Setting the Scene for Collaboration

In today's world, it must be recognized that globalization has brought ­enormous pressures on organizations to work closely with customers and suppliers. Competition is no longer between individual companies but between their supply chains. It was particularly apparent during the global pandemic that those with the strongest networks of relationships were the most resilient. The concept of value has also changed. The relentless pursuit of growth by driving down costs and margins has resulted in the commoditization of outputs, thus destroying value. Instead, an increasing realization that relationships have the potential to create innovative, unique products and services is a more sustainable, resilient strategy. This is based on the idea of the ‘triple bottom line’, which focuses on economic value (profits), societal value (people) and environmental value (planet). This requires a change from reactive to proactive relationship management. However, it is concerning that most organizations put very little priority into managing alliances, despite their strategic importance and ‘the no-brainer’ benefits. As a result, many are developed in an unplanned and accidental manner, and they remain in that state with firefighting, poor performance and underachievement.