Newsletter - April 07
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The GBPA Special Interest Forum (SIF) in the Netherlands this month
will focus on Internal Collaboration.
Establishing effective collaboration within an organisation is as
critical to the success of your business as effectively collaborating with
your external partners. So how does an organisation create an internal
culture which will actively encourage collaboration and enable it to
thrive? This is one of the key challenges facing senior executives, and
one which often has a significant effect on an organisation’s ability to
develop successful external partnerships. Through its Discovery work, GBPA has built on a cultural theory by Tony Lendrum, author of The Strategic Alliances Handbook which identifies the key elements
an organisation needs to have in order to achieve successful internal
collaboration (see below).
At
this session, GBPA will present its initial findings for discussion and
give participants the opportunity to map them onto their own business
situations. Participants will be able to:
The Netherlands SIF is on 17 April and the session is limited to 10
participants only. Register for a SIF in the Netherlands contact, Sue
O'Connor soconnor@gbpalliance.com
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GBPA's latest Discovery project, Organisational culture -
how this impacts successful partnering, is available for members this
month. This Discovery explores how an organisation's culture
impacts its ability to successfully partner and collaborate - both
internally and with others.
Members are currently being polled to understand which topic is of
most interest for the next Discovery project. These topics include:
'Does technology help or hinder effective collaboration?', 'Key aspects of
cultural sensitivity in international partnering', 'Partnership mindset –
does partnering clash with business-as-usual? and 'Aligning partnership
objectives'.
If
you are a member and have not yet voted on your preference, contact Sue
O'Connor soconnor@gbpalliance.com for a
full list of topics and voting form.
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The GBPA Special Interest Forum (SIF) in London this month will
focus on Customer / Supplier Collaboration.
Business partnerships provide a powerful model for adding real
value to both customers and suppliers alike but their real effectiveness
potential often proves elusive. Whether you are in a customer/supplier
partnership that is going well and wish to pick up further insights to
ensure its continued success, or your partnership's effectiveness is less
than optimal, or if your partnership is in need of complete
reconstruction, this event will be of value to you.
Through a process of critiquing a real life collaborative story,
you will be able to identify the key obstacles to effective partnering
between customer and supplier, prioritise the key obstacles and share
strategies to overcome them. This highly interactive session will enable
participants from across different member organisations to:
The Customer / Supplier SIF in London is on 19 April. Register for
a SIF in London contact, Sue O'Connor soconnor@gbpalliance.com
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With the current frenzy of M & A activity (last year deals
topped Euro1.35 trillion in Europe alone, according to Thomson Financial
Reports) the media has been keen to pick up on the likelihood of failure
of many mergers and acquisitions because of cultural issues. GBPA's recent Discovery project (see above) looked at the issue of organisational
culture and how it impacts partnering - and the same issues apply to
mergers and acquisitions, according to a recent report.
More than 90% of corporate mergers and acquisitions are falling
short of their objectives, as companies struggle to combine corporate
cultures and structures, according to the results of a major new study
from global management consultancy Hay Group. The findings are contained
in the Hay Group report: Dangerous Liaisons: Mergers and Acquisitions -
The Integration Game. Hay Group studied over 200 major European
M&As taking place over the last three years.
The study of senior business leaders with M&A experience
reveals that just 9% of mergers are considered "completely successful" in
achieving their stated objectives. This plummets to an alarming 3% of
mergers and acquisitions by UK companies.
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Philip Anderson, GBPA chairman, recently attended the National
Relationship Education Conference in London and provides this report:
This one day event brought together thought leaders, practitioners and UK policy makers to explore how to promote and support healthy, effective relationships in families and communities and manage effective relationships in organisations. It was quite humbling to be in the company of so many people who are dedicated to supporting relationships in the disadvantaged and displaced in society, which includes supporting prisoners and their families. I
was particularly interested to hear a keynote speech by Professor Gillian
Stamp, Director of the Brunel Institute of Organisation and Social Studies
(Bioss), who reflected on the need for us to actively 'tend' relationships
at work so as to keep in touch with people and be mindful of different
circumstances. Tending in the workplace is most noticeable when it is
missing, and trust starts to break down. There are sound economic reasons,
apart from pure relationship reasons, for tending in the business
environment. For example, where there is trust, lower legal fees (or none
at all) are incurred in our third party relationships.
In
her capacity as a sounding board for chief executives, Gillian talked of
the encouragement that she gives these leaders to connect better with
people in their organisation by being willing to get into other people's
shoes. She made the profound point that to truly walk in someone else's
shoes you have to make yourself a little vulnerable by taking off your own
shoes first. |
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The second session of this group held in March saw those attending,
which included representatives from user organisations,
 suppliers and the
legal profession, roll up their sleeves to get to grips with the
challenges of developing an alternative collaborative approach to
contracts. The group agreed that:
The group was of the view that to shift to more collaborative
contracts requires both a change in mindset and approach from protect/defence to openness/collaborate. Legal experts need to act as
facilitators not owner/drivers of the contract process. Business
requirements need to be articulated clearly and developed with legal
experts. Better communication is key.
The next session will take place on 21 May when the group will
focus on identifying the areas of pain in the current legal contracts
process and what can be done to engender a more collaborative approach
between the parties concerned and the legal profession.
If
you would like to know more about the Contracts Working Group contact, Sue
O'Connor soconnor@gbpalliance.com
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Members of GBPA are represented at external conferences throughout
the year and in the coming months chairman Philip Anderson will be
speaking at the Financial Times Global Outsourcing and Offshoring
Conference, 14-15 May 2007 in London.
Philip will be speaking on the first day in the session on Human
Capital: Preparing the Next Generation Organisation for Successful
Outsourcing and Offshoring.
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We look forward to the participation of members and their colleagues in the GBPA programme during the year. As always, please contact Sue O'Connor for more information or to register for an event. soconnor@gbpalliance.com
With best wishes from the GBPA team
Global Business Partnership Alliance
email: pbaines@gbpalliance.com
phone: +44 (0)1279 722949
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