case studies, scenario analysis and role play

Network and share best practices with your alliance management colleagues

Learn how to develop and effectively implement the key alliance management processes necessary to maximize the value delivered by your organizations alliances

Create an action plan to help your organization execute more effectively on its alliance

Illustrative Content To Include n

The skills required to intervene effectively on troubled working relationships including conflict resolution, joint problem solving and negotiation methodologies

Best practice alliance management processes including the New Alliance Launch Process, Alliance Portfolio Stratification, Alliance Health Check and Alliance Scorecarding

Key alliance success factors and common challenges related thereto

Governance models, decision making processes and leadership strategies

Building out the supporting infrastructure needed for a successful Alliance Management Capability

Alliance strategy including Build-Buy-Ally Analysis and Alliance Due Diligence

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Earn points towards your CA-AM and CSAP ASAP certification! Interested in learning more? Find us on the web at: www.vantagepartners.com/Open-Enrollment-Training.aspx or Contact directly us at: alliancetraining@vantagepartners.com

OUR HEART IS ALWAYS IN OUR WORK BECAUSE OUR PATIENTS ARE ALWAYS ON OUR MIND. The remarkable impact we make on people’s lives comes from a relentless focus on what each patient needs and how to deliver it. We are a biopharmaceutical company that combines science, passion, and expertise to bring new solutions to health and healthcare. We measure our success by the impact we make on patients’ lives. abbvie.com

Collaborative Buzz Electric Avenue: Sanofi and Schneider Electric Throw the Switch on Energy Efficiency Alliance By Michael Burke

FRENCH DRUG GIANT AND ASAP GLOBAL MEMBER Sanofi reported in late March that it has signed an agreement with electrical equipment maker—and fellow ASAP Global Member—Schneider Electric SA to accelerate its energy efficiency program on its industrial sites in 40 countries around the world. The collaboration agreement is implemented for three years and will comprise four components: the establishment of an energy observatory to assist Sanofi with forecasting energy price changes in 16 countries; energy performance monitoring both globally and site by site, using Schneider Electric’s StruxureWare Energy Operation software; on-site diagnostics to contribute to the design of energy efficiency improvement plans; and energy consultant support for Sanofi’s engineering teams starting from the design phase of any new industrial site. “It’s an important step for Sanofi to collaborate on a global scale with Schneider Electric,” said Philippe Luscan, Sanofi’s senior vice president for industrial affairs. “This industrial collaboration will enhance the energy efficiency program developed throughout Sanofi’s global network of manufacturing sites. These efforts currently have enabled us to be ahead of our objective to reduce direct and indirect emissions of CO2 to 20 percent below 2010 values by 2020.” “Schneider Electric is delighted to be actively supporting Sanofi in improving energy management on its industrial sites,” said Laurent Vernerey, vice president of Schneider’s End User Business Group. “This collaboration illustrates Quarter 2, 2013

Schneider Electric’s unique capability to provide its customers with integrated and global solutions that value energy as a major asset for a company.”

n Andy Eibling, Covance

Perhaps Schneider will use this deal as a model for future discussions with other Big Pharma multinationals at the 2013 ASAP BioPharma Conference in Boston—or at next year’s ASAP Global Alliance Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz.? (See story on page 34 for more on Schneider Electric’s energy efficiency efforts and other sustainability projects.)

n Joan Meltzer, IBM

ASAP News Century Club: ASAP Certifies 100th CSAP

At the 2013 ASAP Global Alliance Summit, held in Orlando, Fla., in March, 14 alliance management veterans passed the exam to earn the Certified Strategic Alliance Professional (CSAP) credential, the most advanced level of certification. This new crop of alliance management experts helped the community reach a milestone: ASAP now boasts more than 100 CSAPs, who can demonstrate their command of the full alliance life cycle from inception to termination/reevaluation on behalf of their respective organizations. Congratulations go out to the following seasoned—and now certified—alliance masters:

n Christoph Sarry, F. Hoffmann– La Roche n Nancy Breiman, IBM n Subhojit Roye, Infosys n Janice Babia-Ramos, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson n Ron McRae, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson n Vinnie Rivera, Nationwide n Annlouise Goodermuth, Sanofi n Andrew Lockhart, SAS n Susan Hed, Schneider Electric n Parth Amin, Varian Medical Systems n Karen Robinson, Verizon n Mark Ballinger, Xerox

ASAP and ASAP Partner Events

2013 BioPharma Conference Wednesday, November 20 – Friday, November 22, 2013, Hyatt Regency Boston, One Avenue De Lafayette, Boston, Mass., USA (look for a BioPharma Conference Call for Papers soon; check www.strategic-alliances.org periodically for more details as they emerge)

Collaborative Buzz 2014 ASAP Global Alliance Summit

Sunday, March 9 – Thursday, March 13, 2014, Talking Stick Resort, 9800 E. Indian Bend Rd., Scottsdale, Ariz., USA (check www.strategic-alliances.org periodically for more information as it becomes available)

Alliance News Plastic People of the Universe: NBA Joins will.i.am and Coke to Turn Recycling into Fashion

Now one person’s recyclable item truly will become another person’s treasure. EKOCYCLE, an innovative brand initiative developed by global music artist and producer will.i.am and the Coca-Cola Company, is introducing new apparel and lifestyle products that aim to make a compelling fashion statement while promoting environmental responsibility. EKOCYCLE repurposes items such as plastic bottles for use as recycled content in fashionable lifestyle products with the help of some of today’s biggest trendsetters and brands.

“Together EKOCYCLE and the NBA can help further the belief that waste is only waste if we waste it.” Announcement of the expansion of the EKOCYCLE product line coincided with “NBA Green Week” in early April, presented by Sprint. This effort is focused on reducing the league’s ecological impact and helping educate basketball fans around the globe about the importance of environmental protection. The new brand partnership between EKOCYCLE and the NBA included a nationally televised U.S. debut of some of the latest everyday products and clothing made from recycled waste at Staples Center in Los Angeles during the 12

April 7 game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers. “We’re putting the spotlight on our new EKOCYCLE brand partner, Adidas, and celebrating all of our more sustainable products during Green Week,” said will.i.am. “Together EKOCYCLE and the NBA can help further the belief that waste is only waste if we waste it, while playing a positive role in shifting behavior to reuse, recycle, and reduce waste.” A full line of apparel and lifestyle items promoting environmental responsibility are among the latest offerings from EKOCYCLE, including Adidas T-shirts, Levi’s jeans, Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, and New Era caps—all made from recycled plastic (PET) bottles.

Head Cases: NCAA, NFL, GE, Under Armour Collaborate to Prevent Brain Injuries

In other sports news, March Madness may be over—but the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is proving that amid all the madness there’s some method, and it involves listening to the head as well as the heart. As part of its commitment to the health and safety of student-athletes, big-time college sports’ governing body has announced that it will participate in an unprecedented strategic alliance formed by the National Football League and General Electric to facilitate innovation and advance research into brain injuries. The Head Health Initiative will be a four-year, $60 million collaboration funded by the NFL, GE, and Under Armour, and supported by the NCAA and the U.S. military. Its goal is to develop next-generation imaging technologies to improve diagnosis and management of concussions and uncover innovative approaches to protecting the brain—not only for athletes but for military personnel and the general public as well. The NCAA will support research funded by the partnership by providing scientists with opportunities to study concussions and their effects

beyond football—the sport that has brought the injury’s detrimental effects to the forefront of health and safety discussions. It will also encourage its member institutions to participate in the initiative by having medical staff who work with studentathletes speak with students about volunteering for study. Student-athlete participation will allow the initiative to expand beyond football to other sports, such as soccer, lacrosse, and ice hockey, and to help in understanding how concussion risks and effects might differ between women and men and in different sports.

Brazilian Job: Capgemini and EMC Extend Cloud Solutions Alliance

ASAP Global Member Capgemini, provider of consulting, technology, and outsourcing services, and Corporate Member EMC, a private, public, and hybrid cloud infrastructure technologies company, recently announced the expansion of their global alliance with a strategic go-to-market agreement to expand their operations in Brazil. The two companies have committed to work collaboratively on the implementation of next-generation cloud solutions. Responding to demand for these solutions in Latin America, Capgemini and EMC will deliver a portfolio of end-to-end as-a-service cloud offerings designed for specific vertical market segments. Working closely with EMC, Capgemini Brasil will operate a new dedicated integrated solutions business unit to bring these solutions to the Brazilian market, providing the needed technological infrastructure expertise. The as-a-service solutions—including storage, backup, archive, and enterprise content management—will be aimed at delivering more agile and cost-efficient cloud IT solutions, designed to meet customers’ unique business challenges, requirements, and service-level agreements for specific vertical market segments, decreasing the need for Strategic Alliance Magazine

capital expenditures, and increasing the alignment of IT costs to consumption.

They’re Not Boiling the Ocean, But Dow and Capgemini’s relationship with EMC HidroLotus Hope to dates back to 2002, when the companies Drink the Lake began offering joint pay-as-you-go storage services. Capgemini has been an EMC Global Alliance Partner since the program’s inception in 2008. The two companies formed a strategic alliance in 2011, with the aim of driving growth through the joint development of nextgeneration, cloud-based solutions. This new addition to that alliance extends that strategic partnership to leverage the companies’ expertise to enable geographic, vertical, and emerging markets growth, first in Brazil, before rolling out similar approaches in other markets.

ASAP Corporate Member Dow Water & Process Solutions, a business unit of the Dow Chemical Company, and HidroLotus LLC, a joint venture between Azeri Hidro Group and Turkish Lotus Group, have announced their plans to build the world’s largest surface water ultrafiltration plant in Baku, Azerbaijan. Work started in June 2012, and upon completion planned this year, the plant is projected to reach daily capacity of 520,000 cubic meters and become one of the main drinking water suppliers for Baku’s population of three million.

Go GHIT ’Em: Astellas Joins Japanese Partnership to Fight Infectious Diseases

The plant is currently being constructed by HidroLotus, using Dow’s technological capabilities and worldwide expertise in the water filtration segment. Dow Water & Process Solutions supplied advanced UltraFiltration (UF) modules to contribute to purification of water from the lake in Ceyranbatan, a city approximately 25 miles from Baku, and offered its engineering services to support the key part of the complex water management cycle—which starts from the water intake and moves through treatment, waste neutralization and discharge, transfer, and finally supply of clean drinking water to the end user.

ASAP Corporate Member Astellas Pharma Inc. announced in April that it has joined the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund), the first public-private partnership of its kind in Japan. The GHIT Fund has been established to advance the research and development of new medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics to fight infectious diseases in the developing world. The GHIT Fund is supported by the government of Japan, five Japanese pharmaceutical companies—including ASAP Corporate Members Takeda and Daiichi Sankyo, along with Eisai and Shionogi—and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The fund aims to reinforce Japan’s contribution to global health by developing new health technologies for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by utilizing the highly developed science and technology capacity found at the country’s pharmaceutical companies, universities, and research institutions. In addition, the GHIT Fund will facilitate and fund global R&D of new health technologies through partnership creation, providing grants for promising research. Quarter 2, 2013

“The plant leverages the know-how and worldwide experience of Dow Water & Process Solutions to make water safer, cleaner, and more available with filtration, purification, and separation technologies,” said Gergely Nagy, regional commercial manager for Dow Water & Process Solutions in Russia, Eastern Europe, Greece, and Turkey. “The progress we are making today would not have been possible without the highly valued and continued dialogue established and maintained with the local authorities, our customers, the collaboration between the local highly qualified and dedicated specialists, and the Dow team assigned for this project.”

When the Levee Breaks: Zurich Insurance and IFRC Combine to Combat Floods

Zurich Insurance Group has announced a $22.18 million five-year alliance with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Zurich said this commitment would serve as the foundation of its global flood resilience program, which aims to enhance community flood resilience by finding innovative ways to increase the impact of disaster risk reduction efforts at the community, national, and global levels. The first country program will take place in Mexico. The program will be focused on developing and disseminating knowledge and expertise on flood resilience, according to a company announcement. It aims to have a positive impact at the local level through strategic long-term alliances with the public sector, NGOs, private sector organizations, and academia, and will also look at the contribution insurance can make when it comes to flood risk. Zurich noted that it has been working with the IFRC since 2008, and that it expects this alliance—yet another example of public-private partnerships in action— to become a model that can be replicated globally. The Z Zurich Foundation, following the strategic investment of $100 million made by Zurich last year, will invest more than $22 million in the alliance over the five years to 2017.

All’s Well That Ends Well? Galapagos and Roche Part Ways

Belgian pharma company Galapagos NV announced in March that it agreed with ASAP Corporate Member Roche to end their alliance in fibrosis. Roche will make a payment of 5.75 million euros to Galapagos for work completed in 2012. With the ending of the alliance, Galapagos has regained the worldwide rights to all fibrosis assays and the targets discovered in the alliance. These novel targets were identified in various unique human primary cell assays mimicking fibrosis. 13

Collaborative Buzz Said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos, “Our plan is to find another partner to continue the search for compounds against these debilitating diseases.”

Three’s Company: Owens Corning, BASF, and TenCate in Automotive Alliance

Owens Corning recently announced its inclusion in a strategic alliance with BASF and TenCate Advanced Composites, according to the Web site CompositesWorld.com. The goal of the alliance is to develop optimal solutions in thermoplastic composites for automotive mass production.

Tighter global emission standards continue to increase the need for lighter vehicles that maintain strength and durability. According to Owens Corning group president Arnaud Genis, “There is a critical and growing need in the automotive industry to have lighter, stronger, and more environmentally efficient products. Glass fiber solutions are not fully leveraged, and by combining the talent and resources of Owens Corning, BASF, and TenCate— all industry leaders—we will be able to take significant weight out and find the optimum solutions for our customers quickly, and with the highest-quality design and structure.” In this strategic alliance, BASF will contribute comprehensive knowledge in the production and formulation of thermoplastic resins, TenCate Advanced Composites brings its expertise in composites manufacturing, and Owens Corning brings the technology to develop superior and tailor-made fabrics and glass reinforcement solutions. Tighter global emission standards continue to increase the need for lighter vehicles that maintain strength and 14

durability. Compared with metal parts, fiber-reinforced plastic composites can be 30 to 50 percent lighter. Thermoplastic composites help increase fuel efficiency in automobiles and reduce costs for consumers, and thermoplastic processing dramatically reduces production cycle times. Additionally, these products have no limitations in shelf life and can be recycled.

Share and Share Alike: Fidelity and BlackRock Partner Around iShares ETFs

Fidelity Investments and BlackRock, Inc., announced in March a long-term strategic alliance that provides extensive collaboration across Fidelity’s distribution and asset management organizations with BlackRock and its exchangetraded funds (ETFs) provider iShares to deliver value to investors across a range of ETF initiatives. This partnership seeks to give millions of Fidelity customers increased and improved access to a broad selection of passive ETF solutions provided by iShares. As part of this manufacturing and distribution partnership with iShares, Fidelity will more than double its online commission-free ETF offerings and will create new ETF portfolio strategies using iShares as components within its managed account offering (Portfolio Advisory Services). In addition, as part of Fidelity’s growing sector-based business strategy, the company has established a strategic relationship with BlackRock whereby the firm will help support Fidelity’s future passive sector investment management efforts.

Tax and Spend: KPMG in Alliance with Coupa Software

KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax, and advisory firm, and Coupa Software, a cloud-based spend optimization solutions provider, announced in April a new strategic alliance dedicated to helping clients transform their approach to procurement to achieve bottom-line savings. The alliance was

announced at the Coupa INSPIRE Conference in San Francisco. KPMG works with clients to help them make procurement a source of value and innovation through better spend management, productivity gains, and improved internal controls. In partnering with Coupa, KPMG aims to help clients drive sustainable improvements to capture the full value of the implementations of Coupa’s suite of cloud-based financial applications. “Our mission is to make procurement a competitive differentiator for our clients,” said Samir Khushalani, principal for KPMG LLP. “By forming an alliance with Coupa, we are working to help clients drive sustainable improvements to transform the procurement organization and processes into a driver of value and innovation.”

These Boots Were Made for Walgreens: Drugstore Giant Joins Alliance Boots, AmerisourceBergen

Walgreen Co., the largest retail drugstore chain in the United States, and Alliance Boots GmbH, a leading international pharmacy-led health and beauty group, announced in March that they have entered into an innovative long-term partnership with AmerisourceBergen, one of North America’s largest pharmaceutical services companies. This relationship will enable Walgreens, Alliance Boots, and AmerisourceBergen to benefit from greater scale and global opportunities and work together on programs to improve service levels and efficiencies, while reducing costs and increasing patient access to pharmaceuticals. Together the three companies will attempt to help address global health care challenges by making it easier for manufacturers to bring products to market; making the benefits of global sourcing and best practices increasingly accessible for community pharmacies; and providing Continued on page 42 Strategic Alliance Magazine

R E G U L A R

F E AT U R E

spotlight member

Royal Wisdom For More Than a Decade, the Alliance Management Function Has Helped Philips Evolve to Manage Its Burgeoning Partner Portfolio By Jon Lavietes

ROYAL PHILIPS FOUNDED ITS ALLIANCE MANAGEMENT practice in 2000, toward the tail end of the great dot-com economic boom. And although within a year the world would learn that the business models of many of these emerging technology companies—and consequently the entire global economy—were built on a questionable foundation, it appears Philips’s alliance function was built to last. What started as a two-person operation is now a unit of six full-time alliance management professionals who support scores of employees from Philips’s various sectors and markets who are charged with some form of alliance responsibility.

Royal Philips in a Flash Approximately 90 alliances in the portfolio

day that number has almost tripled, as Philips might be involved in up to 100 alliances at any given time.

Alliances generally spread evenly across its lighting, health care, and consumer business units

Alliances in the Big Picture

Alliance management practice started in 2000

Philips has a diverse array of businesses that fall into three broad arFull-time team oversees dozens of other Philips eas: 1) lighting, 2) health care, and employees working on alliances in some form Over time, the alliance function 3) consumer lifestyle. Together, has developed a host of capabilithese categories represent a unique cross-section of the industies, which are delineated in a larger six-step framework, accord- tries that rely most heavily on alliances, such as high-tech, pharing to John Bell (pictured above), vice president and head of maceutical, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing. strategy and partnerships at Philips Research: 1) build/buy/ally This wide swath of partnership types necessitates that Philips’s analysis, 2) preparation (i.e., envisioning the hypothetical struc- alliance management practice heads sport a keen eye for conture of a potential partnership), 3) partner selection, 4) negotia- necting alliances to the bigger picture of overall company stratetion and design, 5) management, and 6) evaluation. gy and identifying synergies across the respective business units. Along the way, Philips was honored with a 2007 ASAP Alliance Although it is not unusual for an alliance management function Excellence Award in the Alliance Program Excellence category to be charged with this portfolio responsibility, it is arguably for its success in running what was then a total of 35 alliances. To- more critical for Philips than most. Quarter 2, 2013

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“We cover three sectors that are quite significantly different in nature. The functional core [alliance] team actually tries to go across and leverage the different skills and perspectives in other sectors,” said Cees Bijl, vice president of group strategy and alliances at Royal Philips. Perhaps even more unique about Philips’s alliance management division is that it tends to stay out of the activities related to everyday execution of its alliances. It serves as a Center of Excellence (COE) and focuses almost exclusively on the early and late stages of Philips’s partnerships. “The function is really involved in identification, starting up alliances, and scoping out the alliance contract, and getting them up and running, but then also evaluating the alliances throughout their lifetime,” said Bijl. The company expects the dozens of employees within the individual business units who are managing alliances part- or full-time to conduct everything in between. “[The alliance management practice] is more, let’s say, the functional and expert support for all the alliances work we do than it is to run the alliances on a day-to-day basis, because we believe that is a responsibility the businesses should carry,” Bijl added.

Getting Non–Alliance Personnel to See Through a Different Lens As is common with many alliance management COEs, Philips maintains an internal Web site containing all of its methodologies, which workers outside of the six-person alliance management function can retrieve at any time. However, with so much critical responsibility outside of the main alliance management team’s hands, the full-time staff has to provide more than just instant access to tools. It regularly holds training sessions for folks in the individual business units who dedicate a large portion of their time to one or more alliances. Attendees learn core alliance management principles, including how to influence without authority and the differences between alliance management and, say, project management. They also observe how to set up governance structures and rules of engagement and are trained in alliance negotiations.

in the alliance or partnership where you’re very clear about why the other party is involved, why you’re involved,” he said. “We feel it is quite important to be training our people on [these principles]. Otherwise, they tend to have a very Philips-focused, maybe a products-focused, view of the world.” To keep part-time alliance managers sharp well after their initial alliance training, the central alliance manageCees Bijl, vice president of ment practice facilitates regular work- group strategy and alliances shops in which people within the busi- at Royal Philips. ness units can share their challenges and solicit different perspectives on how to overcome them. According to Bell, topics that have come up in past sessions include effective negotiation strategy, alliance manager succession planning, and dealing with situations in which there is no alliance manager on the partner side. “We have made sure to create a community of alliance managers—people working on alliances—who could learn from each other,” he added.

Masters of Their Domain Of course, in order to keep an eye on Philips’s larger alliance strategy, while supporting the business units’ efforts to carry out day-to-day responsibilities, the alliance management practice’s collective background must complement its general alliance management experience with domain expertise in each of Philips’s broader markets. Bell is a founding member of Philips’s alliance management function and brings years of experience within the discipline. He is also a professor and teaches a class on alliance management at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Another staff member was formerly a product manager for one of Philips’s consumer businesses. Together, the others possess a wealth of knowledge about lighting, health care, and the other areas that are critical to the organization.

But, according to Bijl, these training initiatives yield bigger benefits that go beyond simple tactical instruction; they instill the right mindset for executing alliances and thinking through the situations that might arise in them.

Bell said the evolution of the focus and breadth of Philips’s alliance activities as well as the expansion and diversification of its alliance management staff has in many ways fulfilled the company’s vision when it originally founded the practice at a point when it realized “that alliances would be the future for Philips.”

“[We] get them to understand that you’re in it together, that you’re joined at the hip. It’s about how to go to through the negotiations, how to arrive at the situation

Just like its main product lines, the Philips alliance management function is helping its partners see the light and driving its alliances to better health. n

Quarter 2, 2013

Facilitating a Partnership Between a Big and Small Company Presents Unique Challenges By Jon Lavietes

LARGE MULTINATIONALS AND SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZE BUSINESSES (SMBs) often need each other for reasons that vary by industry. Generally speaking, the big guy needs specialized expertise or product offerings it could not otherwise develop itself in a timely manner or at a profit. A smaller company or start-upâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entrepreneurial atmosphere can also bring fresh thinking, while its flexibility and nimbleness can help advance initiatives at a rate that meets the tighter windows of opportunity in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brisk business environment.

Strategic Alliance Magazine

Of the great things large companies can bring to their smaller partners, the most obvious is resources. By utilizing its sizable ally’s money and/or manpower, the smaller entity might be able to augment its marketing, R&D, or sales efforts considerably. If the SMB pays close enough attention, it can also gain valuable knowledge that could be applied to its own business. But digging a little deeper, there’s a valuable intangible benefit to landing a partnership with a recognizable Global 1,000 company.

“They understand the technology, they understand the market, they understand the people. In a lot of ways that supports your validation of your company and your hypothesis of starting a business.” “It gives credence to the market,” said ASAP New England chapter president Frank Curran, director of business development and alliances at SUSE. “The assumption is that [the larger partner] has done some due diligence. They understand the technology, they understand the market, they understand the people. In a lot of ways that supports your validation of your company and your hypothesis of starting a business.”

Does Size Dictate Power Dynamics? Not Always These unions between smaller companies and multinationals are often referred to as “David-Goliath” partnerships, but that is somewhat of a misnomer. By nature, a good partner is looking for a “win-win” arrangement, so there is a decent chance the larger partner isn’t necessarily looking to strong-arm its lesser ally. “When we enter these alliances, we don’t think of them as ‘David-Goliath’ alliances but rather as a model of symbiosis,” said Pannie Trifillis, Ph.D., CA-AM, director of alliance management at PTC Therapeutics, who copresented the 2013 ASAP Global Alliance Summit session “Does Size Matter?: Handled Skillfully, Alliances Between Small and Large Companies Can Reap Big Benefits for Both,” which examined these types of partnerships as they relate to the biopharmaceutical industry. “We view these alliances as relationships between two ‘species’—in this case, two companies—that are mutually beneficial.” Quarter 2, 2013

But ultimately, power dynamics are determined not by size, per se, but rather by value. Although capital would certainly give a large pharmaceutical company plenty of say in a relationship, according to Lisa Hagerty-McMahon, a biopharmaceutical consultant who possesses concentrated expertise in the small biotech– large pharmaceutical alliance Rob Wills, vice president of Pascal Goursaud, CSAP, CEO of Pannie Trifillis, Ph.D., CA-AM, model in all stages of development alliance management at Janssen BACARAU and secretary general director of alliance management at through commercial launch, it is Pharmaceutical Companies of of ASAP’s France chapter. PTC Therapeutics. not unlikely for a biotech to find Johnson & Johnson. itself with the upper hand given the dearth of blockbuster drugs on the horizon. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t dynamics pertaining to leverage in play. Dennis Skigen, CSAP, is a business “The balance of power can depend on who has the funds to drive development consultant for Fitbug, an online wellness coaching the asset forward,” she said, referring to Big Pharma. “On the other service and maker of a device that helps people monitor their ex- hand, if biotech is about to bring a first-in-class compound with ercise activity and manage nutrition, where he has orchestrated true blockbuster potential to Phase 3 development, it’s likely that a alliances with Willis, a $3.5 billion health care entity based in pharma giant about to reach the edge of the patent cliff will find itself the UK, and other larger health insurance organizations to help in a lineup with its peers begging for the same deal. Superior science its partners reduce claims submitted by its clients. Earlier in his can trump some of the best Big Pharma in-licensing strategies.” career he drove alliance activity for Digital Integrator, a technology start-up that automated the integration of financial market Partnerships are by nature mutually beneficial. Thus, if the larger data. He ultimately landed highly collaborative engagements with entity has done its homework correctly, it would have already U.S. Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and NASA that arrived at the conclusion that it cannot obtain the same offering, IP, by his own admission were essential for the company’s advance- or expertise at a suitable price point on its own. ment—and survival. On one hand, both Skigen and the prospec- “If you are able to create a partnership which would add such a tive partners knew on some level that the latter would have more valuable proposition that would provide such key differentiators sway in initial contract discussions. On the other, it did make the and competitive advantages to the parties, then you have a nice big partner selection stage pretty straightforward. interesting lever and reason to make it happen and successful for a long time. Whether one is small or one is big or whatever, that doesn’t make any difference,” said Pascal Goursaud, CSAP, CEO of BACARAU and secretary general of ASAP’s France chapter.

Partnerships are by nature mutually beneficial. Thus, if the larger entity has done its homework correctly, it would have already arrived at the conclusion that it cannot obtain the same offering, IP, or expertise at a suitable price point on its own. “We’re happy to be invited to play at the table. Forget about holding the cards,” he said. “[Digital Integrator] didn’t see moving forward [with government agencies] as a risk, we saw it as a way to keep doors open. Our company was maybe 20 people at that point. Somebody says, ‘C’mon down to NASA. You’re going to be presenting this for Mission Control.’ You say yes while you’re boarding the plane.” 20

Skigen said that seeing things through your counterpart’s eyes, along with using a few case studies that demonstrate the value the small company brings, are essential means of leveling the playing field a bit. “What we have to do is sit on their side of the table in our minds and go, ‘If I was Willis, why would I want to deal with a company of this size?’” he said. “[We need] to have plausible and measurable results to share with them to show that a giant like Willis can feel comfortable [accepting us] into an alliance/business development relationship [as well as being on a] vendor-approved list.”

Finding a Fit Curran has sat on both sides of the fence. Today, he manages partnerships with smaller organizations at SUSE. In the past, he has conducted alliances on behalf of a number of technology start-ups. Strategic Alliance Magazine

You are reading the Limited Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine, the magazine of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals. The printed magazine is mailed free to all ASAP members and Sponsors and is also available as a paid subscription. The complete PDF is available to members by logging in to www.strategic-alliances.org For Membership and Sponsor information email membership@strategic-alliances.org or call +1-781-562-1630 ext. 200

Quarter 2, 2013

Alignment Optimization: Applying Hard Data to a “Soft” Subject Everyone Agrees on the Importance of Alignment in an Alliance, but What Does It Really Take to Achieve It? By Michael Taylor

Strategic Alliance Magazine

WE ALL UNDERSTAND THAT STRONG ALIGNMENT is vital to the success of an alliance. As alliance managers, we are accountable for creating a high degree of alignment within and between our organizations and maintaining it over time. One problem with alignment, however, is that humans cannot measure it. So how can we possibly be expected to manage well something we cannot measure? Without formal, scalable methods for attaining alignment, collaborations suffer in two ways when stakeholders try to manage this key attribute by conversation, “gut check,” and intuition: they fail to capitalize on the potential value of alignment, and they pay a cost of misalignment.

The Alignment Index is a leading indicator of a group’s ability to coordinate their actions with minimal communication—in other words, the greater the like-mindedness, the better the ability to take action knowing it will be supported by peers, and the less need for meetings and interactions to “stay aligned.”

The lack of formal methods of attaining and recognizing alignment has two primary, broad consequences. First, objectives and plans appear to be rational and well thought out, but they inevitably contain flaws that only appear during implementation. Second, the actions and behaviors of those whose efforts should yield the collaboration’s potential are not fully coordinated, leading to lost opportunity, waste, and rework. Not only does the business miss the full value of the collaboration, but for the leader and her team, getting from a “we each think...” mindset to one of “we all agree to do...” to “we did it” takes longer and requires more effort than is necessary. Most of us can recall that one collaboration that just seemed to flow. For the others, the effort of managing alignment in groups is generally taken for granted as part of the territory of an alliance manager.

Four Types of Alignment

Fortunately, new research in exchange theory, action science, and interdependent decision making has led to a practice called Alignment Optimization, which now enables alliance managers to transform this critical but subjective attribute into a defined, managed competence—bringing solid structure to a concept that has until now been largely intangible.

Degrees of Alignment Alignment is not a problem to be solved, but a state that changes over time during the course of the collaboration. Rather than the binary assessment of “We are aligned/We are not aligned,” every group with a common purpose has a Degree of Alignment, quantified as the Alignment Index. This is calculated based on mathematical analysis of the actual opinions stakeholders use to describe their common subject, and how they respond to the group’s opinions as to “why, what, when, where, how, who.” Over the last five years, the initial Degree of Alignment of every group studied has been between 44 and 83 on a 100-point scale, where 0 implies complete misalignment and 100 indicates complete alignment. (Strong like-mindedness within a group starts at 85.) When asked why the group should take action, what those actions should be, the desired outcomes, the potential side effects of acting, and the barriers to success, no group was ever fully aligned. Quarter 2, 2013

By measuring alignment, we can now identify the two types of known alignment, and the two types of unknown alignment: Known The alignment we thought we had Misalignment The misalignment we thought we had Alignment

Unknown The alignment we did not know we have The misalignment we did not know we have

Confirming the two types of known alignment allows us to ask, “Are we making the most of our known alignment?” and “Are we dealing efficiently with known misalignment?” Even when we accurately sense misalignment, we don’t always act upon it most effectively. People do not always take the measures necessary to get stakeholders on the same page, as people suspect that others will not support them if they did, perhaps for political or cultural reasons. Or, we take negating action where one’s unilateral decisions on what to do are in opposition to those of another. Putting sensed or known misalignment on the table in an objective fashion can help resolve it faster. Likewise, when unknown alignment is surfaced, the group can explore how to create new value from the information. When unknown misalignment is surfaced, we can prevent the group from incurring a cost of misalignment.

Three Reasons for Misalignment Whether previously known or not, once surfaced, prioritized misalignments can rapidly be resolved. To do this, one must identify the root cause of the misalignment, which is due to one of the following three reasons: 1) Different Data, 2) Different Dictionary, and/or 3) Different Drivers. Different Data means that people have different evidence—data, behaviors, discussions, and other information that leads them to 23

Strategic Alliance Magazine

Quarter 2, 2013

Ushering in ASAP’s Exciting Next Chapter

RTP, New England, Silicon Valley, and Midwest Chapters Honored for Their Contributions in Strengthening ASAP’s Value Proposition By Jon Lavietes New England Provides Blueprint for Chapters to Act Locally, Stay Connected Globally New England Chapter Award for Sharing of Best Practices

“We wanted to make sure that our mission statement and our value complement ASAP Corporate, but that things [were done with a] local flavor,” said New England chapter president Frank Curran, director of business development and alliances at SUSE, who added that the plan was essentially a “snapshot in time” that “gives ASAP Corporate a chance to understand what the local chapter is trying to do.”

Last year, the New England chapter’s leadership sought to address a challenge common in volunteer-led nonprofit organizations. Even though the From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide alliances chapter’s key officers lived in at Xerox; Keith Gamble, CSAP, alliance manager at EMC; Brooke Paige, CSAP, Both the New England chapter the same area, phone calls and principal of 7ContinentsCollaboration, LLC; Frank Curran, director of busiand ASAP Global’s leadership emails could only do so much ness development and alliances at SUSE and New England chapter president; believed the document met this Christine Carberry, CSAP, vice president of program and alliance management to keep everybody on the same at EnVivo Pharmaceuticals; and Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. objective. Furthermore, they felt page. At the same time, the the other chapters might find it chapter had a bigger task at hand—develop a plan for the year useful in aligning their efforts with the association’s global office. that met its own goals while aligning with those of ASAP Global. “We thought the plan might be beneficial as a template to the other New England ended up tackling both challenges by composing a chapters,” said Curran. “It was a great tool for the chapters to help detailed plan that illustrated every critical piece of information anythink about some of their own goals and what they’re trying to do one within the chapter or ASAP Global would need, including its: and then put it on paper.” n Leadership team and governance operating structure It turned out the New England chapter’s hunch was right. Now, n Mission statement and overarching goals a handful of chapters are basing their plans on New England’s n Information on past and future events (e.g., key dates, important model. Moreover, constructive feedback went both ways. For exmetrics around attendance and resulting prospects) ample, Curran credits ASAP president and CEO Art Canter for n Financials the suggestion to add a section on succession planning. In some n Progress on new member recruitment and current member instances, idea sharing went in both directions as well. The Siliretention con Valley chapter saw this plan as a tool for messaging to its own 26

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members and back to corporate headquarters. In turn, Silicon Valley added its own twist: a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, which New England, in turn, incorporated into its plan.

Silicon Valley Event Series Proves to Be a “Game Changer” Silicon Valley Chapter Program Innovation Award

This document will continue to guide New En gland chapter affairs for the foreseeable future— it’s a “living, breathing document,” said Curran. One that will help keep ASAP’s entire chapter ecosystem alive and well.

cludes current and past Silicon Valley chapter presidents and a veteran executive volunteer team. When a topic and set of speakers is chosen, the chapter organizes multiple work meetings in which dialogue is shared and ideas are developed through collaborative efforts and “soundboarding.” Between the presenters’ pedigrees and the process-driven approach, Game Changer events serve as a productive outcome for the speakers and attendees together.

In late 2011, the Silicon Valley chapter conceived of a new event series featuring panels and keynote speakers intertwined into one central theme: how digital From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide platforms—in particular how alliances at Xerox; Norma Watenpaugh, CSAP, principal at Phoenix Consulting Group; and Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. cloud, social media, new data models, and mobile technologies—are dramatically shifting business models as well as the alliance partner and customer ecosystems “When we come together to have risk-free, iterated, collaborative interconnected with them. Dubbed the “Game Changer” series, this learning, it’s a truly effective experience,” said Bakshi. “Often we’re string of gatherings lived up to its name in multiple ways. It brought able to take insights developed as a panel group and apply them to together approximately 250 attendees over its first three sessions. our daily jobs.” The series provided applicable frameworks for gaining controlling Bakshi and former Silicon Valley chapter president John Soper, positions within collaborative alliance ecosystems and introduced CSAP, managing director at New Paradigms Marketing Group, techniques for marketing in the new digital age. credited speakers and moderators Sherrick Murdoff, vice presiThe formula for each event called for the following ingredients for its Game Changer series panels: a published author, one or two “market makers” (i.e., executives who were applying their thought leadership principles as an actual competitive business strategy), and an ASAP sponsor to host the events that is likewise versed in the program’s overarching theme. (Cisco served as the host in the series’ first year.) “It goes beyond whether the panelists discretely have the domain knowledge,” said Nimma Bakshi, Silicon Valley chapter president, who conceived of the “Game Changer” series. “How do our panelists, each having notable accomplishments, complement one another and deliver exponentially more insight to our event participants?” According to Bakshi, it is the formulated chemistry of the panels that takes the series to a new level, and this harmony is no accident either; rather, it’s a byproduct of research and attention to detail conducted by a committed set of panelists—a team that inQuarter 2, 2013

dent of partner development and investments at Salesforce.com; Raja Sundaram, CA-AM, vice president of the Worldwide Services Partner Organization at Cisco; and Adrian Ott, business author and CEO of Exponential Edge, as key contributors to the series. In 2013, the chapter is modifying the series in a couple of ways. First, the broader theme is expanding to incorporate the role big data analytics is increasingly playing in the evolution of these business models—and their alliance ecosystems. This year’s events will also examine the impact companies are making by monetizing vast amounts of real-time information generated by today’s digital platforms, and how they are ultimately delivering value in their products, services, and customer experiences. The series will expand to examine business-to-consumer–related issues as well as emerging business-to-business topics such as machine-to-machine–based information sharing. Silicon Valley’s signature event series is evolving to keep up with an exciting and ever-changing game. 27

Midwest Chapter Brings Global Alliance Summit Back to Members Midwest Chapter

fined Contributions: Measuring the Value of Alliance Management,” which aimed to help alliance professionals measure the value of their alliance management practice.

Program Innovation Award

Midwest chapter president Ann Trampas, CSAP, practice lead for the Phoenix Consulting Group, reprised “The Not every ASAP member can Brain Chemistry of High Perfind the time and budget to get From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide formance Alliances,” which to the annual ASAP Global Al- alliances at Xerox; Susan Hed, CSAP, vice president of the IBM alliance was originally given by ASAP liance Summit, even some who at Schneider Electric; Ann Trampas, CSAP, practice lead for the Phoenix founder and chairman emeriaspire to be there in person the Consulting Group and president of the Midwest chapter; and Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. tus Robert Porter Lynch, CAmost. So the Midwest chapter AM, president of The Warren Company. decided to do the next-best thing and bring part of the 2012 ASAP Global Alliance Summit back to its members just weeks after the successful event concluded in Las Vegas at an event held at the Ember Grille, a chic steakhouse located in the heart of Chicago.

While the original Summit sessions were presented just yards away from ringing slot machines, the recreated presentations also hit the jackpot as they were received equally well in Chicago after they were reenacted by proxy. The chapter’s leadership team conducted a poll of its members who attended the Summit to gauge which sessions they thought would resonate most with local members. Four were ultimately selected, and of those one original presenter was on hand to recreate her presentation. For the other three, select Midwest chapter members obtained the corresponding PowerPoint documents from the original speakers and worked with them to fine-tune a reprise of the knowledge shared at Caesars Palace. Kim Fill, CSAP, who was a manager at Eli Lilly and Company’s Office of Alliance Management at the time, reconstructed the session she and two of her Lilly colleagues put on in Las Vegas titled “De-

Diana Favia, CA-AM, vice president of global solutions and ISV alliances at IBM, showcased the highlights of “A Simple Framework for Complex Alliances: An IDEA from IT,” a talk originally given by Subhojit Roye, CA-AM, head of alliances at Infosys BPO Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys Limited. Finally, Deborah Clasen, CSAP, director of mobility and cloud technology partners at Cisco Systems, led the discussion about “Collaborative Selling”—the tricks of the trade for navigating the “last mile” of sales execution in the IT industry that Summit attendees learned from three California-based ASAP members and one longtime alliance pro from the ASAP Asia Collaborative Business Community. While the original Summit sessions were presented just yards away from ringing slot machines, the recreated presentations also hit the jackpot as they were received equally well in Chicago after they were reenacted by proxy. “We had people walk away saying, ‘I’m going to make sure there’s money in the budget [for next year’s Summit] because I can see the value,’” said Trampas a month after the Midwest chapter event. To build on this event’s success, the Midwest chapter scheduled a similar Summit recreation this spring at a Greek restaurant in Chicago to give its members a flavor of four sessions from the 2013 ASAP Global Alliance Summit held in Orlando, Fla.

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RTP Exemplifies Overall Chapter Excellence RTP Chapter Excellence in Overall Chapter Operations

“We want to provide opportunities to learn from each other and share practical takeaways for how to improve in your role,” said the RTP chapter’s director of programs and events, Paula Harpham, CSAP, portfolio partner manager at SAS. “We get great participation from our global members to help present these best practices.”

What do you get when your region is dotted with the The RTP chapter has struck a headquarters of active ASAP tricky balance. It has parlayed Corporate and Global Mem- From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide alliances at Xerox; Manoj Bhatia, CA-AM, senior product marketing manwhat could be the closest thing bers (SAS, Quintiles, PPD), ager of go-to-market strategy and alliances for the collaboration business at to an equal blend of major pharASAP members working for Cisco; Ken Pierrehumbert, CA-AM, global alliance manager at Schneider other Corporate and Global Electric; Paula Harpham, CSAP, portfolio partner manager at SAS; Donna maceutical and IT industry representation enjoyed by any chapMembers that have a heavy Peek, CSAP, global alliance director for Global Alliances & Channels at SAS; Chi Chan, CSAP, GTS alliance executive at IBM; and Art Canter, ter into a strong and dedicated local presence (Cisco, IBM, president and CEO of ASAP. membership core. Yet, it is also Microsoft, GSK, Teradata), the refusing to rest on its laurels by highest number of leaders and members holding CA-AM or CSAP diversifying its content in the efforts to broaden its appeal. certifications, and a couple of active ASAP board members? The standard for excellence in chapter operations. In a region of the United States that is also known for its great college basketball, the Research Triangle Park (RTP) chapter is anything but down at its (Tar) Heels. On the contrary, it has put together a program dotted with first-rate networking opportunities and diverse content. Although the chapter’s core leadership team and longtime members have stuck together like a Wolfpack, they have not had a (Blue) Devil of a time expanding their reach by targeting new members outside of the two industries most prevalent among ASAP’s overall membership, biopharmaceutical and high-tech. The chapter’s event examining “triple helix” partnerships—alliances between private sector businesses, universities, and government organizations—was ultimately turned into a well-received ASAP Netcast webinar. In addition, the chapter has expanded its base by holding a number of local events that have facilitated face-to-face interactions between new and existing members. For example, RTP created interactive sessions and roundtable discussions on topics like conflict management, governance, and project management that were attended by both existing members and prospects representing a cross-section of industries.

Quarter 2, 2013

RTP created interactive sessions and roundtable discussions on topics like conflict management, governance, and project management that were attended by both existing members and prospects representing a cross-section of industries. “We strive to be responsive to feedback from members and guests, and we make sure we provide relevant and practical content that can be applied in their jobs as alliance professionals,” said Harpham. RTP’s 2012 programming advanced more than just the goals of the chapter, but the larger objectives of ASAP Global itself. The decision to bestow the RTP chapter with the award for Excellence in Overall Chapter Operations may not have been academic, but it was a slam dunk.

ASAP Unveils 2013Alliance Excellence Award Winners

Takeda, SAS, Teradata, exactEarth, KSAT, BipBop, and Schneider Electric Honored at Annual Ceremonial Dinner

AS IT DOES EVERY YEAR, ASAP dedicated the Wednesday evening of its Global Alliance Summit, held this past March 3–7, to recognizing the most innovative and effective individual alliances and alliance programs at the annual ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards Recognition Dinner. The 2013 ASAP Alliance Excellence Award winners include new faces and a repeat winner. Among their stories is a program to empower people in developing nations by teaching them to handle power (the electric kind), an alliance that helps keep ships anywhere in the world on the radar screen, a truly globalized alliance practice that integrated the cultures of three continents, a partnership that’s helping scores of joint customers digest big data, and a social media campaign to increase collaboration between partners and communicate to key audiences.

Up and Over— Takeda Alliance Practice Scales to Achieve Global Reach

“The Alliance Excellence Awards represent the best-of-the-best of these practices, and this year’s honorees uphold the Awards’ longstanding tradition of recognizing innovation and high performance,” said Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. To borrow from the longtime U.S. television drama series Law & Order, here are their stories. Today Takeda operates from its Japanese headquarters, but major corporate functions such as its R&D and oncology divisions are run out of its U.S. offices, while its commercial operations are based in Switzerland. Its creative use of alliance management tools, the successful integration of Nycomed, and a thriving portfolio earned Takeda the award for Alliance Program Excellence.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals has a lot riding on the performance of its alliance management practice. Half of its pipeline and 30 percent of its revenue are tied to an alliance-driven initiative. The 45 alliances in its portfolio represent 49 drugs in various stages of development. From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide alliWith its $13 billion acquisition ances at Xerox; Andy Hull, head of global alliance management, and Gray of Nycomed, Takeda now has Hulick, director of global alliance management at Takeda Pharmaceuticals; At the heart of Takeda’s allioperations in 70 countries and and Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. ance practice is its globally has become a truly global company. It has successfully integrataccessible online Takeda GAM (Global Alliance Management) ed a variety of cultures and geographies into its corporate DNA Toolkit of custom-built processes and methodologies that ento seamlessly execute alliance activities on multiple continents. sure that the company’s alliance personnel consistently meet the 30

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needs of its partners. The toolkit addresses many of the subjects that are industry standard, such as the onboarding of new alliance team members, but the company took a thorough approach to developing its knowledge repository. The whole alliance team interviewed alliance stakeholders to understand regional needs. It documented best practices, processes, and behavioral models, and collaborated on several rounds of revisions across the group to create a highly customized toolkit tailored specifically to its business. An example of a Takeda-flavored practice is the company’s health check tool, which includes a joint process to review results, brainstorm causes of misalignment that might have occurred, and develop team-specific skills in response, if necessary.

old team members could exchange practical advice. The GAM team also scheduled periodic roundtable discussions to ensure that integration was proceeding smoothly and address issues that might have come up.

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The integration of the Nycomed alliance portfolio was equally comprehensive. First, alliance managers were hired from the existing Nycomed talent base, and a program was established to provide multiple structured and informal learning opportunities to get the new hires up to speed. A detailed project plan and integration-specific content was designed to support the transition of the former Nycomed employees. These efforts were captured in a case study that examined alliance management’s role in M&A integration and proposed a model for how to extend alliance best practices across a new portfolio. Specific tools that were created as part of this initiative included an integration activity roadmap, guidelines to support critical conversations across the alliance, and enhancement planning tools and tracking documents. From there, the GAM group implemented a buddy system so new and

Data/Analytics Alliance in a (Superhero) League of Its Own

Sporting a portfolio that includes the recently launched products Adcetris for Hodgkin’s lymphoma and the iron deficiency anemia drug Rienso, the Takeda alliance portfolio is performing to the company’s standards. But aside from hitting company milestones, Takeda feels its alliance program is meeting its other metrics as well, such as the successful application of alliance best practices and positive internal and partner stakeholder feedback. Of course, Takeda is still mindful of the fact that it needs to keep innovating if it wants to continue to be seen as a partner of choice. Andy Hull, head of global alliance management for Takeda, acknowledged that the Alliance Excellence Award is very exciting for the company, not only as recognition for the many employees who work hard to make its alliances successful, but also to raise its profile externally. “Takeda is honored to receive this recognition from a peer organization like this,” he said to attendees of the ASAP Global Alliance Summit the morning after the awards ceremony. “We hope this award will also be visible to prospective partners.” With Takeda’s alliance efforts, the company’s successes can now be seen in all corners of the globe. For these accomplishments, ASAP bestowed the Individual Alliance Excellence award in the Long-Established Alliance subcategory on the alliance between SAS and Teradata.

In 2007, business analytics company SAS and big data integrator Teradata formed a partnership to create technoloThe SAS and Teradata partgies that would help customers nership gave birth to one of turn reams of data into actionthe most intriguing businessable insights that can advance to-business marketing and their business. Since then, the promotional initiatives seen two companies have shown From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide in the high-tech industry. alliances at Xerox; Rick Lower, CA-AM, director of global alliances at tremendous creativity in their Teradata; Elishia Rousos, CA-AM, global alliance manager at SAS; and The companies conceived joint sales, marketing, prod- Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. of the Analytic Heroes Prouct development, and alliance gram, which recognized the operations activities. The partnership’s revenue has more than employees at customer companies who found creative uses for analytics/warehousing solutions jointly developed by SAS and doubled year over year since its inception and has generated Teradata. A Marvel comic artist was commissioned to transform north of $140 million in revenue globally for the two companies. Quarter 2, 2013

each honoree into a heroic persona replete with cartoonish muscles, protruding jaws, and analytics crusader identities like “Predictor,” “Megavox,” and “Magnacomm.” Each “hero” became a part of the “League of Analytic Heroes” alongside fellow honorees/ superheroes and “Dr. Insight,” Teradata’s chief analytics officer Bill Franks.

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The partners also arranged to colocate their alliance and R&D teams. This, along with standard tools of modern strategic alliance execution— such as a Center of Excellence (CoE), separate database for joint sales efforts, and quarterly business reviews—provided a strong foundation to deal with the potentially messy dynamics of coopetition that are ever-present in IT partnerships of this magnitude.

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While customers were lifted onto a pedestal in the public eye as data-crunching avengers, behind the scenes they were given the opportunity to utilize the partnership’s proprietary Business Analytic Innovation Center (BAIC) to brainstorm with SAS and Teradata how these joint solutions could be applied to clients’ affairs. This gave existing customers and prospects a comfortable, low-risk way to experience the partnership’s offerings. Furthermore, it provided a unique method to sell that neither SAS nor Teradata had ever tried before. All told, the two companies brought 12 joint offerings to market, including the SAS High-Performance Analytics Server (HPAS) for Teradata solution, which cuts the time it takes to perform complex analytical calculations from days to minutes. The solution embodied the two organizations’ willingness to put skin in the game; Teradata manufactured a purpose-built appliance solely for use with SAS software (a first for the former), while SAS enabled Teradata to load its software on this appliance during the manufacturing process—likewise, an unprecedented move in its history.

In the Q&A with Summit attendees the morning after the ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards Recognition Dinner, Elishia Rousos, CA-AM, global alliance manager at SAS, said that “getting the field to understand that while we partner extremely well together, we do compete as well, and then having the maturity to understand how to work in that environment” was critical to navigating the partnership. Rick Lower, CA-AM, director of global alliances at Teradata, acknowledged the importance of “field team awareness and alignment” and said that part of his role is to help the sales teams appreciate the additional opportunities in the alliance’s big picture and the partnership’s highly unique value proposition in a global marketplace crowded with new competitors. “The SAS-Teradata partnership value prop truly is 1+1=3, or even 4,” he said. “We are coaching our colleagues to look at all possible ways to win—and working together with SAS, our future is even more promising.”

(KSAT), a Norwegian company that provides ground stations for such polar orbiting satellites. In short time, How does a start-up on the exactEarth and KSAT debrink of insolvency and staring veloped a groundbreaking at a seemingly insurmountable technology and service that capital requirement of tens of enables electronic tracking of millions of dollars in equipment all oceangoing ships beyond and launch costs bring a vision port areas anywhere around to fruition that is now worth $20 the world, earning the commillion in revenue from custompanies the Individual Alliers on five continents—all in just From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide alance Excellence award in the four short years? With the right liances at Xerox; Eric Meger, formerly vice president of data management partner ecosystem, including and operations at exactEarth; and Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. Best Small or Mid-Sized Alliance subcategory. one ally that not only fills your solution gaps, but also seamlessly interoperates with you handIn the beginning, exactEarth had challenges on multiple fronts. in-hand to process data in real time that, if handled improperly, Not only was the company short on money, its satellites also ran on could result in tremendous regulatory and operational liability. a rare frequency that was not supported by the average earth station. KSAT solved both problems. The company did not just supThis is the story of Toronto-based exactEarth, a struggling small port this frequency, but its Svalbard, Norway, ground station was company that had deployed several low-Earth-orbit satellites by 2009, and its partnership with Kongsberg Satellite Services the world’s most optimal location for polar satellite downlinking.

One by Air + One by Land = Coverage of the Entire Seas

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Moreover, in the early stages of solution deployment, KSAT helped cut exactEarth’s costs by providing temporary use of a third ground station location in Norway on attractive terms, as well as use of facilities in the Arctic when employees from both companies visited the region together to deploy additional equipment for the global tracking service.

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this complex,” said Eric Meger, the former vice president of data management and operations at exactEarth.

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Once the service was deployed, the level of collaboration between the companies necessary to sustain operations was staggering. With 85,000 ships and 4 million messages flowing through the system on any given day, plenty is at stake for retaining and processing large amounts of data. “We’re downlinking more than 100 times a day, and we monitor those interactions every 30 minutes. Literally we’re watching those connections and interacting with our alliance partner every [half-hour] 24/7/365 in order to make sure our customers have the ability to monitor their waters. That requires a degree of trust, and an ability to work through the inevitable issue with anything

When exactEarth set out to create this service, it thought it was going to procure ground stations on its own as well as the resources to pull data off the satellite and into the data center for processing. In hindsight, alliances were not just a better means of obtaining these items—they were the only way. “The only way to accomplish that and roll [our service] out on a global scale was through partnerships,” said Meger. The offering has already been adopted by many of the world’s maritime governments. exactEarth and KSAT have commissioned another station in Antarctica, which will help capture Southern Hemisphere countries as soon as those markets mature. Thanks to one partnership, ships can now be tracked from sea to shining sea.

and increased collaboration across some of its key partnerships. Partners have been encouraged to comment and expand on posts, and many of them have obliged. The most prominent example centered on the announcement of a Schneider Electric took home major joint solution at a trade the trophy in the Innovashow. The blogging team pubtive Alliance Best Practice lished posts during the event category by tackling a chalas it unfolded and immediately lenge that is pervasive in all of afterward, then augmented the business today: incorporating From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide alliances at Xerox; Anthony DeSpirito, CSAP, vice president of strategic alli- content with video interviews social media into its alliance ances, Candice Kyzer, global strategic alliances marketing manager, Jennifer with executives from internal management organization’s Wendt, global social media director, and Kim Tremblay, CSAP, marketing Schneider Electric teams, cusaffairs. An alliance social me- director for worldwide strategic alliances at Schneider Electric; and Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. tomers, and partners that were dia program that started out put together by a professional video crew. More posts were pubin October 2011 with a single blogger discussing alliance anlished in the weeks after the show to correspond with press renouncements and partnering best practices has morphed into a leases, articles, and postevent follow-up activities related to the social media machine that has generated more than 25,000 injoint solution. dividual page views for its blog posts, 72 “InLinks” on LinkedIn, and 105 retweets on Twitter, to date. The alliance team now has The social media campaign has even made an impact on the three active bloggers—a vice president of alliances, a corporate company’s general marketing efforts. The blogs have been used blog editor, and a European blog editor. by lead-nurturing teams as a conversation starter when they follow up on sales leads, while the alliance teams have used the The program has helped Schneider’s alliance practice showcase reader comments and other information generated in the blog its successes to the rest of the company internally, but what’s arguably more important is that it has improved communication process to accelerate opportunity detection. And perhaps the

Schneider Electric’s Active Social Life Increases Collaboration Between Partners, Expands Awareness of Alliance Activities

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best part about it is that blogs have proven to be a more nimble form of targeted communication, because the posts require shorter approval cycles than press releases. Kim Tremblay, CSAP, marketing director for worldwide strategic alliances at Schneider Electric, said the award validates the company’s efforts in a way no internal accolade could.

Schneider Electric Taps Partners to Provide Spark at the Base of the Pyramid

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“We’ve done a lot of work to pull together our alliance team across our organization, and this kind of cements [our efforts] for us in the eyes of our internal stakeholders. Now we can tell the world about it and show that we’re a world-class partnering organization,” she said during a Q&A with dozens of ASAP Global Alliance Summit attendees the morning after the award ceremony.

Awards

will ultimately add 5,000 electricians to the job marketplace.

To reach this goal, the BipAt the end of 2011, Schneider Bop partners will have to acElectric’s Business, Innovation celerate a learning curve for a & People at the Base of the Pyracustomer segment that isn’t mid (BipBop) initiative was at initially familiar with the para crossroads. The program had ticulars of the work opportusecured 1 million euros in fundnity the alliance is trying to ing to complete its mission of bring to them. training 100,000 unemployed “Our challenge was based youth in developing nations to on the entrepreneurial exbecome electricians by 2014. perience of selling people However, with less than three with no particular experiyears to spare, BipBop was only From left to right: Russ Buchanan, CSAP, vice president of worldwide allione tenth of the way to its goal ances at Xerox; Pere Huguet-Feixa, CA-AM, project manager at Schneider ence in alliances, no particuand struggling to maintain a Electric; and Art Canter, president and CEO of ASAP. lar experience in sustainable pace that would enable it to hit development,” said Pere Huits target number. Thus, the Schneider Electric Foundation, the guet-Feixa, senior project manager at Schneider Electric, in the company’s nonprofit arm, realized it couldn’t reach this 100,000 post-ceremony Q&A. figure alone. The next step for the program will be to instill in “key account The company set out to find potential partners that shared its managers” a thorough understanding of the training program’s values—energy sustainability, proficiency in electrician training, nitty-gritty details—but in the context of its larger goal of creatand a desire to make a positive impact in new economies and ing a sustainable economy for developing populations through expand opportunities for people at the base of the global eco- the delivery of access to a minimal environmental impact energy nomic pyramid. The BipBop alliance team drew up a list of 88 source. Moreover, these relationship managers have to carry out prospective partners for its ecosystem and made formal alliance the BipBop initiative’s philosophy of utilizing an intimate, cusagreement offers to 11 of them. Ultimately, the BipBop alliance tomer-centered approach in engaging stakeholders. welcomed four new members: The BipBop program has proven it can get results; according to 1) Paris-based Rexel, Schneider Electric, 80 percent of students who complete the train2) Art of Living, ing can find a job shortly thereafter. Now, with its four new part3) Ambuja Cement Foundation, and ners, Schneider Electric hopes to accelerate the pace of employment 4) Jubilant Bhartia. and ultimately growth in these economies. Rexel was brought in to create two training labs in China that would serve as bases to develop 300 new electricians, while the For its efforts in giving poorer populations hope for a brighter other three organizations—all of which are based in India—will future, the BipBop program earned the Alliances for Corporate be charged with creating 17 training centers in the country that Social Responsibility award. n 34

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Goodbye for Now

How Effective Alliance Wind-Down Can Put You on Course for Future Success By David S. Thompson, CA-AM, and Steven E. Twait, CSAP

Life is full of inflection points. Some of the most important are those experiences so many of us share, like marriage, the birth of a child, a change in employment, or the death of a loved one. Given the depth and breadth of our corresponding human reactions, it comes as no surprise that entire industries have formed—and a vast array of products and services have been designed—to help individuals handle the emotions and coordinate the logistics of each of these life events. Governance Design Part IV. The authors of this four-part series on alliance governance deliver the final installment, which examines the “Wind-down” phase of an alliance. This article offers direction to the alliance manager tasked with handling the logistics and emotions of an alliance that has been terminated. Like the “Start-up” and “Steady State” phases, the Wind-down contains significant business and human risk, along with plenty of legal uncertainties. Effectively managing this phase is important to set the stage for success with future alliance partners. Quarter 2, 2013

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Alliances, too, experience major inflection points. As we detail on each of these categories. We also highlight key have discussed in previous articles, alliance managers help risks and potential solutions that you might find helpful durdesign and implement a governance framework and then ing the final phase of your alliance. lead a partnership through the Startup and Steady State phases. As the Plan Decision Transition –Prepare for Decision Communications: –Develop Plan last major stage in the alliance life + Functions involved –Inter/Intra-Company –Internal (Corporate) + Document via plan or agreement Alignment –Affiliate cycle, the final Wind-down can have + Scope of plan: going to one –Key Events –External –Lead Legal Efforts company or another long-lasting ramifications for both al–Execute the Plan liance management groups and par–Post-Execution Activities ent corporate entities as well. In this article, our goal is to offer direction For each group listed above, make sure to think through the business and human risks as well as the legal to the alliance professional tasked uncertainties that could be created or exacerbated. At this stage it is also useful to identify members of a joint crisis management team that can be called on to help manage any unforeseen events. with managing the wide range of Figure1: Wind-Down Planning Process emotions and logistics surrounding an alliance Wind-down. Use Governance Structure to Minimize Often a metaphor can be helpful in organizing our Human Risk, Offboard the Alliance thoughts. To better understand the psychology and physiIf established and implemented correctly from the outset, ology of an alliance Wind-down, we’ll use the metaphor the alliance governance framework can be used to provide of a ship that for some reason is being decommissioned or structure and organization during the Wind-down phase. must be abandoned. Most alliances end only after a partnership has existed To start, it is useful to recognize that the passengers and for years, and in some cases even decades. Over time, the crew of a vessel that is headed to its final resting place do companies and the individuals assigned to the alliance have not want to go down with the ship. So it is with alliances, established means and methods of working together. These in which—career-wise—we usually see a rush to the exits. networks of interactions might have been planned and While such self-preservation behaviors are understandable, formalized in the contract, or perhaps they have developed they must be addressed by the alliance manager who, in all informally and out of necessity over time. Like oft-repeated likelihood, will be the last person to disembark. The alliance emergency drills aboard a ship, these paths of communicamanager must manage the risk that is associated with tion have become second nature to the personnel of both the ship’s new purpose (perhaps as scrap metal or as the companies. The skilled alliance manager will take advantage foundation of a new coral reef), the passengers’ and crew’s of these networks of people and processes and use these welfare, and a safe and constructive exit for the alliance natural allies to help facilitate the Wind-down phase. manager himself. In this metaphor, the final disposition of With the established structure in mind, one of the easithe ship provides a useful vehicle for the Wind-down’s busiest ways to unwind an alliance is to put together the basic ness risks and legal uncertainties, while the passengers and plan, agree upon it with your partner, and turn the alliance crew can be used to discuss the human risk. governance process on itself. In other words, the lowest level of governance (e.g., a manufacturing working team) Start with the Big Picture shuts down its area of responsibility under the direction Depending on your role, the length of your tenure, and the of the next layer of governance. This process is repeated trajectory of the alliance to which you’ve been assigned, until the senior-most governance body meets for the final your first reaction to learning that your partnership has time, producing at its conclusion a final set of minutes that been decommissioned or terminated can range from a declares the alliance Wind-down complete. shrug of the shoulders to total shock. Once you’ve digested In this way, the co-chairs (one from each company) are the news, your first task should be to lay out and follow a responsible for “turning off the lights” within their jurisdicsimple planning process like the one depicted in Figure 1. In the following sections of this article, we offer more tion and for reporting back to the next level of governance 36

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CONSIDERATIONS FOR DISENGAGING THE ALLIANCE INCLUDE: Contractual considerations — Review and thoroughly understand the termination provisions in the contract. — Ensure that there are plans for completing residual obligations.

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Consult and obtain advice from these functions before taking any action — Corporate Business Development – on how best to capture key points of learning that can be used in future alliances — Legal – to minimize uncertainties covered by the contract — Investor Relations – to make sure that there are no surprises — External Panel of Experts – it could be prudent to convene such a “brain trust” prior to making a final decision to terminate if the decision requires certain criteria to be in effect — Corporate Communications – to begin to generate an external communications plan prior to informing the partner of termination; this plan may include plans to notify other partners that could be affected by the announcement

Business Risk

Managing mass Leveraging the offboarding of alliance existing governance personnel to execute the wind-down Establishing guiding principles to manage Chunking the windbehaviors and actions down into manageduring the wind-down able categories and work streams Allowing for longstanding relationships Reevaluating financial to celebrate past processes to enable successes speed over precision Rewarding the people who are leading the wind-down

Legal Uncertainties Acknowledging each company’s document retention policies Parties agree on appropriate side amendments to original contract Ensuring that both companies understand ongoing responsibilities and are staffed appropriately to manage Ensuring that winddown activities satisfy legal obligations (each country’s laws)

Information technology (IT) and equipment — If hardware has been purchased and installed at the partner’s facility (e.g., servers and videoconferencing equipment), Figure2: Broad Objectives for Wind-Down Phase work with the partner and IT to have it returned. — Notify collaborations supported by — Assign the co-chairs of each governance body responsibility for IT so that any infrastructure in place shutting down their areas and for can be removed. Accounts should reporting back to the next level of be terminated promptly. governance. Maintain an ongoing — Use checklists similar to those dialogue with the partner’s legal used by M&A groups to make sure department as appropriate that you are not missing critical or Summary significant steps. Decision to disengage — Take broad measures to mitigate — Establish a process that will fulfill all — Review and fully understand the human risk, business risk, and legal contractual obligations that exist reasons for the disengagement. uncertainty (see Figure 2). after alliance Wind-down. — Ensure appropriate communications — Use the governance process to plan is in place if the decision to terunwind the alliance at the end of its minate is material to either company. life cycle. that all agreed-upon tasks have been completed successfully. This process reassures line management and relieves alliance management of a significant burden by ensuring that the ownership of the Wind-down rests with those who have the deepest understanding of their local activities. For example, an international alliance that has operations in all major countries might begin the unwind first by geography, and then by shutting down the corporate support functions that are no longer needed to support the geographies. Next it might dissolve the lower-level corporate governance teams and then finish by having the senior-most governance body declare that the alliance is officially over. It may be necessary to enlist the help of a project manager to keep track of key events and details, depending on the skill or time commitment of the alliance manager Quarter 2, 2013

responsible for the overall Wind-down. This approach provides an extremely effective and efficient way to make sure all passengers and crew make it off the ship in a safe and orderly fashion. Maintaining such organizational composure during the Wind-down also goes a long way toward ensuring a relatively positive exit from the partnership. This is not always easy because an alliance can end for many reasons, ranging from the natural end of an asset’s life cycle to an unexpected and bitter court dispute. But regardless of how, why, and when a partnership concludes, the way in which an alliance

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is shut down will live on in the memories of all parties. Always keep in mind that a good—and by that we mean professional and constructive—dissolution can open the door to future collaborations, even if the alliance being shuttered was not commercially successful. An organized closure process can also help lessen the chance of future legal uncertainties. As you might imagine, positive closure is not always easy to achieve. While emotions can sometimes run high, you must maintain composure, even if the other party is behaving badly. You don’t have to be the other company’s doormat, but you do need to be absolutely professional in your approach to solving any issues that arise. (Think of a ship’s heroic crew that sees first to passengers’ safety and then to their own.) Another element important to a Wind-down is the single point of accountability for each partner. In the first article in this series, we recommended designating one person from each party to act as co-chair for any standing committee. While its importance might be more obvious in the Start-up and Steady State phases, having a “captain of the ship” from each company is critical to the efficiency of the process. If each co-chair has the responsibility to gain consensus regarding an issue and its resolution, each can then commit to a decision on behalf of his or her company. This structured approach saves the time and expense of convening entire committees and facilitates efficient decision making as well. Just as the co-chairs were called upon at various points of the alliance life cycle to interact quickly and come to agreements that moved the alliance forward, so too can they be called upon at any time during the unwinding process. They can also ensure the completion of everything necessary for a successful Wind-down, as was the case during the Startup and Steady State phases when efforts were focused on achieving commercial success. Because the responsibilities of alliance co-chairs are clear and held at all governance levels, the power and influence of the co-chair pairs can be leveraged during the partnership’s denouement.

Manage Business Risk by Capturing Maximum Value

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possible. The copper cables in a ship must be untangled and appropriately scrapped, for example, just as the intellectual property and financial agreements between the parties must be disentangled and accurately valued. In addition, you need to ensure that any obligations that have a life beyond the alliance’s termination will be adequately met. Another way to mitigate business risk is to develop a checklist of all essential activities that is focused on capturing as much value as possible from the now-defunct alliance. The good news for alliance managers who work in companies large enough to have a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) function is that they will have lists that can give you a headstart. M&A departments’ lists are often exhaustive and will need to be customized by the alliance manager. Such lists do, however, provide a great place to start.

Consult Counsel to Manage Legal Uncertainties Just as the captain of a ship needs a first mate, an alliance manager needs someone he or she can count on for honest, detailed advice at many junctures of the Wind-down. Given the hundreds of pages of contracts, amendments, side letters, and other agreements generated during the life of the alliance, managing the legal uncertainties in an alliance Winddown can be quite complex. Alliance managers need to ensure that legal obligations are carried out, documented appropriately, and completed within the timeframe specified in the contract. In complex partnerships, a separate termination agreement is often negotiated to resolve issues not contemplated in the original contracts. This extra step often uncovers important points that should be considered the next time a new alliance is established. Steven E. Twait, CSAP, is senior director of alliance management and M&A integration at Eli Lilly and Company. He can be reached at stwait@lilly.com, +1-317-276-5494. David S. Thompson, CA-AM, is chief alliance officer at Eli Lilly and Company and is a member of the ASAP board of directors. He can be reached at Thompson_David_S@Lilly.com, +1- 317-277-8003.

Even when a ship will no longer be in use, it can have residual value. A terminated alliance can have value too, although the assets to be assessed can at times be abstract and take different forms. Nevertheless, the alliance manager is responsible for capturing as much of that value as Quarter 2, 2013

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ceo forum

Q&A withNils Brauckmann, President and General Manager, SUSE

Strategic Alliance Magazine: How does the culture of the open source technology community help in forming alliances? Nils Brauckmann: The open source world enables alliances to operate with a unique level of collaboration because instead of focusing on proprietary technology, open source technology allows us to focus on our customers’ needs and the services we can offer together with our alliance partners. It’s like sharing a recipe. Sharing a loaf of bread with your neighbor strengthens your relationship. Sharing a loaf of bread and the recipe means your neighbor can reproduce the bread. Sharing increases exponentially and, eventually, creative versions of your original bread recipe emerge. Over our 20-year history we’ve developed the technical and business expertise needed to combine open, collaborative innovation from numerous open source projects with the services and support that our enterprise customers need for their most demanding IT projects. This makes SUSE an ideal alliance partner for software vendors, hardware vendors, systems integrators, and others seeking to leverage the rapid innovation, flexibility, and open standards possible through open source. Quarter 2, 2013

SAM: SUSE has companies in its partner base that haven’t always been “open source friendly.” What strategies do you have in common with these companies, and how do you bridge cultural/philosophical differences?

Even companies that sell proprietary technology are engaging with and contributing to the open source ecosystem of today.

Brauckmann: Though that may have been true in the past, it is no longer the case today. The use of Linux and open source software is growing exponentially in all areas of technology, including enterprise IT. The success and “mainstreaming” of open source has driven a new level of understanding not just by the consumers of open source but also across the ecosystem of vendors and partners. Open source is a fundamental element of the IT landscape today; even companies that sell proprietary technology are engaging with and contributing to the open source ecosystem. Many of our hardware and software partners, for example, IBM and Cisco, are making real contributions to open source projects such as Linux. Another example is cloud computing. OpenStack is a new community software project to build private and public clouds. One of the promises of cloud computing is the ability to scale quickly based on need. If a retail company needs more computing resources during the

holidays, the IT organization should be able to plug in and rapidly use more computing resources. The reality is that most companies use a variety of different technologies from multiple vendors in an IT environment. To make cloud computing easy, every piece of the IT infrastructure needs to work harmoniously. This level of integration and compatibility is necessary for businesses to remain competitive 24/7. This example is why the OpenStack project has the support of over 180 organizations worldwide, including Dell, Intel, PayPal, and HP. SAM: What challenges have you overcome in getting Linux-centered partner companies to evolve to meet the needs of the corporate enterprise, and how did you overcome them? Brauckmann: In the early days, some Linux-focused shops struggled to deliver the consistency, stability, and repeatable processes that an enterprise customer requires. Years ago, finding enough staff with the right skills to deliver Linux41

based services and solutions to the enterprise market was also a challenge. These were exactly the challenges (and the opportunity) that drove the creation and growth of the SUSE business. As SUSE grew along with the demand for enterprise Linux, we created a global ecosystem of partners and shared processes, tooling, and expertise. Today, Linux-focused partners are very attuned to the needs of the enterprise customer.

The enterprise data center is complex, and with the emergence of cloud computing, the complexity is increasing. This is why many surveys show open source adoption is on the rise. SAM: What do you expect from your alliance management function in the next two to three years? Brauckmann: The emergence of Linux and open source as the foundation of the most important emerging cloud technologies is creating a new level of alliance potential. For example, projects like OpenStack bring together an amazing range of industry players and create enormous opportunity for both technical and business collaboration. A large part of our alliance management focus in the next two to three years will be on engaging partners to maximize the potential of Collaborative Buzz Cont. from page 14 patients with better access to health care. The collaboration also hopes to generate opportunities to attract partners in new markets and prospects in existing markets around the globe.

Unlike currently marketed antidepressants that can require two to four weeks to become effective, SKL-PSY has shown a relatively quick onset of therapeutic effects. Altered States: Korean and Chinese Pharma Firms Battle Depression and Bipolar Disorder The South Korean pharmaceutical company SK Biopharmaceuticals has entered into a collaboration agreement with PKU International HealthCare Group and Shanghai Medicilon, both in China, for its novel new small molecule SKL-PSY, which is being developed for the treatment of depression and bipolar disorder. 42

open source and Linux in the cloud space. For alliance managers, this means having a clear understanding of the complete end-to-end solution customers need to succeed and to seek partnerships that fulfill these requirements by using a best-of-breed approach. It’s also important for managers to seek and develop relationships with partners that design open applications, making integration with multiple thirdparty solutions easy. SAM: What are the biggest drivers of alliance strategy for IT vendors that bring some of the many moving parts of a data center? Brauckmann: The enterprise data center is complex, and with the emergence of cloud computing, the complexity is increasing. This is why many surveys show open source adoption is on the rise. IT organizations need flexible solutions to help solve IT challenges. You don’t get that when you’re locked into a single vendor. That’s why we partner closely with a range of industry leaders to make sure the critical elements of the data center are compatible, supported, and perform optimally on SUSE solutions. Customers want choice—not lock-in. We believe in customer choice, and we invest in it through offering multiple technical capabilities and also through our strategic alliances with numerous partners. n SK Biopharmaceuticals and Shanghai Medicilon have been conducting various preclinical experiments for SKL-PSY since 2011. When its preclinical development has been successfully completed through the efforts of Medicilon CRO services, the two companies will start clinical development with new partners Southwest Synthetic Pharmaceuticals and PKUCare Pharmaceutical R&D Center, both of which are subsidiaries of PKU International HealthCare Group. Unlike currently marketed antidepressants that can require two to four weeks to become effective, SKLPSY has shown a relatively quick onset of therapeutic effects in animal models of depressive and manic states. The molecule is expected to be effective for both mania and depression. Use in both indications can be problematic for some currently marketed antidepressants or other agents for the treatment of bipolar disorder. The combined current market size for antidepressants and treatments for bipolar disorder is estimated to be $39 billion annually. n Strategic Alliance Magazine

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champion New Horizons Longtime Telecom Industry Veteran’s Solo Venture Brings Alliance Management to New Sectors and Market Segments By Jon Lavietes

THOSE WHO WERE AT THE FOREFRONT of distinguishing the alliance management profession as a critical strategic lever and operational function within the IT and pharmaceutical industries are finding great demand for the hard and soft skills they helped evolve over the last decade or more. Take Pascal Goursaud, for example. Goursaud spent 15 years in various alliance management roles, first working in partnership sales for British Telecom, and then as director of alliances and OEM partnerships with CS Telecom, a spinoff of Philips. After that, he served in various capacities with Cisco from 2001 through 2009, where he applied his telecom expertise to alliances with Telecom Italia and Accenture; he spent the majority of his tenure with the networking giant growing joint Accenture-Cisco revenues from the world’s largest telecommunications companies such as British Telecom (BT), Telecom Italia, Telenor, SingTel, and Telstra.

potential, and the systems and processes refined at Cisco over the course of the last decade to bring these partnerships to life within organizations in cosmetics, aerospace, and other industries where alliances are becoming greater necessities than ever to achieve core strategic objectives.

In January 2010, the CSAP-certified Goursaud founded his own consultancy, BACARAU, to bring the principles he learned working in and with large multinationals to new market segments and industries.

Although the clients may look very different from the partners in his Cisco alliances, Goursaud is finding that these core methodologies are still highly relevant.

“The idea with BACARAU was to fuse and provide such expertise with tools and best practices formalized and promoted by ASAP, which I used when I was at Cisco, to SMBs, but also major accounts in markets where gaining competitive advantages nowadays requires forming partnerships in a ‘professional’ manner,” he said. Now, Goursaud is applying his ability to see opportunities to create joint value for multiple entities that companies might not see themselves, the relational skills to help each party realize this great Quarter 2, 2013

Bringing SMBs’ Alliances to a “Special Place”

“At Cisco, we were in a special place. We were one of the few companies that started very early to understand that it was a really new business model—a new way to develop the business alongside M&A and internal research and development,” he said. According to Goursaud, the challenge at the heart of any alliance is the need to look out for the alliance’s concerns in parallel with those of your company or your client. “Sometimes you find yourself in a position to defend your partner’s point of view just so you make sure your colleagues 49

in marketing, the sales function, or wherever understand that the interest of the partner is also the interest of the company.”

A Picture Is Worth 90,000 Pages This isn’t to say that Goursaud has not had to evolve a bit to service his new core customer. Like any individual alliance, these practices have to be utilized a bit differently within smaller organizations and across different verticals. Goursaud’s clients often are seeking to capitalize on emerging open innovation models to expedite the development of new products and services in tandem with other companies. From an operational standpoint, his clients—which are generally turning to BACARAU to form and manage relationships with Global 1,000 companies—are frequently concerned about getting strong-armed by their partner; they often begin conversations with Goursaud with questions about how to protect themselves legally. Goursaud’s philosophy is simple in theory but difficult to make a reality: don’t focus primarily on the contract; rather, make yourself an indispensable part of a partnership-bred solution for a customer’s problem. “[This] is really at the core of what I’m telling my customers, what will make their partnerships well balanced and secure. [Even if] they are small, if they can elaborate a value proposition for the end customer that really convinces the partner that the bricks, as small as [the partner is], brought by the SMB are really really important…and make a real competitive advantage for both parties—or the alliance as it were—then you have the leverage that will make the partnership far stronger than any legal contract you may write, whether it be 10, 20, or 90,000 pages,” he said. “Whether one is small or one is big or whatever, that doesn’t make any difference.…This value proposition with the customer in mind, it’s at the core of what I believe is a successful foundation for a partnership.” With that said, even when a partner has found equal standing in the partnership, and there appear to be natural synergies between the partners’ products and services, the art and science of alliance management is still tough work if the companies are to bring their innovations to fruition. “We know that strategic alliances are not failing because of difficulties in putting together technologies. Where they are failing, it’s about human problems, because the governance has not been prepared and run correctly. Governance is not about technology, techniques. It’s about the way you are able to bring people together, make them work together, make them understand their own differences and why they are complementary of each other,” said Goursaud.

Breaking New Ground and Planting Seeds for Alliance Management Goursaud wants to leverage his expertise far beyond his clients, and raise the profile of the entire profession, not just his practice. 50

After seeing Cisco’s alliance managers go from “[being] understood by your colleagues as kind of a go-between” to a practice that “really [adds] value as a program of strategies” over the course of the last decade, Goursaud knows there is still a figurative continent’s worth of fertile new ground outside of pharma and IT for alliance management to plant a seed, especially with the recent proliferation of open innovation models. “Innovation and progress is coming more and more from the mixed backgrounds, experiences, and expertise of people. Innovation is no longer one single thing that people think about at night or during breakfast. It’s really something that has emerged within a group of people sharing and discussing things, that suddenly [results in] ideas—around ways to innovate in an entirely different way, or ideas that are a combination of already existing things,” he said. To that end, he cofounded ASAP’s France chapter with Bruno Dufay, CA-AM, vice president of strategic alliances at Xerox, to help tailor ASAP’s messages to European audiences, globalize the association’s membership, and raise the profile of the profession. As the chapter’s secretary general, Goursaud used the term “back office” to describe his duties—“I’m trying to make things happen, making sure that people are contributing to the chapter,” he said—but his contributions have gone well beyond performing administrative tasks. He has contributed articles to major business publications in France, and he has translated several ASAP documents that express the association’s value proposition in a way that resonates with the country’s people and corporate culture. “We need to translate the international aspect of ASAP,” he said. “We need to promote ASAP outside the U.S. much more than we have been doing so far. In the past two or three years we have made quite a good push.” For a professional who has spent most of his career working with Global 1,000 companies, Goursaud is now adapting to life as an entrepreneur of a small venture. He is finding creative ways to market BACARAU and ASAP and grow business for both through word of mouth. He was recently approached by Paris’s Chamber of Commerce, for example, to deliver a workshop outlining the basic principles of alliance management to a few thousand Chamber members. “These guys are not only looking for partnerships to develop, they wish to understand the way to protect themselves when they do partnerships with big companies,” he said. As Goursaud applies the wisdom learned from his experience with large telecom-oriented alliances to smaller organizations, it could be said that opportunity to help SMBs is ringing—and BACARAU is trying to answer the call. n Strategic Alliance Magazine

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The Collaborative Era Should Be Our Oyster If Alliance Management Doesn’t Lead the Way, Who Will? Answer: Someone Else By John DeWitt

TRAVELING TO ATLANTA ON A RECENT BUSINESS TRIP, I stopped at the airport gift shop to load up on business magazines for the flight home. Throughout my approximately two and a half hours in the air, I thumbed through some of the content I had gathered and saw more and more evidence of a growing awareness and acknowledgment in the general business world that collaboration skills are a necessity for success today. In its annual “50 Most Innovative Companies” issue, Fast Company hailed number one–ranked Nike for its FuelBand and Flyknit Racer products; the former is an electronic bracelet that measures your movements throughout the day, while the latter is an ultralight shoe created from knit threading rather than multiple layers of fabric. The piece cited the four rules that guide Nike, one of which is “direct your partners,” and it also noted that “the real story shows how messy true innovation is. In a world of rapid disruption, companies no longer must—or can—own all the skills required to thrive.” To understand organizational greatness today, it is important to understand how things are done rather than what it is that is actually accomplished. In their forthcoming book The Three Rules: How Exceptional Companies Beat the Odds (Portfolio/Penguin), Michael E. Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed postulate that the three guiding principles for thriving in today’s landscape of disruption and rapid change are: 1) better before cheaper, 2) revenue before cost, and 3) there are no other rules. 54

In a Harvard Business Review art icle, the authors noted, “A useful explanatory frame began to emerge only after we shifted our emphasis away from what these companies did to hypotheses about how they thought. This allowed us to see past what the exceptional companies were doing, which was endlessly variable, to how they apparently decided what to do, which proved highly consistent.” In past issues we’ve chronicled CEOs’ growing recognition of collaboration’s importance. So it’s no stretch to suggest that alliance management professionals have the stuff of business leadership in the future. However, the rest of the world is now taking notice, too. Others are eager to roll up their sleeves and figure out whom to work with (and how) to bring the next gamechanging initiative to market. If alliance management doesn’t fully embrace and embody the 2013 ASAP Global Alliance Summit’s theme of “Leadership. Performance. Value,” you can bet someone else will. Alliance managers are already living in today’s collaborative world. Now it’s up to us to own it. n Strategic Alliance Magazine

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