Strategic Alliance Magazine Winter 2017 - 18

Peter Drucker, the father of modern management and 90
years young, said:
"The corporation as we know it, which is now 125
years old, is unlikely to survive the next 25 years.
Legally and financially, yes, but not structurally and
economically." 1
Two of the authors had the honor of
meeting with Professor Drucker in
June 2001, sharing keynote responsibilities at the Collaborative Commerce
Two of the authors in
Summit in San Diego sponsored by
2001 with the late
Thomas
Koulopoulos' Delphi Group.
"father of management"
Peter Drucker.
We were finishing work on our book
Collaborative Communities: Partnering for Profit in the Networked Economy, in which we came to similar conclusions.
We asked Drucker to elaborate on what he said to Business
2.0 and to confirm our suspicions that what he was talking
about was the rise in importance of partnership.
He agreed. And in his keynote speech he said:
"The greatest change in the way business is being
conducted is the accelerating growth of relationships
based not on ownership but on partnership."

moving his company's headquarters to Boston to be part
of its innovation ecosystem, so people can experience all
the change viscerally. "I want people that are terrified and
paranoid every day because so much is changing around
them," he said to the Boston College CEO Club shortly
after announcing the move.4
In speaking about the changes in automotive production,
the bastion of traditional industry, GM's CEO Mary Barra
says, "I see a different [business] model than today's model,
but one where, even if there are fewer vehicles, their life cycle is less, or the way they are serviced provides a different
business ... there are still automobiles being manufactured." 5 She's planning for a different future.

"If you went to bed last night as an
industrial company, this morning you
wake up as a software and analytics
company."
--Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE

In his final address to Cisco Live in 2015, former Cisco
CEO John Chambers predicted, "Forty percent of enterprise customers around the world will not exist in a
meaningful way 10 years from now." 2

The technologies of the fourth industrial revolution-artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology,
the Internet of Things, to name a few-are enabling companies to reimagine how they do business. Invariably, new
business models are more externally focused than in the
recent past. Partnering models are evolving from one-toone, hub-and-spoke alliances to ecosystem partnering.
The speed, scale, and scope of this partnering are unprecedented for most companies. Partnering is everywhere.

Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, likes to say, "If you went to bed
last night as an industrial company, this morning you
wake up as a software and analytics company." 3 He's

We are in a time of experimentation with little guidance
for companies to follow. Few are familiar with what to do.
Fewer are fully prepared to execute.

Fast forward a decade and a half. Today, the prognosticators shaking up industry are the leaders of major businesses
who are living the current wave of technology-driven business transformation.

James Daly, "Sage Advice: An Exclusive Interview with Peter Drucker," Business 2.0, August 22, 2000

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/ciscos-john-chambers-on-the-digital-era

:
:
.

https://www.ge.com/digital/blog/waking-up-software-analytics-company-building-intelligence-machines-systems

Chesto, John, Boston Globe, "GE CEO explains why he's moving headquarters to Boston," March 24, 2016

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2016/12/gm-ceo-mary-barra-discusses-the-future-and-autonomous-vehicle-production

18
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 * 2017

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/ciscos-john-chambers-on-the-digital-era https://www.ge.com/digital/blog/waking-up-software-analytics-company-building-intelligence-machines-systems http://gmauthority.com/blog/2016/12/gm-ceo-mary-barra-discusses-the-future-and-autonomous-vehicle-production

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Winter 2017