Optimizing Your Partner Ecosystem Play: Investing in Partnerships for Optim

Ard-Pieter de Man, CSAP, PhD
Boardroom Consultant, Author | Professor for School of Business and Economics | Vrije Universiteit

Many organizations are now partnered throughout their business value chain. In fact, companies are embedded in ecosystems comprising hundreds of partners. But how do you know if you have the right partners, and the right mix of partners? And how do you maintain that mix over time? What do you need to do to really benefit from your ecosystem play? Our speaker will discuss questions such as: How do you rank the alliances that represent the best long-term strategic bets? And are you sure you have adequate resources to support all of them? How do you govern vast numbers of ecosystem partners? What are the challenges of managing an ecosystem when you may not even control which partners are in it? Don't wade into this partnering thicket with a machete until you reassess your alliance and ecosystem strategy, ensuring that it's aligned with your corporate strategy so you're making the right investments in partnering.