STRATEGIC
COVER STORY BORN TO COLLABORATE? For Millennials to Fit into Alliance Management Shoes, Both the Size and Feet Need Altering By Cynthia Hanson
The magazine of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals | Q1, 2015 www.strategic-alliances.org
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INSIDE COLLABORATION AT THE CORE SPECIAL PREVIEW
March 2-5, 2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit Explores Partnering’s Future
ALLIANCE CHAMPION Annick De Swaef’s Blueprint for Attracting New Members to ASAP’s European Chapters
YOUR CAREER Learning from Alliance Masters PLUS MUCH MORE!
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Since 1999, Lilly’s Integrated Alliance Management professionals have helped companies maximize the value of partnered assets. With strong roots in governance and relationship management, we excel at problem solving and value-chain integration at all stages of discovery, development, and commercialization.
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STRATEGIC The magazine of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals | Q2, 2014
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SPECIAL features The magazine for the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals
EDITORIAL TEAM
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EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER
Michael Leonetti, CSAP
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+1-781-562-1630 ext. 201 mleonetti@strategic-alliances.org EDITOR and PUBLISHER
John W. DeWitt
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Cynthia Hanson COPY EDITOR
Hugh Field
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COVER STORY
18
BORN TO COLLABORATE? For Millennials to Fit
into Alliance Management Shoes, Both the Size and Feet Need Altering By Cynthia Hanson Partnering and collaboration—often via technology—seem to come naturally to the newest generation entering the workforce. But young and old both have a lot to learn as millennials increasingly join the alliance management ranks.
PRESIDENT and CEO
Michael Leonetti, CSAP
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2015 ASAP GLOBAL ALLIANCE SUMMIT SPECIAL PREVIEW
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COLLABORATION AT THE CORE
March 2-5, 2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit Explores Partnering’s Future By Cynthia Hanson Under the theme of “Collaboration at the Core: Forging the Future of Partnering,” The 2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit March 2-5 at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Florida, USA will convene several hundred partnering executives from all parts of the globe.
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EDITORIAL supplement
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FIGHTING FIRE WITH INSIGHT: How to Prevent and Resolve Alliance Disputes
By Brent H. Harvey, CA-AM, David S. Thompson, CA-AM, and Steven E. Twait, CSAP
Despite the existence of a sound contract, the interactions between partner companies can go “off script” in short order, even when both parties are operating in good faith. In certain situations the contract might be silent, or certain provisions might be open to interpretation. Anyone with practical alliance experience can testify that such situations often give rise to full-fledged disputes. SPONSORED BY ELI LILLY AND CO
For most companies, the question is no longer whether to ally, but how to do it right. The answer starts with the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals.
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Apply state-of-the-art tools, practices, and processes for alliance planning and execution ■ Engage with a community of highly accomplished alliance management professionals who not only share your challenges but also have the blueprints to overcome them ■ Design and build their company’s alliance management function ■ Promote their organization as “partner of choice” within their industry ■ Influence all pertinent stakeholders to contribute to making alliances flourish ■ Network with professionals from a variety of industries to find their next job, partner, or employee ■ Obtain the requisite training in the discipline’s hard and soft skills ■ Illustrate to C-level executives and other stakeholders the value generated by an alliance portfolio and the Alliance Management practice ■ Keep current with the latest high-level collaboration strategies ■
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Become an ASAP Member Today! ASAP offers two membership types, Individual and Corporate. To become an ASAP Individual Member today visit www.strategic-alliances.org/individuals. To become a Corporate Member contact ASAP’s director of membership services Lori Gold at+1-781-562-1630 ext. 203 or lgold@strategic-alliances.org. 960 Turnpike St, Canton, MA 02021 USA | Tel: +1-781-562-1630 | strategic-alliances.org | info@strategic-alliances.org
STRATEGIC The magazine of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals | Q2, 2014
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DEPARTMENTS & RECURRING features The magazine for the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals
ASAP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE & MANAGEMENT BOARD CHAIRMAN EMERITUS
Russ Buchanan, CSAP
Vice President, Worldwide Alliances, Xerox Corp. SECRETARY
Christine Carberry, CSAP
Senior Vice President, Quality; Program & Alliance Management, Forum Pharmaceuticals TREASURER
Donna Peek, CSAP
Director, SAS Global Alliances , SAS CHAIRMAN, CHAPTER DEVELOPMENT
Brian Handley, CA-AM
Business Development, Emerson Corp. CHAIRMAN, PROGRAMMING
Jan Twombly, CSAP
President, The Rhythm of Business, Inc. CHAIRMAN, MEMBERSHIP
Alistair Pim, CSAP
Vice President, Global Strategic Alliances, Schneider Electric EXECUTIVE BOARD
David Thompson, CA-AM
Chief Alliance Officer, Eli Lilly and Co.
08UP FRONT
‘Talkin’ ‘bout My Generation’ By Mike Leonetti, CSAP
09COLLABORATIVE BUZZ By Cynthia Hanson
News. Reviews. Insights. Alliance management in brief. n ALLIANCE
NEWS BRIEFS FROM THE WIRE From Solar Roads to Tableware, Partnerships Proliferate around the World
n ASAP
CHAPTER NEWS Three US Chapter Presidents Pass the Torch to New Leadership.
13YOUR CAREER
Learning from Alliance Masters By Julie Guest, CSAP
Judgment, solutions, results, and experience distinguish the best alliance executives from the rest. On any given day an alliance manager is consistently challenged and given opportunities for growth and development—whether it’s working through a sales escalation or solving for a new joint go-to-market plan given a new business model.
34ALLIANCE CHAMPION Europe’s Alliance Evangelist By Cynthia Hanson
Annick De Swaef’s blueprint for attracting new members to ASAP’s European chapters includes a welcome mat for millennials and a lot of “sermonizing” at chapter meetings. “In Europe, we have to evangelize!” says the president of the BeNeLux Chapter. Strategic Alliance Magazine is published quarterly. Publisher is The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, 960 Turnpike Street, Canton, MA 02021, +1-781-562-1630. This publication is provided as a benefit of membership to ASAP. All non-member subscription inquiries: +1-781-5621630. Copyright 2015, 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.
37MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Erna Arnesen: Plantronics’ Silicon Valley Maven with a Global Alliance Mission By Genevieve Fraser
Arnesen brings a passion for people and partnership—and decades of high-tech experience—as she now drives global and channel and alliance marketing for Plantronics.
46THE CLOSE
Partnering Goes Interplanetary By John W. DeWitt
The ASAP community is a real-life university on the leading edge of business practice. Now we’re even forging alliances to mine asteroids. The next school year kicks off March 2-5 in Orlando.
UP
Front
‘Talkin’ ‘bout My Generation’ By Mike Leonetti, CSAP
I’m from the vinyl-on-a-turntable generation. My 24-year-old son is from the iTunes-on-a-smartphone generation. Imagine my delight when our generations merged as we began exploring his new record turntable—funny how vinyl has become trendy again. “Did you keep any of your records?” he asked, as I began unpacking an airtight wooden box. I felt a wave of nostalgia as I pulled out “Deja Vu” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Remember that album’s “Teach Your Children”—a ballad about the lessons each generation can provide the other? Now that millennials are coming of age, it’s worth revisiting that idea and asking how we can mentor them, partner with them, and continue a reciprocally beneficial exchange between the generations in the marketplace. Their impact in business is likely to be greater than the youth of my time. They are a driving force and make up major populations in the great companies of today, yet they mostly have been absent from the alliance management world. At last year’s Summit, we agreed this is not good for our future, partnerships, and innovation in general. As my son and I reminisced about my era, Michael spoke about his new job at Indeed, a hot millennial-staffed, entrepreneurial, up-and-coming technology/employment company that built a market leadership position relatively quickly by pulling away share from the “old guard,” such as Monster or CareerBuilder. The average age of the professionals in his office is 27 to 28; the management team averages around 32. “How has such a young and relatively inexperienced 8 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
(by my standards) team put together such a successful multimillion dollar business so quickly?” I asked him. Michael talked about how differently people in his office speak about business, market share, and success. He spoke about his life experiences, the social media he has used over the past years, and how they function as a critical part of his social world and relationships today. “Where was I at his age?” I began to wonder. I was that 24-year-old working closely with 40- and 50-something managers. I was formally referred to as the youth of the organization. Generous mentors took the time to embrace me. My former company, more than 30 years ago, was looking at new ideas, new technology, and the ability to think differently to stay relevant as a market leader. What did I bring to the party? My young mind offered different solutions to their everyday challenges. I remember having conversations about why voicemail would be useful as a tool some day for all of our business units. The MIS director didn’t agree, but he listened. We eventually agreed to a voicemail pilot project that became a progressive communications tool for the company. Funny how the players and tools change, but the opportunity remains the same. That brings me back to some critical questions: What can we do to find new ways to introduce these high-powered, diverse thinkers into our world? Do you have room for an intern? What kind of training can you offer in partnering and alliance management that fits in a leadership rotation? Why do we require someone to have more than 10 years of business experience before we will consider them for an opening? Why not bring a millennial to an ASAP conference and introduce them to the discoveries and shared learnings that make you so passionate about our profession? We need to be as proactive about making room in our profession for this pool of talent as we are in making our partnerships successful. They are our future. n
Collaborative Buzz From Solar Roads to Tableware, Partnerships Proliferate around the World By Cynthia Hanson Alliance News Briefs From The Wire
Medifast has gained two legs up . . . on competitors in a partnership with Usablenet and Fitbit Inc. A division of Owing Mills, the manufacturer and distributor of clinically-proven portion-controlled weight-loss programs launched its first mobile site to provide customers with products, recipes, and guidelines on a mobile device. The device distributor is global technology leader Usablenet, which assists companies in providing customer service via multiple channels, such as in-store kiosks, tablets, and mobile devices.
Medifast also teamed up with fitness tracking company Fitbit Inc. in a deal that allows customers to link Medifast’s new digital dashboard to Fitbit trackers to record metrics such as nutrition, weight, exercise, and sleep. San Francisco-based Fitbit provides wireless fitness trackers that report data while worn on clothing or wrists. “The consumer was voting that this is something they desire,” says Brian Kagen, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Medifast.
KPMG and the McLaren Group are joining up . . . to offer a range of advisory services. The alliance combines KPMG’s extensive audit and consulting capabilities with McLaren’s expertise in predictive analytics. “McLaren has honed sophisticated predictive analysis and technologies that can be applied to many business issues,” says Simon Collins, UK chairman of KPMG. “This specialist knowledge has the power to radically transform audits, improving quality and providing greater insight to management teams, audit committees, and investigators. The same is true of our advisory services, where we believe applying McLaren’s predictive analytics and know-how to, for example, a complex international supply chain, could help our clients make a step change in the service they provide to their customers.” The McLaren Group, best known for its automotive sports competition and high-tech brand, has diversified into healthcare, pharmaceuticals, energy, transportation, and consumer brands.
Dramatically declining solar panel prices . . . and numerous regional and local collaborations... provided a significant economic boost to the US solar market in 2014, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. Solar provided more than one-third of electricity in the United States, second 9 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
COLL ABORATIVE BUZZ
only to natural gas. Despite solar trade disputes with China, the industry expects production to rise from 6.5 gigawatts in 2014 to 10GW in 2015. States with blueprints for new solar projects include: Minnesota, where a groundbreaking judicial ruling concluded solar was the better financial investment
C O L L A B O R A T I V E
nered with 16 separate public housing authorities as part of the PowerOptions energy buying consortium. The 39.5MW power purchasing agreements are expected to save housing authorities an estimated $60 million in electricity costs over 20 years—an environmental benefit equivalent to reducing one million tons of CO2.
Two Japanese companies partnered for a 2016 . . . launch of the largest floating solar panel farm in response to Japan’s efforts to shift from nuclear to solar power after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster.
B U Z Z
as compared with three natural gas proposals. Utility regulators authorized the state’s largest solar power project with more than $500 million in new generating units for Xcel Energy. Geronimo Energy is expected to build the new $250-million Aurora solar plant by 2017. California solar company 8minutenergy Renewables LLC secured financial backing from D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments of New York to build a 100 megawatt solar farm in Kern County. The grid will supply electricity to
States with blueprints for new solar projects include: Minnesota, where a groundbreaking judicial ruling concluded solar was the better financial investment as compared with three natural gas proposals. the Southern California Public Power Authority, which is buying it for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. LADWP provides water to most of Los Angeles and electricity to Los Angeles, West Hollywood, South Pasadena, and Culver City. Construction on the 950-acre farm is scheduled to begin next year. Massachusetts’ SunEdison part10 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
Kyocera and Century Tokyo Leasing formed Kyocera TCL Solar LLC to develop and operate the 13.4MW power plant on the Yamakura Dam reservoir. The companies are in the process of negotiating with the Tokyo Electric Power Company. Ciel et Terre of France will manufacture the floating platforms; the Public Enterprises Agency of Chiba Prefecture will manage the project. The farm is expected to produce over 15.6MW hours annually—enough power for about 4,700 homes. The project includes building an environmental education facility next to the farm.
A recently opened bike path just outside Amsterdam . . . is being hailed as the first public roadway to integrate solar panels. The 230-foot-long section of path is comprised of slabs of crystalline silicon solar cells sandwiched between tempered safety glass and concrete. TNO research group and the government of the province of North Holland collaborated on the 3.7 million
COLL ABORATIVE BUZZ
euro project, which is projected to produce enough electricity for two or three houses a year. While that may not seem like a lot, researchers believe the design breakthrough could lead to roads that create enough power for the electric cars that use them.
Uganda entered the world of solar generation . . . with Dubai-based developer Access Power, which won a contract to build two 5MW photovoltaic solar electricity projects as part of a pilot program spearheaded by the Norwegian government, which is supporting private sector investments in the country’s renewable energy resources. The “Get FiT” (feed-in tariffs) program is supporting 14 renewable energy projects in Uganda and, if successful, may be implemented elsewhere in countries with similar energy sector challenges. It was Uganda’s first tender awarding solar power feed-in tariffs, which pay above-market rates to small-scale producers of renewable energy from large energy producers.
Business analytics software innovator SAS . . . is collaborating with MapR Technologies, Inc., the enterprise software provider and distributor of Apache Hadoop. They plan to integrate Hadoop, provide support for joint customers, and tap future market opportunities. SAS’s powerful business analytics combined with the advanced distribution data platform from MapR will provide customer organizations with valuable insights needed to make the best decisions possible for competitive advantage, according to a company statement.
Swiss pharmaceutical corporation Novartis formed . . . an alliance with Qualcomm Life for its “Trials of The Future” global digital health program. The companies plan to improve the experience of clinical trial participants and patients with Novartis products, while providing connectivity with future products marketed by Novartis. The company will combine the 2net Platform, 2net Hub, and 2net Mobile technologies with medical devices to automate data collection. “Standardizing on the tech-agnostic 2net Platform and accessing the robust ecosystem of integrated medical devices will provide them a great range of flexibility and scalability, ultimately accelerating their efforts to design more efficient, cost-effective clinical trials,” says Rich Valencia, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Life.
Villeroy & Boch announced a partnership with Tableware Solutions . . . as a distributor in the Canadian foodservice market. “Not only does Tableware Solutions bring a wealth of market knowledge but they cover the entire country, plus they have the important distribution and end-user relationships we were looking
for,” says John Schroeder, vice president of sales and marketing in the Americas for V&B. The company, which is represented in 125 countries and headquartered in Germany, is one of the largest porcelain manufacturers in the world with glassware and flatware used in many fine restaurants, hotels, casinos, resorts, and foodservice establishments. 11 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
COLL ABORATIVE BUZZ
ASAP CHAPTER NEWS Three US Chapter Presidents Pass the Torch to New Leadership
C O L L A B O R A T I V E
ASAP has been the beneficiary of many strong volunteer leaders within the organization who have helped increase the organization’s strength and success over the years. Three recent transitions on the chapter level have involved the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and RTP Chapters.
FRANK CURRAN, business development for alliances at SuSE, stepped down as president of the New England Chapter over the summer. Frank served as president for many years and passed the torch to BECKY LOCKWOOD, a seasoned leader herself: “During my 10-plus years of ASAP membership, serving in volunteer roles at the local and global levels allowed me to elevate my experience and champion all that ASAP has to offer,” notes Lockwood.
B U Z Z
DEDE HAAS, CA-AM, a channel sales strategist for DLH Services and president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter since 2011, stepped down Jan. 1. Haas will
continue to help shape ASAP programming on the chapter level and is currently serving as chairperson of the Channel Initiative Task Force. “The chapter owes a debt of gratitude to Dede Haas for her energy, time, talent, and dedication to chapter growth over the last four years. I thank Dede and the leadership team for their support and guidance,” says LYNNE MULSTON, incoming chapter president. Lynne Mulston is no stranger to ASAP chapter leadership: She served in the vice chair role under Dede. The RTP Chapter has thrived under the leadership of ROB von ALTEN, CSAP, the senior director of alliance management at Quintiles. The RTP Chapter has prided itself in building a strong chapter community through the recruitment of high-quality speakers and consistently high-quality programming. Under von Alten’s leadership, the RTP Chapter won a chapter award for Chapter Excellence in Overall Operations in 2013. Taking the reins of the RTP Chapter is PARTH AMIN, director of strategic alliances at Omnicell. Like Lynne, Parth is no stranger to leadership within his chapter, having served as vice chair. n
Make it Yours: Personalizing the Magazine Send us your news bites for the next issue of Strategic Alliance Magazine. We want to know if you’ve: been promoted, just launched an innovative new strategic alliance, received an honor, or been engaged in any other notable event or endeavor. Send your news bite of 50-100 words with subject line “Q2-2015 News Bite” to jdewitt@asapmedia.org by April 6, 2015, for possible inclusion in the Q2-2015 issue of SAM. (Note: space is limited, so not all news bites may be included. Some news bites may be truncated.)
12 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
YOUR
Career
Learning from Alliance Masters Judgment, solutions, results, and experience distinguish the best alliance executives from the rest By Julie Guest, CSAP 13 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
YOUR C AREER
On any given day as an alliance manager, I
am consistently challenged and given opportunities for growth and development—whether it’s working through a sales escalation or solving for a new joint go-to-market plan given a new business model. In these challenging moments, I leverage the learnings and experience gained over the years to address issues, many of which come from the “alliance masters” I’ve been fortunate enough to know. I’ve worked with enough alliance managers and leaders to recognize a master when I meet one. These are the people who know the science and have alliance management down to an art. These are the people I want to work with, work for, and be like. Alliance masters seek out new emerging market trends, understand new business models and technology, collaborate with the best, and apply what they learn. They obtain industry recognition, by joining ASAP, achieving their CA-AM (Certification of Achievement–Alliance Management) or their CSAP (Certified Strategic Alliance Professional). More importantly, alliance masters have good business judgment, effective problem solving, focus on results, and have experience that sets them apart from the rest.
A L L I A N C E M A S T E R S
Having good judgment when it comes to managing a strategic alliance is crucial. Alliances will test your judgment regularly with decisions about when and what information to share, how to prioritize initiatives, who to engage, what to escalate, and how to resolve conflict, just to name a few. If you misstep in some of these areas, trust could be
I’ve worked with enough alliance managers and leaders to recognize a master when I meet one. These are the people who know the science and have alliance management down to an art. jeopardized, putting the alliance at risk. Whether your internal stakeholders start to question the benefit of the alliance or the partner loses faith in your ability to execute, it all could result in a de14 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
cline in the partnership. Good judgment, informed by guidance from key stakeholders, is so critical. Are you discerning enough to know when to be an advocate for your partner internally versus when to convince your partner to change a position for the benefit of all involved? I’ve witnessed alliance managers I admire practice transparency at just the right times by sharing information with the partner that could be interpreted as competitive had it not been delivered with the proper context and at the right time. As one alliance leader I’ve worked with, Steve Blacklock, VP of global strategic alliances at Citrix, puts it, “Open communication is essential in managing a strategic alliance. In the high-tech industry, we are all (mostly) open in our ecosystem partnership—so we’re often launching solutions with competitors to our strategic partners. The timing of your communications to affected partners is critical to effectively maintaining a trusted, open communication with that partner. For my most strategic partners, I will always provide a briefing on launches and releases of products/solutions prior to anything going public, and I’ll provide the alliance partner with key positioning, talking points, and helpful ways for them to communicate the news internally.” This is a best practice to emulate. Pause to make sure you’re using your best judgment, or seek guidance if there is doubt. This type of practice is part of the journey to becoming an alliance master. Being an effective problem solver speaks volumes in the alliance management world. In fact, based on how quickly technology is emerging, problem-solving capabilities around new areas of the business are becoming increasingly important. As Steve Steinhilber, Cisco’s vice president, industry solutions partner ecosystems, points out, “Based on the nature of how the Internet of Everything is evolving, there are several key skills, besides good partner management and governance, that will be important to have.” According to Steinhilber, these critical skills and concepts to understand include: n Business models. “Knowledge of new and evolving business models (e.g., the shift to cloud-based delivery and financial models
YOUR C AREER
in the IT industry) and understanding how partnering can work in those environments.” n Vertical value chains. “Vertical skills and knowledge of value chains around vertical solutions.” n
Global and local thinking. “The ability to balance where you have global verses local plays, given the evolving political landscape and the [potential in some markets for local] protectionism as you build out global models.”
This means that alliance managers must be prepared to capitalize on these partnering opportunities by understanding the changing landscape and then identify, plan, and execute new partnering models and plays. As alliance masters solve for new market and partnering opportunities, they reference data/facts and gain support for their ideas. They also know how to build relationships with executive sponsors, request guidance to help shape the alliance strategy, and leverage them to resolve conflicts, as needed. Cultivating these executive relationships makes all the difference when conflicts need to be addressed or new opportunities need sponsorship. Addressing issues and opportunities head-on works best when there is documentation that captures the situation, and after the alliance manager has gained internal alignment on the company position and agreed-upon actions to address it. Once internal alignment is achieved, discussions with the partner can proceed. If the issue or opportunity isn’t being addressed in a timely manner with the alliance team, master alliance managers will leverage executive relationships and strategize on the best way to solve the problem. Sometimes business plans need alignment, rules of engagement need clearer definition, or executive
communications need to clarify both companies’ positions. Other times, joint workshops need to bring stakeholders together in person to align on strategy and agree to an execution plan. Regardless of the resolution, the master alliance manager deduces the most efficient and effective strategy and takes swift action to focus the alliance on delivering results. The most successful alliance managers I’ve known who achieve measurable results are the sales- and revenue-focused people who know how to motivate others, understand how sales teams are compensated, and communicate clearly what is in it for sales. These are the ones who partner with sale teams to win deals, celebrate success, and then let the results breed more success. There is nothing more powerful than having a sales champion speak about how leveraging an alliance helped them win a deal,
made the deal more transformative, and led to follow on business. Alliance managers who bring their experience to bear, prioritize the most impactful initiatives, and collaborate with sales to achieve results are true masters, in my opinion. Furthermore, sales-savvy alliance managers look for opportuni15 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
YOUR C AREER
ties to scale sales by looking at all possible routes to market and potential roadblocks to success. Those who engage ecosystem partners, such as other technology partners, system integrators, consultants, and channel partners, demonstrate their mastery.
A L L I A N C E
Activities with ecosystem partners such as joint webinars, events, and co-marketing help to raise awareness of complementary solutions. As more ecosystems are at play with multiple partners coming together to offer more holistic solutions, tracking and measuring results becomes more complicated. This requires persistence to identify measurement methodologies that may be identifying sell-with or influence revenue. Although it may be challenging, it is worth the effort to calculate and share alliance results, as stakeholders will need to understand the value of alliances in order to continue investing in them. In addition to looking at short-term business results, it’s important to work in parallel toward a long-term plan and tracking milestones along the way as well.
M A S T E R S
In alliance mastery, there is no substitute for experience. I’m referring to years of working in a corporate environment, where you are exposed to many different functions, roles, technology, and processes.
16
I’ve learned a lot from Erna Arnesen, who is now Plantronics’ vice president of global channel and alliance marketing. “Being able to keep a long view of a partnership’s life cycle is key when it comes to managing alliances,” Arnesen explains. “The short-term business needs often conflict with alliance management best practices. Business imperatives—or pressures—such as creating a press release about a partnership announcement, develSTRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
oping pipelines for short-term revenue, or showing measurable results on co-development milestones can be overwhelming and compromise the foundation of the long-term partnership. It is a delicate balancing act for alliance leaders to hold their po-
sition and gain agreement on short-term as well as long-term objectives—and then execute according to plan. Celebrating small (or large) milestones on the journey is important, while keeping in mind the long-term goal and the steps to get there. It may be discouraging at times, but keeping a positive attitude and a long view is critical to the success of the partnership.” Alliance masters who invest time with ecosystem partners working out selling motions, engagement models, and tracking both short-term and long-term results clearly demonstrate value and exceed expectations. Finally, in alliance mastery, there is no substitute for experience. I’m referring to years of working in a corporate environment, where you are exposed to many different functions, roles, technology, and processes. The master alliance managers I know have diverse experience working in many different areas. This experience has shaped them into leaders who quickly connect ideas, see opportunities, and understand what is needed to execute. They anticipate and overcome roadblocks and, ultimately, get results. A combination of industry knowledge, technical expertise, ability to resolve conflicts, and execution prowess all come from real-world experience. n
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COVER
Story
Born to Collaborate?
For Millennials to Fit into Alliance Management Shoes, Both the Size and Feet Need Altering By Cynthia Hanson
18 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
“I
was organizing the
personal lives of 24 people, including myself, and doing it for six hours. It took strategy, leadership, and teamwork. Everybody had an important, specific role. If they didn’t do their part, they would die. As the leader, I gave my teammates a personal sense of worth and value so they would stick with me and get the job done.
”
—Greg Jones, a devout millennial collaborator
19 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
COVER STORY
Partnering and collaboration are integral to Greg Jones’ life. A 20-year-old millennial and sophomore at a small liberal arts college in Illinois, he spent countless hours in his youth building teams, following orders, delegating, and maintaining good partnerships in online multi-player games. The age, gender, socio-economic background, sexual orientation, color, and ethnicity of his faceless partners were irrelevant factors. Gaming was about impersonal camaraderie and the common goal—everyone doing their best to collectively achieve the group objective.
M I L L E N N I A L S
Like many of his peers, Greg (not his actual name) has been raised on instant communication, computer literacy, high-tech problem solving, and the borderless world of the Internet. He carries a
“Millennials are great at working in teams and reaching out to expand their networks to gather pertinent information and resources to fill in their knowledge gaps and they love, frankly feel responsible for, sharing their expertise.” —Susan Adams, Professor of Management Bentley University
smartphone, texts whenever and wherever he can, and sometimes sleeps with it by his side. He has a Facebook page and Twitter account. With enough Japanese learned from watching anime cartoons, he is planning a semester in Japan to study business. His communications and technology 20 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
experience, worldview, and interests would seem a perfect fit for a career in alliance management. Millennials—sometimes called Generation Y— present a big challenge for managers and educators such as Susan Adams, who is a professor of management at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. She spends a lot of time assessing them as a careers and leadership development/advancement specialist, especially in relation to organizational effectiveness. “I like looking at what works for different segments of the population, such as women, millennials, and those involved in STEM,” says Adams, who is also senior director of Bentley’s Center for Women and Business. Taking the reins and steering this large generation into top-down corporate conformity isn’t going to work, she says. “Millennials are great at working in teams and reaching out to expand their networks to gather pertinent information and resources to fill in their knowledge gaps and they love, frankly feel responsible for, sharing their expertise,” she notes. “But hierarchies don’t work well with this group. Millennials like partnerships. They appreciate leadership, but they also want to be acknowledged as providing value as well. They don’t have a lot of patience for bad managers.”
COVER STORY
Adams mingles with large packs of the breed on a daily basis and has been instrumental in the production of two recent Bentley surveys on millennials. What the results show about their collective view is a conundrum for the traditional corporate business structure. “They don’t like ambiguity as much as they need to. But they like to have a puzzle that can be solved, and that becomes a problem in the business world because you don’t know what the answer will be. Gaming can help them in business, but they will go online and cheat. So they have a harder time thinking on their own. I have fewer problems with this generation with teamwork,” she says. “They want the team to be successful—it’s not necessary for a superstar to emerge. They think about connecting pieces to get to where they need to go. They learned multitasking rather than linear thinking at a young age,” she adds. “Perhaps they just haven’t been properly utilized up to now if they aren’t part of the alliance management puzzle,” but for a good fit, she concludes, multiple changes are needed for them to fill the large number of alliance management shoes that will become available in the future. Some of those changes need to be made to the shoe size, some to the feet.
The value of assessment tools, career-specific education, and mentoring “To best leverage the talents of this group, they need good mentoring and oversight as they learn what is expected, but still have latitude to do it their way,” Adams surmises. “They need careers that keep them growing toward their goals.” Adams is a big fan of assessment tools, which Bentley uses to help business majors find a right fit. It’s also a tool companies can use to evaluate potential alliance management candidates and adjust their practices to make their workplace more attractive to millennials. Bentley had 60 students assessed last year by The Indigo Project, a US-based online data analytics program used over the past two years to evaluate millennials. The program’s assessment tool is the comprehensive, non-cognitive Indigo Assessment derived from Target Training International’s corporate tools, which are used to hire and
WHO ARE THESE MASKED MEN AND WOMEN? Important Findings for Businesses To Glean from Recent Millennial Surveys The millennial generation will zoom past baby boomers in 2015 to become the largest living generation— some 75.3 million in the United States alone, according to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, which calculates their data based on people born from 1981 to 1997. Their habits, values, and liberal tendencies are altering the global landscape, concludes “Millennials in Adulthood,” one of the center’s 2014 surveys. They are expected to comprise 50 percent of the global workforce sometime around 2020 and 75 percent by 2030, estimates show. Now a quarter of the US population, millennials in the US are expected to round the bend and peak in number in 2036 to 81.1 million, as young immigrants increase their numbers, according to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. “With the first cohorts of millennials only in their early thirties, most members of this generation are at the beginning of their careers and so will be an important engine of the economy in the decades to come,” concludes an October 2014 survey “15 Economic Facts About Millennials,” by the US Council of Economic Advisors.
Continued on page 23
21 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
COVER STORY
develop employees. It has been used in 90 countries with 40 languages for over 30 years. The assessment measures behaviors, motivators, 25 soft skills (such as persuasion, leadership, negotiation, teamwork), and acumen—the social and emotional perceptions of how people view their external and internal world.
M I L L E N N I A L S
Indigo Assessment is perfect for assessing people for the field of alliance management, says Sheri Smith, CEO and founder of the project. “Millennials want to impact change and have a role that makes a difference. The alliance management role does make a difference. But young people don’t know it exists, they don’t know what it is. If I could do it all over again, I would become an alliance manager,” she quips. “If I had known it was an option, I might have started my career that way— that is, if I fit the profile of alliance manager.” The Indigo Project hopes to have a total of 50,000 students assessed by the end of 2015. Some of the 5,000 students already assessed attend Loyola University in Maryland, where Jeffrey Cummings, associate professor of business management, teaches a global strategic alliances course. “There are very few courses on strategic alliances at either the MBA or BBA levels,” he laments. In his “to do” list, he is quick to suggest education programs specific to alliance management as a key ways to introduce and recruit millennials into the field:
The Indigo Project is just starting to obtain enough data to come to some conclusions about millennials. One that stands out prominently is their emphasis on workplace environment and aesthetic value. “The need for harmony, beauty, self-expression—it’s above average in terms of what they are motivated by,” says Smith. 22 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
n
Expose them to alliance management courses and other materials attractive to them—Web-based articles, videos, etc.
n
Utilize more assessment tools along the lines of the Indigo Project to help both students and young professionals and recruiting firms identify good fits.
n
Recruit them into the ranks from businesses and other schools that prepare students for the collaborative style of business—such as schools that teach courses in teaming, collaborative management, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, managing in virtual environments, etc.
Mentoring as an alliance management training tool has worked well for Kerri Lampard, director of technology and software services alliances at Cisco Systems, Inc. Reverse mentoring is particularly useful to her for understanding the needs of millennials in the workplace and helping new hires deal with pushback when presenting innovative ideas and new management approaches. “I probably wouldn’t have considered early career hires for my team without being engaged in the reverse mentoring process. We reverse mentor for six to 12 months,” she explains. “For me, it was so successful, it’s now always on the table as there is always something new to learn from my mentor.” Steve Reidy is Kerri’s mentor. Reverse mentoring was a way for the global account manager to bridge the gap. “Having a senior mentee through the reverse mentoring process helped me learn how to be comfortable,
COVER STORY
confident, and understand better how to interact with senior people at Cisco,” he says. It also provides an opportunity for experienced leaders to understand millennials better and improve communication, he adds. “Interaction with my manger is very important. I hate to be micromanaged. I would hate to have an autocratic, angry manager,” he explains in classic millennial frankness. “I know that sounds arrogant. Whether it’s true or not remains to be seen. But that’s how I feel.” Another aspect of reverse mentoring is that it helps managers understand early career hires better, Lampard notes. “I was concerned that one of my new hires was emailing me at midnight or at one o’clock in the morning. When asked why, she replied ‘This is when I like to work.’ The experience helped me understand that millennials require more flexibility and connectivity to their work, which wasn’t as much a focus for the other generations.”
Companies need to understand millennials—and adapt It’s easier and more comfortable, for all involved, to just change the shoe size rather than alter the feet. That’s what companies such as Apple and Google concluded years ago. Consequently, they are companies on many millennial job seeker wish lists, says Smith. “Google is an open campus with play rooms, games, dog parks, and a beautiful outdoor space for walking.” The Indigo Project is just starting to obtain enough data to come to some conclusions about millennials. One that stands out prominently is their emphasis on workplace environment and aesthetic value. “The need for harmony, beauty, self-expression—it’s above average in terms of what they are motivated by,” says Smith. “How that translates to the company, how the workplace feels and looks matters a lot to their productivity. That’s why these companies are going to great lengths. Big companies don’t quite get that space matters more to these folks than to the older generation,” she explains. “Even inner-city millennials from [low-income
Many millennial habits and traits are shared globally, linking countries and cultures in unique generational ways. “Millennial attitudes are not totally universal, although there is significant commonality between the United States/Canada and Western Europe,” states a 2013 survey called “PwC’s NextGen: A global generation study.” The study done by PwC, the University of Southern California, and the London Business School calls itself “the largest, most comprehensive global generational study ever conducted into the attitudes of ‘Millennial’ employees.” India’s 600 million millennials, about twice the population of the US, also share many common millennial habits and traits, a Tata Institute of Social Sciences study found. Heavily shaped by social networking, communications, and technology, they are dubbed “digital natives:” “the only generation for which these new technologies are not something they’ve had to adapt to,” according to the Pew study. Deemed the most technologically savvy, diverse, and educated US generation, millennials in the US call themselves political independents (50 percent), and about a third aren’t affiliated with any religion. They are more likely to sleep near their cell phones, and three-quarters have social networking accounts. Sometimes dubbed the ADD Continued on page 24
23 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
COVER STORY
housing] projects have high aesthetics. We don’t know why yet, but most of them do.” Unlike the Millennial Impact Report surveys researched by Achieve for The Case Foundation and The Chronicle of Philanthropy, which gauges millennial involvement with cause work, the Indigo Project data “doesn’t show that millennials care more about changing the world than previous generations. It was weird,” Smith observes. “They care about the planet from the aesthetic motivator not the social motivator.”
M I L L E N N I A L S
As an educator and career specialist, Adams agrees with Smith that environment really does matter to millennials. They like healthy lifestyles, which explains why they like that type of work environment, she says. Based on the number of students she sees opting to join companies that help society and “use their financial resources for the good of the world,” she purports that philanthropy is an integral part of the millennial fabric: “They are revolting against bureaucracy, corruption, and greed to the extent that it hurts people.” The workplace may need to become more family-oriented and less structured as well, Adams points out, citing findings from the Bentley surveys. “They feel responsible for providing good work, which makes them a real pain for managers because they want to provide perfect results, and they’re always running to their bosses to make sure they’re doing okay. They’re pleasers, and they really want to please their parents. They expect the workplace to also care for them in the same way. They are looking for work families.” Jeff Shuman marvels at the generational changes he has seen among students. “I had to change my teaching methods to adapt to millennial learning styles,” says the co-founder and principal at The Rhythm of Business and business professor at Bentley University with over 30 years of teaching experience. “They can’t leave technology alone. You want the students to use technology, but they use it whenever they feel like it. And they think it’s socially acceptable. If we take a break, everyone in the room is immediately on their phone,” he says. “And they are less concerned with knowing information. They have the attitude that they just need to know how to get it—just Google it to get the answer. They are much more interested in hands-on, interactive projects.”
24
Are the millennial quirks and lifestyles going to fit into corporate boardroom etiquette? he wonders. “They’re much more informal. I get emails from students who start off ‘Hey, Jeff.’ And the speed with which they feel compelled to respond— that’s a whole other issue.” n STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
generation, they are adept at multi-tasking and tend to stay in touch with family and friends via texting on a daily basis, the study found. Sometimes called the Baby Boomer Echo because they generally are the offspring of that generation, they have also been dubbed Generation Me, Generation Next, Net Generation, Echo Boomers, Boomerang, or the Peter Pan generation. They are “optimistic about the future” and “confident, connected, and open to change,” according to the Pew survey. More have a college degree than previous generations, they are burdened by debt, and they tend to be distrustful. An earlier 2012 Pew survey reported that 83 percent of millennials agree with the statement “there is too much power concentrated in the hands of a few big companies,” about two-thirds believe “businesses make too much profit,” and most do not agree that “government regulation of business usually does more harm than good.” We’ve only scratched the surface here, and millennials are a hot topic right now. ASAP encourages you to peruse our Resources Guide for more information on this fascinating generation. n
MILLENNIALS
Resource Guide Following are some useful links to recent online surveys, research, and studies on the millennial generation. 15 Economic Facts About Millennials • The Council of Economic Advisors (Oct. 2014) http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/millennials_report.pdf Government report on the economics of millennials and what their impact will be in the future
Millennials in Adulthood • Pew Research Center, (March 2014) http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/
Builds on previous Pew surveys for a more comprehensive view of millennials
The 2014 Millennial Impact Report: Inspiring the Next Generation Workforce Achieve and The Case Foundation (June 2014) http://www.themillennialimpact.com/
Focuses on what motives millennials in relation to causes and movements
How Millennials Could Upend Wall Street and Corporate America • Brookings Institution (May 2014) http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2014/05/millennials%20wall%20st/brookings_winogradv5.pdf How millennials view and may impact Wall Street, corporations, and the banking industry
PwC’s NextGen: A Global Generational Study—Evolving Talent Strategy to Match the New Workforce Reality • PwC, University of Southern California, and the London School of Business (2013) http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/people-management/publications/assets/pwc-nextgen-summary-of-findings.pdf
Comprehensive global study on millennials in the workforce and what companies need to know
Millennials in the Workplace • Center for Women and Business, Bentley College (2012) https://www.bentley.edu/centers/sites/www.bentley.edu.centers/files/centers/cwb/millennials-report.pdf
Comprehensive survey by a university that has been intensively studying millennials
The Millennials Generation Research Review • US Chamber of Commerce Foundation (2012) http://www.uschamberfoundation.org/millennial-generation-research-review
Millennial views in relation to US businesses
The Mindset List • Beloit College http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/
Annual compilation of the values that shape the worldview of 18-year-old students
A Primer on Millennials: List of 25 Research Reports Bill Chamberlin: Market Research, Emerging Trends & Technologies, Social Media Marketing, and Communities http://www.billchamberlin.com/a-primer-on-millennials-list-of-25-research-reports/ 25 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
SUMMIT
Preview
The ASAP Global Alliance Summit is by far the world’s largest annual gathering of our profession’s leading individuals and organizations. Each year, top alliance management and partnering practitioners, thought leaders, academics, and consultants gather at the ASAP Global Alliance Summit to discuss the state of the profession, how to evolve the discipline, and ways of advancing the business world’s understanding of alliance and collaboration strategy and execution.
26 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
The 2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit March 2-5 at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Florida, USA will convene several hundred partnering executives from all parts of the globe.
Collaboration at the Core March 2-5, 2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit Explores Partnering’s Future By Cynthia Hanson
A S A P G L O B A L S U M M I T 2 015
The 2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit March 2-5 O R L A N D O
at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Florida, USA will convene several hundred partnering executives from all parts of the globe. Under the theme of “Collaboration at the Core: Forging the Future of Partnering,” alliance and channel executives and ASAP’s best and brightest thought leaders will discuss and redefine the state of the art for alliance management and business collaboration.
3 / 2 TO 3 / 5
Sessions range from fundamentals for alliance managers, such as Jeffrey Cummings’ not-to-miss Creativity—An Essential
Ability for Collaboration on how to hone your creative gene to give you an edge as a collaborator, to more advanced sessions such as Transforming Partnering Post Disrup-
tion, a panel of partnering executives discussing how new partners and business models have caused disruption in the technology industry, and what building blocks exist for partnering success the “day after” the disruption. The Summit begins on Monday with CA-AM and CSAP Certification Exam preparation workshops, as well as an experimental and interactive workshop presented by Xerox, Designing
a Partnership that Works: Onboard Your High-Tech Partnership, and a basic training course offered by Eli Lilly and Company, Introduction to
Alliance Management: Tools and Techniques. Tuesday morn-
A S A P G L O B A L S U M M I T 2 015
ing’s plenary session features the 2015 ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards and two keynote speeches: Dale Ketcham of Space Florida on The New
Space Industry: Partners for the Future, and Dr. Mark Rosenberg of The Task Force for Global Health on Fostering Real Collaboration: Lessons from Solving Global Health Problems (see profiles).
Tracks and Session Highlights Track sessions, which begin on Tuesday afternoon and end Wednesday afternoon, include: Disruption + Leadership = Partnering Innovation and Measurable Outcomes; Industry Focus; Building World Class Capabilities. Here are several highlights: How did one company use partnering to nearly double its revenues every year over the past 10 years? Join Terry Herring, president of Mission Pharmacal, in Partnering to Diversify Yields Rapid Growth to find out how his family-owned company leveraged a unique business structure that allows for partnering in highly productive and forward-thinking ways. When trouble erupts somewhere in the world, who do companies turn to as they scramble to get security and perhaps medical assistance to their executives? Aligning for the Health and Safety of Business
Travelers and Ex-Pats is a timely presentation and discussion led by two sometimes-competing businesses about how their long-standing alliance has mastered seamless information and work flows, aligned each other’s marketing teams, coordinated delivery of services, provided effective governance, and more. Hear their real-life story of how their alliance helped a client and its employees through a particularly challenging crisis in West Africa.
A S A P G L O B A L S U M M I T 2 015
NetApp’s highly effective catalyst approach streamlines the processes necessary for real-
O R L A N D O
izing the benefits of three- and four-way
3 / 2
enterprises
alliances. Market speed requires enormous
commitment
and precision from teams spread across highly matrixed
TO 3 / 5
It’s Not About You: Optimizing Channel Relationships is a 90-minute, hands-on workshop that addresses what it takes for vendors and partners to build a successful channel sales partnership. This session provides
guidance
so
on starting a re-
they can rap-
lationship with
idly
respond
a
to
custom-
channel part-
er needs with tight execution on programs that drive
customer
value and market innovation. Connecting the
Ecosystem: Being the Catalyst to Accelerate Multi-Partner Go-To-Market Plans addresses critical success factors for implementing this strategy as well as potential
prospective
ner
through
the recruitment process. When properly managed, alliances among competitive firms can offer benefits that none of the participants can realize without the participation of its competitors. Creating and Sustaining
roadblocks and mitigation factors.
Productive Alliances among Competitors will review several successful competitor
As business increasingly turns to partnering as
alliances, including organization guidelines,
a strategy for innovation and growth, alliance
operating policy and practice, success mea-
professionals need to shift from a process-
sures, and means to evolve the alliance over
es-and-tools approach to a strategic approach
time to keep the group relevant. n
in which risk is managed and value created.
Improving Alliance Outcomes: What’s an Alliance Professional to Do? discusses four building blocks for success within the context of a company’s strategy, culture, and ecosystem, first explaining the model and then engaging participants in roundtable discussions of key leadership issues. 30 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit 3/2/2015 to 3/5/2015 • Hyatt Regency Orlando 9801 International Drive, Orlando, Florida 32819 For Summit Info Contact: Michele Shannnon mshannon@strategic-alliances.org Phone: +1.774.256.1401 ASSOCIATION OF STRATEGIC ALLIANCE PROFESSIONALS http://www.strategic-alliances.org/
A S A P G L O B A L S U M M I T 2 015
March 2-5, 2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit Keynote Speakers Space Florida’s Dale Ketcham: Public-Private Partnerships Take Flight Dale Ketcham will launch the plenary session as the 2015 Summit keynote speaker with “The New Space Industry: Partners for the Future,” Tuesday morning, March 3—a talk on how government funding constraints are changing the space industry and fostering cross-industry collaboration. Ketcham is chief of strategic alliances for Space Florida, a government entity that’s redefining government contracting as funding moves to public-private partnerships. Space Florida is collaborating with some unusual partners—from the companies of avant guard billionaires and space entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin, to innovative university R&D programs. Such extraordinary partnerships require careful coordination and a shift in protocol, and Ketcham will share ways Space Florida is morphing and multi-tasking while it partners to maximize profits and results. Partnerships and collaborations have evolved in the space industry, much as was the case with the railroad and airplane industries. Partnerships are pioneering innovative projects, such as mining asteroids for their minerals, space vacations via private space shuttles, and technology to put constellations of baseball-sized nanosatellites into space. Ketcham has been immersed in the world of space exploration from an early age: He grew up in Cocoa Beach, where the first seven astronauts resided. He watched with great interest the evolution of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, and worked for Rockwell International on the space shuttle. He was district director for a local congressman who served on the space subcommittee in Washington, D.C., director of the Spaceport Research & Technology Institute at the University of Central Florida, and director of Space & Defense programs at Enterprise Florida before joining Space Florida.
Dr. Mark Rosenberg: Collaborations Tackle Complex Global Health Challenges Dr. Mark Rosenberg presents the special conference keynote titled “Fostering Real Collaboration: Lessons from Solving Global Health Problems” on Tuesday, March 3, following the 2015 ASAP Alliance Excellence Awards. As president and CEO of The Task Force for Global Health in Decatur, Georgia, Dr. Rosenberg has fostered successful collaborations to tackle a range of global health issues—from increasing access to treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis to improving road safety. In his talk, Rosenberg will draw on his co-authored work Real Collaboration: What Global Health Needs to Succeed (University of California Press, 2010) to outline a blueprint for successful collaborations that includes a “Partnership Pathway” developed from experiences in global health collaboration. He will show how diverse stakeholders, including global and regional agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and other nonprofits, can shed their self-interests and work together to meet challenging goals. In its 30-year history, The Task Force has served millions of marginalized people in the developing world through work to eliminate neglected tropical diseases, improve access to vaccines, and strengthen health systems. Dr. Rosenberg is a member of the Institute of Medicine and has published more than 135 manuscripts on collaboration in global health, injury control, and violence prevention. Before joining The Task Force, Dr. Rosenberg served for 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including conducting early work in smallpox eradication, enteric diseases, and HIV/AIDS. He was instrumental in establishing CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and became the first permanent director, serving as both director and Assistant Surgeon General of the United States. Dr. Rosenberg is a graduate of Harvard University and is board-certified in both psychiatry and neurology and internal medicine with training in public policy. Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
31
EPPP marketplace
One-Stop Shopping for Professional Development and Training Services
For more information on how to be part of the EPPP Program, Contact Jennifer Silver, Certification Coordinator
ASAP’s Education Provider Partner Program (EPPP) gathers some of the profession’s best trainers, mentors and programs in one place for alliance managers and their companies to turn to in order to develop the skills that enable strategic alliances to achieve corporate objectives.
+1-781-562-1630 ext 205
•
Jsilver@strategic-alliances.org
•
www.strategic-alliances.org
ALLIANCE
Champion
Europe’s Alliance Evangelist By Cynthia Hanson
Annick De Swaef’s Blueprint for Attracting New Members to ASAP’s European Chapters Includes a Welcome Mat for Millennials, and Creating an Inviting Social Setting for Large, Medium, and Small Businesses
34 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
Annick De Swaef spends a good deal of time “sermonizing” at ASAP chapter meetings about successful partnering, sharing, and collaboration. “In Europe, we have to evangelize!” says the president of the BeNeLux Chapter (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) in Brussels. “Europeans are a pragmatic people. European professionals tend to be skeptical of embracing new methodologies. By comparison, in the US, alliance management is already well known.”
De Swaef took up the practice of alliance management about five years ago when she was working as the Brussels Mobility IT coordinator for the Ministry of the Brussels Capital Region. She is well versed in Smart Cities, having managed 300 kilometers of roads, contracts and budgets at the ministry, and the challenging coordination of contractors, engineering firms, and stakeholders. “I was wondering why collaboration was so difficult and began searching for more advanced collaborative methodologies on the Internet. That’s when I discovered ASAP,” she explains of her involvement. “I really liked the combination of value creation and the aspect of managing relationships and knowledge. For me, they are the keys in business collaboration, and they differentiate alliance management best practice from project management.” Today, she is the co-founder of Consensa Consulting, the only company in Belgium solely dedicated to alliance management. Founded in 2009, Consensa’s three employees and network of 20 consultants work mostly for private clients and large companies in the insurance, construction, and banking industries. The company also increasingly delivers consulting services in life sciences, high tech, and technology. It consults on complex case-based challenges and helps clients build alliance capabilities. Consensa Consulting’s services are in big demand in Europe for a number of reasons, she says. “People and businesses understand more and more the need to work together because of the financial crisis. They need the skills. And public government is pushing businesses into alliances—they can’t get a grant without being in a consortium or in a group of businesses,” she notes. Certification has become increasingly important to these companies. “The European Commission has all sorts of initiatives and programs to fund businesses, but on the condition that they practice professionally and work together with other businesses and academic partners. Companies need to collaborate to get to the money. For instance, in Smart Cities, if you want public money, you had better partner.”
35 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
ALLIANCE CHAMPION
Her extensive experience in managing Smart Cities ranges from projects involving academic partners and large companies working on transportation projects to collaborations between contractors, administrators, and architects on green buildings that connect people to the environment in urban areas. “I am still doing Smart Cities work, but I work on the side of the private companies now,” she says. “We advise them on how to form their consortia, their partnerships, in a strong way so they can participate in public procurement. If the partners can’t work together, they can’t deliver to the public authority.”
D e S W A E F
De Swaef joined the Brussels chapter several years ago. One of the first changes she made as a volunteer president was to “reboot the leadership” from being solely consultants to a majority of corporate members. Her top priority continues to be recruiting new members into the fold of alliance management, especially young members. As the ASAP membership ages, it has become crucial to connect with young professionals with five to 10 years of experience, share alliance management principles, and learn from millennials, she says. Alliance management is a natural fit for them. It isn’t widely known in Europe, and when European millennials discover the profession, “they are so grateful,” she says enthusiastically. “They are a more collaborative generation. They want to connect, and they use technology to do so. Their familiar-
De Swaef joined the Brussels chapter several years ago. One of the first changes she made as a volunteer president was to “reboot the leadership” from being solely consultants to a majority of corporate members. ity with social networking makes them good at managing relationships, but they need mentors because they lack the maturity to manage knowledge. There’s a huge difference in the way these generations approach alliance management,” she adds. It’s a symbiotic relationship: “The younger generation brings a new perspective. They like to 36 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
communicate and share on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. But the first thing the older generation needs to teach them is intellectual property. It’s one of the best practices we, as consultants, do when we work with our clients. The younger generation doesn’t have a lot of experience—they don’t understand that notion. So you need to mentor and train them.” Currently, there are 13 ASAP chapters worldwide—eight in the United States, three in Europe (BeNeLux, the United Kingdom, and France), one in Asia, and one in Canada. The much-needed expansion of ASAP in Europe is dependent on local events and promoting more international events, such as the annual ASAP Global Alliance Summit and webinars, she states. “Here in Europe and Belgium, we like to eat, drink, and enjoy ourselves. It’s in the culture to be social and have face-toface meetings. We hope in 2015 we will have more meetings than our four quarterly meetings.” One of the trends she’s observed in Europe is the desire among small- and medium-sized companies to partner with large corporations. They want to learn best practices. They worry about large corporations ripping off their intellectual property, and they don’t want to sell their ideas cheap, she says. “How can we lower the barriers between these companies locally and encourage them to take part? How can we create an environment where they can mingle and develop better and more trusting relationships, and share practices that have come from multinationals?” she asks. “People in small and medium companies want to get certified, too, because they want to demonstrate their capability to partner. Local is a far bigger audience for ASAP in the long run.” n To learn more about ASAP chapters, visit the chapters page on the ASAP website at http://www.strategicalliances.org/?page=chapters. If you have questions on how you can get involved as a volunteer or connect with a chapter, contact Lori Gold, director of membership services, at 781-562-1630 ext. 203 or at lgold@strategic-alliances.org.
MEMBER
Spotlight
Erna Arnesen:
Plantronics’ Silicon Valley Maven with a Global Alliance Mission By Genevieve Fraser
Erna Arnesen
has been described as one of the most influential women in business by Silicon Valley/SJ Business Journal, which named her a Woman of Influence for 2011. At that time, she was vice president for global and strategic services partners at Cisco. The next year, Forbes featured Arnesen in a November 30th article which highlighted the honor she received from Watermark as one of the Women Who Made Their Mark. “Against all odds for a woman in technology, Erna has successfully climbed the ranks and landed pretty darn near the top,” Sasha Galbraith wrote.
Arnesen is now the VP for global channel and alliance marketing at Plantronics. Her remarkable career began during the heyday of office automation—at the dawn of the age of the personal computer, which transformed the office from typewriters, telephones, telex, copiers, and calculators into a workstation. Confined cubicles have since evolved in more and more companies into a workspace that allows for home commuting, or, as Plantronics promotes, “smarter working” in a company setting. This workplace transformation also parallels the development of strategic alliances as a business model. Following Wellesley and a Harvard MBA, Arnesen remained in the Boston area to work for the Dictaphone Company at a time when Wang Laboratories 37 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
M E M B E R S P O T L I G H T
Arnesen brings a passion for people and partnership—and decades of high-tech experience—as she now drives global and channel and alliance marketing for Plantronics was shepherding word processing into the forefront of office automation. By 1986, Arnesen was living in California and had joined Apple Inc. as the value added resellers (VAR) director. Her stint with Apple began the year after Steve Jobs engaged in a power struggle with the board of directors and left the company he founded. Jobs then founded the computer platform company NeXT, which became Arnesen’s subsequent destination too. Building on her expertise in value added reselling, she was appointed as direc38 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
tor of VAR/OEM channel sales. Her final interview had been conducted by Steve Jobs (known as a hard man to please). As Arnesen explains, at first she worked for someone who worked for Jobs, but in his final months at NeXT, she worked directly under Jobs. This position helped seal the direction her career would take. As the director of channel partners for NeXT— working with retailers, distributors, vendors, consultants, VARs, as well as OEMs—Arnesen’s knack for system integration was, in essence, building a strategic alliance team prior to the formation of ASAP, which codifies these strategies. “Back in the 1980s, ‘alliance’ was considered to be a dangerous word, as was the word ‘partner.’ It was feared, from a legal perspective, that those words might be misconstrued,” Arnesen explained. “But then IBM did a legal search and determined it was okay. So the words ‘alliance’ and ‘partner’ began to be used in the pharmaceutical industry, but not in the tech space until the 1990s, which is about the time ASAP got formed.”
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
ners—such as IBM, HP, and Dimension Data, Arnesen’s career has alternated among hardware, among other partners—as well as partnerships software, and services. She consulted and perwith independent software vendors (ISVs) such formed market research on channel partners, and as Oracle, VMware, and SAP, and with companies worked for a VAR selling personnel and insurance that provide cloud and virtualization software. In software applications. By 1993 she was the direcher current position with Plantronics, she maintor of global channels for Silicon Graphics (SGI), tains an alliance partnership with later serving as the company’s VP Cisco. Currently, the strategic of global channels. After alliances team at Planstints with Saba Software tronics, consisting of 18 and Fujitsu Softek, by members, is CA-AM 2005 she worked for certified. Symantec, where she was responArnesen’s job as sible for “global vice president at teams covering Plantronics, which key verticals, inmakes headsets, cluding financial, Bluetooth devices, telco, health care, and other wearable and power and enercommunications prodgy sectors,” among other ucts, is to create tools and —BackBeat Fit by Plantronics responsibilities. It was while programs such as customized serving as VP of global SMB, indusmarketing campaigns as she focuses on try solutions and partner marketing at Symantec expansion of global channel and partner market(from 2005 to 2008) that her formal relationship ing. To do this she draws on her vast experience with ASAP began. She convinced Symantec to join in the high-tech industry, along with expertise in too. By the time she was serving as VP of global shaping a myriad of partnership and alliance teams and strategic services partners at Cisco Systems throughout her career. But at the end of the day, (2010-2012), Arnesen had been appointed to the when she thinks back to reflect on major influASAP board. ences, Arnesen sees ASAP as central to her work. According to Wayne Rynhoud (CSAP), global alliance manager, services at Cisco Systems, “Erna is an esteemed alliance and channel executive with a truly collaborative demeanor and leadership style.”
“Erna is an esteemed alliance and channel executive with a truly collaborative demeanor and leadership style.” —Wayne Rynhoud (CSAP),Global Alliance Manager, Services Cisco Systems
He also stated that her “dedication, passion for people, business, and developing the right partnerships is testament to her success.” That success involves establishing and maintaining large reselling part-
The bottom line is to provide solutions for clients, which is what the creation of strategic alliances is all about, she explains. “If the goal is to broaden and expand on unified communication solutions, it’s important to get everyone on board, and that means training and certification,” Arnesen said, as she continues to work on go to market strategy and delivery as well as ecosystem design and development with channel and alliance partners such as Unify, Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, ShoreTel, Huawei, and Alcatel-Lucent. Her bottom line: To expand Plantronics’ global footprint offering “innovative technology and integrated solutions that enhance people’s collaboration experience, and allows them to simply communicate.” n 39 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
Fighting Fire with Insight: How to Prevent and Resolve Alliance Disputes
By Brent H. Harvey, CA-AM, David S. Thompson, CA-AM, and Steven E. Twait, CSAP
40 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
EDITORIAL SUPPLEMENT
When an alliance is created, a contract formalizes agree-
ments that have been painstakingly negotiated in categories such as intended outcomes, responsibilities, decision making, and resource commitments. Despite the existence of a sound contract, the interactions between partner companies can go “off script” in short order, even when both parties are operating in good faith. In certain situations the contract might be silent, or certain provisions might be open to interpretation. Anyone with practical alliance experience can testify that such situations often give rise to full-fledged disputes.
41 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
EDITORIAL SUPPLEMENT The dictionary defines a “dispute” as “a disagreement, argument, or debate.” This description is helpful because it implies the range of disputes you might encounter in the context of your alliance work. Such disagreements can be caused by diverse views on strategy to achieve commercial success, expected levels of investment, and financial liability. And while intensity will vary—as will frequency—you can rest assured that you will be involved in a dispute at some point in your alliance’s life cycle. Given the inevitability of these situations, it’s im-
To help the alliance stay on track, decisions should be made in a governance meeting setting, documented in writing, and memorialized in the approved meeting minutes. portant to understand how an alliance manager can facilitate the resolution of disputes—and in some cases prevent them from occurring at all. First, however, it might be useful to look at the alliance professional’s overall role vis-à-vis disputes. In such circumstances, the alliance manager is in a unique position as an advocate for the overall alliance. The alliance manager has the perspective of managing the business risk, human risk, and legal uncertainties associated with the dispute as well as a broad perspective of how the disagreement could impact the alliance and the partner. The alliance manager also can develop the resolution strategy, keeping in mind both the short- and long-term goals for the alliance. 42 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
The key is to leverage this perspective and to apply your knowledge and experience to add value. The alliance manager has the opportunity to take a leadership role in three aspects of disputes: before, to prevent disputes; during, to direct resolution; and after, to reflect and harvest lessons learned. It might be helpful to think of an alliance dispute as a fire, with the alliance manager as a firefighter who seeks to prevent fires, fight them and minimize damage when necessary, and then understand their causes with the goal of preventing future catastrophes.
An Ounce of Prevention It’s often said that prevention is the best cure. That is certainly the case in the category of firefighting, as we all recognize the importance of active smoke detectors, safe use of electricity and combustible materials, and the ready availability of extinguishers. A similar concept can be applied to an alliance, where the alliance manager can take a leadership role in establishing preventive measures that mitigate the risk of future disputes. During the initial contract negotiation stage, for example, the alliance manager should ensure that the contract language specifically spells out who is responsible for what, both operationally and financially. Decision making and escalation processes are also important elements to articulate clearly in the contract. Another opportunity comes during alliance startup or transition to new leadership, when the alliance manager should take steps to build trust between the partners and influence alliance leaders to establish an appropriate level of transparency. Often such transparency and trust help parties identify issues early and reach agreement on matters that otherwise could result in a dispute. The presentation of a jointly aligned contract summary is another valuable activity during startup. It provides a forum for everyone involved in the alliance to gain a common understanding of the contract’s key terms and operational aspects. The presentation also can serve as a tool for onboarding
EDITORIAL SUPPLEMENT
In the event of a blaze, the fire department is typically the first to respond with the goal of minimizing damage. In the event of a dispute, the alliance manager should seize the opportunity to direct dispute resolution. Because the stakes are often high, a recommended approach is to establish a cross-functional internal team led by alliance management. new alliance colleagues over the course of the partnership’s life cycle. Yet another preventive measure is to train team members on good documentation practices. Legal counsel can provide guidance on how to document potentially sensitive or controversial topics with the goal of mitigating the risk of unintended consequences, whether in email, governance minutes, or other documents. It is also important to ensure that financial as well as operational decisions are unambiguous and clearly captured, as quite often disputes boil down to disagreements about money. To help the alliance stay on track, decisions should be made in a governance meeting setting, documented in writing, and memorialized in the
approved meeting minutes. (Source: Making the Minutes Count: The Critical Importance of Accurately Documenting Alliance Meetings, Strategic Alliance Magazine, Quarter 3, 2013) Finally, it is important to note that over the course of time, situations contemplated in the original agreement can change. Governmental and regulatory requirements can shift. New competitors or disruptive technologies might enter. One party’s corporate strategic priorities may shift. If this is the case, the alliance manager should ensure that the contract is reexamined and amended to reflect current practices. Experience has taught us that an inaccurate contract opens the door to a potential dispute. Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
43
EDITORIAL SUPPLEMENT
Minimize Damage In the event of a blaze, the fire department is typically the first to respond with the goal of minimizing damage. In the event of a dispute, the alliance manager should seize the opportunity to direct dispute resolution. Because the stakes are often high, a recommended approach is to establish a cross-functional internal team led by alliance management. This core team’s objectives should be to develop a resolution strategy, create a communications plan, gain executive approval, and execute.
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hausted, arbitration or mediation may be the only means to reach resolution. The next step is to create a communications plan that addresses key messages and logistics, both internally and externally if applicable. As part of this work, you should identify the key internal stakeholders and ensure alignment on the communications plan. By making sure those team members are part of the solution, you can help temper the negative energy that often surrounds the entire dispute process.
The expertise of the group’s participants should be based on the type of dispute, but you will typically need to include legal, finance, business, and an executive sponsor. The depth and breadth of the core team, resolution strategy, and communications plan will depend on the complexity and materiality of the dispute at hand, much like the extent of fire department equipment and number of battalions deployed depend on the scale of the fire. The level of dispute complexity is typically a function of technical intricacy, the number of functional areas impacted, and the breadth of geographies involved.
The tension mentioned above has the potential to spill over from the specific area of dispute into other components of the collaboration. With this in mind, another way to reduce negative energy and unintended disruptions is to work with the alliance manager from the partner firm to agree on how to keep the dispute’s effects away from day-today business as much as possible. To protect both parties, for example, dispute resolution discussions should be handled in a structured manner, led by the alliance managers, and in most cases held outside of governance meetings.
Once the core team is established, a good next step is fleshing out the dispute resolution strategy, starting with a crisp definition of the problem. Other components include identifying the potential business impacts and risks and estimating the potential financial implications. Equally important is to assess the dispute from the other party’s perspective. Understanding their arguments and rationale can help stimulate ideas for a path forward. Legal engagement and contractual understanding is essential at this stage. Counsel can provide an opinion on the relative strengths of your position and can identify documents that may shine new light on the dispute.
Gaining executive approval of the resolution strategy and communications plan is the last recommended step before execution. Top-level alignment and executive sponsorship are critical in order to get the support and resources needed to put your plan into action.
The final component of the resolution strategy is the settlement action plan, which typically is based on the escalation process documented in the contract. Your action plan should lay out steps describing who does what and when. Quite often the last step in the escalation process is arbitration or mediation, which both parties would prefer to avoid. If, however, all other means have been exSTRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
Lessons Learned? Disputes can take considerable time and resources to resolve. When the dust has settled, it’s a perfect opportunity to reflect on what’s been learned while the information is still fresh in your mind. Working with the core team, the alliance manager can initiate the after-action review process to capture what went well and what should have been done differently. As implied in the informational graphic appearing with this article, framing what you’ve done in terms of business impact and ease of implementation can help prioritize where to focus in the future.
EDITORIAL SUPPLEMENT
As you can see, while the anticipated payoff isn’t high, “quick hits” are easy to implement. In an alliance context, a “quick hit” might be to provide refresher training in a particular area. “Gems” have a higher payoff and could include incorporating key lessons learned into future contract templates so you can avoid revisiting the same issue. Just as experience has made clear the critical importance of smoke detectors and safe electrical systems, lessons learned during heated alliance disputes can be leveraged to make future collaborations better and more productive for everyone. As you fulfill your role as alliance manager and in anticipation of the next dispute resolution you undertake, keep these principles in mind: 1. Start with a good contract. Ensure that both parties understand the key terms and align on implementation.
3. Document decisions—including financial and operational aspects—in governance meeting minutes. 4. If you encounter a dispute, establish a core team to lead the resolution process. n Brent Harvey, CA-AM, is director, alliance management at Eli Lilly and Company and leads development, commercial, and manufacturing alliances. He is also responsible for directing corporate due diligence for alliance management. David Thompson, CA-AM, is chief alliance officer at Lilly and is a member of the ASAP board of directors. Steven Twait, CSAP, is vice president of alliance and integration management at AstraZeneca. Until recently, he served as senior director of alliance management and M&A integration at Eli Lilly and Company.
2. Follow the contract. Amend the contract as necessary to ensure it’s accurate.
45 Q1 • 2015 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE
THE
Close
Partnering Goes Interplanetary
The ASAP community is a real-life university on the leading edge of business practice By John W. DeWitt
What I enjoy most about the ASAP com-
munity is its raw intellectual rigor. It’s a real-life university on the leading edge of business practice— where the average grade is just 53%, based on success rates. It takes big thinking, by big thinkers—as well as professorial attention to the minutest detail—to succeed in the world of partnering, alliance management, and business collaboration. Big ideas and the brains behind them converge in the pages of this magazine, at ASAP’s chapter and online events, and most powerfully at the annual ASAP Global Alliance Summit. As publisher of this magazine and moderator of many online events for ASAP, I’ve gotten a good preview of what our community’s leading thinkers and practitioners will be talking about March 2-5 in Orlando. Two key discussion threads:
1. Strategy, sales, and revenue. Now partnering often gets its full due in “build, buy, or ally?” strategic decisions. But that puts alliance and partnering executives (many who also work in merger integration) on the spot: partnerships must deliver the goods and much more consistently fulfill their strategic intent. Yes, our well-developed alliance management practices and toolkits still matter, say Jan Twombly, CSAP, and Jeff Shuman, CSAP, Ph.D., in their January ASAP webinar and forthcoming summit session. But, they argue, our minds, skills, and tools must be leveraged much more strategically to improve our success managing mission-critical alliances, partner portfolios, and ecosystems. And what they say can be done. In one real-life case study about pushing alliance practice to that strategic level, Mission Pharmacal President Terry Herring will talk about restructuring a family-owned pharma company into a partnering—and sales—powerhouse. 46 STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 • 2015
Indeed, sales and revenue matter more than ever to alliance executives—and conversely, business development and sales are rapidly morphing into highly collaborative functions that require business skills long since honed by the alliance management profession. In recent ASAP webinars and Strategic Alliance Magazine articles, Norma Watenpaugh, CSAP, and Dede Haas, CSAP, have honed in on the rapid convergence of practice between alliance and channel sales management—and Haas will join Ann Trampas, CSAP, to share their latest insights during a special 90-minute workshop at the summit.
2. Entrepreneurial business models and complex collaborations. Multiparty and coopetition alliances, cross-sector partnering, ecosystem management, and other sorts of complex, multiplayer collaborative models come to the fore at this year’s summit. These aren’t just big concepts—we’re now in the thick of actually managing (with increasing sophistication) these highly complex and chaotic types of partnering models. Two keynotes and multiple summit sessions delve deeply into cutting-edge models and how they play out in practice. Talk about big thinking: How about multi-party, multi-sector, coopetition partnerships tackling global health challenges—and government partnering with entrepreneurs to send tourists and asteroid miners into space? Partnering and alliance management are truly in the thick of the fray in business—and the prominence of our role continues to grow in our companies and organizations. That’s why learning and events in the ASAP community remain so vital and relevant to our daily work. We, the professors and student-practitioners of partnering and alliance management, must keep on our toes—with one eye on the big picture and one focused on each pixel. Or you can bet some really smart millennial or entrepreneur will be stomping our toes and filling our shoes. n
Alliance Management Tools Every Professional Should Have ASAP Alliance Management Simulations
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Contingency Planning
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For more information call +1-781-562-1630 or email info@strategic-alliances.org
Celebrating Expertise and Leadership at the
2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit Thank you to all the companies who submitted their entries to be considered for the 2015 Alliance Excellence Awards. Congratulations to our Finalists! Individual Alliance Excellence Medifast | Medix National Grid | Earth Networks Sanofi | ImmunoGen
Alliance for Corporate Social Responsibility The Dow Chemical Company | The Nature Conservancy Novartis | Malaria No More
Innovative Best Alliance Practice Janssen - Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson Philips
Alliance Program Excellence Bayer HealthCare Takeda Pharmaceuticals
And the winner is‌find out at the 2015 ASAP Global Alliance Summit on Tuesday, March 3!
If you haven’t registered, there is still time go to www.asapweb.org/summit today!