Strategic Alliance Magazine Q1 2018 - 9

Front
A 20th Anniversary Call to Action
By Michael Leonetti, CSAP

In 2018 we celebrate a milestone in business
collaboration-20 years of the Association of Strategic

with peers unlike any other group of people that I've come
across in my business experience.

Alliance Professionals. Several articles in this issue recall
the formative years of the alliance management profession
and the founding in 1998 of what we originally abbreviated as A.S.A.P. Founding Chairman Robert Porter Lynch
and a likeminded group of independent businesspeople
corralled the nascent community of partnering executives
working mainly in high technology and biopharmaceutical organizations. These pioneers developed a passion for
frameworks, processes, and practices that enabled alliances to succeed with more frequency and consistency.
They gave partnering professionals an enduring forum to
learn from each other-a professional home.

We've come so far in 20 years, mainly because we've
remained true to our core principles even as we've continuously grown and adapted to a changing business world.
But despite the indelible mark we've made in business-alliance management is an essential function and capability
in a wide array of leading companies and industries-we
still need to roll up our sleeves today with the same boldness and vision that our founders had two decades ago.
This is a call to action to all of you who are a part of this
remarkable journey-whether you joined ASAP yesterday
or years ago:

I found my professional home in ASAP 17 years ago, when
I was a biopharma sales executive transitioning to a new
role in alliance management. I was asked to get involved
in ASAP by a colleague who was in charge of our competitive intelligence group. So convinced was she of ASAP's
value that she paid the global membership fee out of her
own budget and asked me to become a champion for our
company-not just to join ASAP, but to become part of
the advisory board. I went to my first event in 2001-we
called it the Summit then-and I learned a lot. I walked
into the room not knowing what to expect. I heard people from Cisco and Symantec and Eli Lilly and Company
talking about things I'd never heard of before. I quickly
turned that learning into value for my organization-and
probably shortcut the alliance management development
process by five years.

management is more complex than ever. Learning, networking, and sharing of best practices remain essential
to your success.

I had sales experience, managed national accounts, knew
how to build relationships-but learned very quickly how
little I really knew, and how much ASAP can help you.
And that's when I truly committed. I decided to invest
in ASAP as a leader in the organization and eventually
became its board chairman. ASAP sparked in me a passion around learning from others. I came to understand
how best practices accelerate business success. I gained
so much advantage, thanks to a group of brilliant people
who were-and still are-willing to share information

n Continuously develop your capability. Alliance

n Seek new opportunities to apply alliance management

capability to any unique challenges your organization
faces.
n Be a champion for the profession and ASAP. Engage

in ASAP and our events. Present a session or webinar.
Contribute your ideas to this publication. Invest in ASAP
membership and accelerate your capabilities development
by leaps and bounds.
Alliance management resources may seem outmatched
by the challenges we face, yet in 20 years we have moved
the needle pretty significantly. Our research shows it. Organizations that invest in ASAP to build their partnering
capability are able to reverse the historically high failure
rate of alliances and achieve upwards of 80 percent success rates. Even a modest increase in alliance management
investment can pay huge dividends for your organization.
This is why, as we celebrate ASAP's 20-year milestone, we
must continue to emphatically demonstrate our value,
make the case for the resources we need, and insist that our
organizations invest in the professional development of
our partnering executives. Our journey continues. ASAP
remains your professional home. n
Q1 * 2018 | STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE

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