Strategic Alliance Magazine Q1 2018 - 17

ASAP BENEFITS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

specific profession with its own rules, tools, and behavioral norms. The fact that the ISO 44001 norm
exists now is testimony to that. There is no doubt in
my mind that ASAP was instrumental in these shifts
in thinking about collaboration.
What is the future of collaborative business practices, and how can ASAP foster that vision?
Lynch: We should view the past from the perspective
that our journey has just begun. Like a young adult
reaching his or her 20th birthday, our future is bright,
we have become enlightened realists, and our leadership has a vital role ahead. There are several quests I
foresee we have not yet attained that should be at the
forefront in the near future.
C-Suite:
Because we are so well equipped strategically
and operationally to guide companies to a bold
new future, we have always sought to have
ASAP members work their way into the senior
executive ranks.
Innovation:
We've proven that collaborative cultures are
engines of innovation. This is fertile ground for
development of stronger architectures of innovation that can be replicated across many platforms.

Robert Porter Lynch

Collaborative Leadership:
We have mastered managing alliances, but must
step higher to the mastery of collaborative
systems-enabling our members to build
stronger companies with internal alliances,
stronger cross-functional teams, collaborative
cultures, and collaborative adaptation to rapidly
changing environments.
ISO 44001:
The collaborative business standard presents a
great opportunity to promote and proliferate our
message. ASAP should capitalize on this opportunity to bring in new industries and take the lead
on new strategies and practices for building better
companies, creating value chains/networks, and
engaging our younger generation.
Business Schools:
MBAs graduate with little understanding of
alliances or collaborative systems. We need to do
more to team up with business professors to
conduct the research to validate what we've proven
in practice. This includes pioneering more in
collaborative economics and finance.
De Man: The future lies in ecosystems, increasing digitization of collaboration via smart contracts and platforms,
and a continued blurring of the boundaries of firms. The
joint creation of innovative value propositions will be at the
heart of the future of collaboration. The more traditional
alliances will continue to exist but always as part of a
broader ecosystem. ASAP can help foster that vision by
doing what it does: bring people with experience together,
and have them share knowledge around this theme.
In addition, ASAP will have to innovate, for example, by
improving the handbook and certification requirements
to reflect this new collaborative reality. Important questions ASAP needs to set on the agenda are: Which types
of collaboration can be automated via smart contracts,
and which cannot? What new roles for alliance managers emerge in this digitized ecosystem context? What
should be the mix of online and offline collaboration,
especially in globally dispersed alliance teams? How do
you maintain collaborative relationships in this fastpaced world? n
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Q1 * 2018 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Q1 2018