Newsletter - February 07
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GBPA’s next Special Interest Forum (SIF) is at GBPA’s London office
on 28 February. The session will focus on effective communication and its
role in relationship management. This highly interactive session will
enable participants from across different organisations to:
Register for this SIF contact, Sue O'Connor soconnor@gbpalliance.com
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by GBPA chairman Philip Anderson
It
took me just a matter of minutes to agree to go to Davos when the
invitation came. After all I’ve heard about the World Economic
Forum, I was intrigued to experience Davos first hand. Also, the
opportunity to represent the GBPA membership at a special Financial
Times dinner on Partnerships for Innovation was too good to miss. The
theme of this year's World Economic Forum was The Shifting Power
Equation. The world is changing rapidly and power is shifting
geopolitically, in business terms and even in the virtual world. In
effect, the internet has liberated and empowered people to access
knowledge and generate their own content, and this is loosening the power
of the traditional, or perhaps all, institutions.
This year there were 2,400 participants from 90 countries. Half
were business leaders, and the rest a mix of heads of state and members of
governments, thought leaders and other luminaries – and that well known
UNICEF Ambassador, Claudia Schiffer, and me. It was a compelling and
stimulating experience...
Members can read more of Philip’s experience in the next issue of
our member magazine, Connects.
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At
the beginning of this month, GBPA facilitated a round table event on
establishing and maintaining effective collaboration in a cross-enterprise
environment, in conjunction with Business Case Entrepreneurs, in Bilthoven
in the Netherlands. In several industry sectors, companies collaborate in
joint IT projects to benefit from an innovative, a competitive or a cost
advantage. The session focused on why these joint IT projects often fail
or do not meet the expectations of the companies
involved.
The next event planned for the Netherlands region is a Special
Interest Forum on internal collaboration on 17 April. Some of the issues
to be addressed at this SIF are:
Register for SIFs in the Netherlands contact, Sue O'Connor soconnor@gbpalliance.com
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When GBPA members got together to tackle the question of culture at
the January event, they discovered it can either be seen as a barrier to
collaboration or harnessed as a rich source of diverse ideas to fuel
innovation. The important thing, according to one participant is to ensure
you don’t use culture as an excuse “to drink the local tea” and avoid
getting down to business. The book recommended at this event, by one of
the participants, is: Riding the Waves of Culture by Fons
Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner.
'Learning nuggets' from this session will shortly be available for
members on a password protected member area of the GBPA website.
Meanwhile, members who were unable to attend the session can request the
notes direct from Sue O'Connor soconnor@gbpalliance.com. There
will also be a feature on this event in the next issue of our member
magazine, Connects.
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The initial session of this new group was hosted by Stephen Ashton
at Dresdner Kleinwort's offices to discuss the issues members face with
regard to legal contracts. Members attending included representatives from
user organisations, suppliers and the legal profession.
There was much open and honest discussion and the session was
deemed to be a success - so much so that another session is planned for 15
March when members will roll their sleeves up to get to grips with the
challenges of developing an alternative collaborative approach to
contracts. |
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One industry which is harnessing collaboration is the gift card
business. Gift cards are electronic version of gift vouchers – similar to
a debit/credit card but with limited stored value. The GIFT Network is a
knowledge and networking service for companies using gift and stored value
cards, and chief executive Amanda Crouch was invited to speak on
collaboration at their recent conference in London.
After the session, Tony Craddock, GIFT Network chaiman , said: "I
thought I knew a lot about partnerships and collaboration . But I realised
I was just starting out on a long journey. It pays to learn the do’s and
don’ts from people who have researched the area and now use this knowledge
and their facilitating talents to help companies around the world
collaborate effectively."
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GBPA’s latest Discovery project is exploring how an
organisation's culture impacts its ability to successfully partner and
collaborate - both internally and with others. As with all Discovery projects, GBPA aims to create something practical and
useful. The objectives of this project are to:
If
you would like to get involved by contributing your thoughts and
experience on how your organisation’s culture impacts the ability to
successfully partner and collaborate - both internally and with others -
please contact Dave Percival dpercival@gbpalliance.com
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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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