Ahead of the Curve...ASAP and Strategic Alliance Quarterly celebrate the past while looking firmly t

As we here at ASAP have been transitioning to our new offices—and to a new editorial team—we thought it was important to maintain continuity by preserving and celebrating what has worked well for our community while always keeping an eye on the present and on what’s up ahead. So this issue of Strategic Alliance Quarterly is a special one: a look back at the “best of the past”—articles on evergreen topics full of still-timely information about perennial issues for the alliance management profession—even as we keep our strategic vision firmly facing toward the future.

What has always made us strong together is the fact that ASAP is your community. We never forget how important it is that you continue to be part of it—and that your interactions with this community help us to spot new trends, identify new needs, and define and refine new capabilities in alliance management and the field of partnering. During my own career I relied heavily on ASAP, along with my colleagues, to see, understand, and prepare for emerging business trends that might put us ahead of the curve.

Here’s an example: Back in 2009–10, we were talking about how important it would be to have alliance management tactics built into corporate strategy. We declared that every CEO should have a partnership and alliance management strategy. At the time it was clear we were fighting an uphill battle, for sure, and even we thought that what we were asking for was aspirational—if sorely needed. But today we find that the majority of CEOs and other high-ranking officers of major corporations have already built or begun to build a partnership strategy into their corporate plans.

Need another example? Not so long ago, around 2013, ASAP was writing about, talking about, and presenting the view that digital partnerships would be the next major change for our two primary ASAP member segments: technology and biopharma. While many of us understood that diagnostics, platforms, and wearables would soon become the basis for new partnerships between pharma and tech, many believed this was still a long way off. Yet already today we can see that nearly every major biopharma company and many tech companies are thinking, planning, and executing on partnerships that reach across the boundaries of each other’s industries.

Could it be that our amazing community of practitioners has the power not only to predict the future, but also to learn important lessons from the past? I think so. And as you read this “best of” issue, I suspect you’ll agree with me that its themes—including managing conflict, navigating cultural issues and company size differences, driving cross-industry partnerships, and guiding alliance wind-down—are still very much alive in the day-to-day work of alliance professionals.

I hope you’ll take advantage of this selection of some of the “wisdom of the past”—the insights, the learnings, the failures and the success stories—even as we shift our thinking toward what’s out on the horizon and to the next emerging alliance challenges and opportunities.

Like this magazine, ASAP and our member community keep moving forward. We’ll continue to try to provide our hardworking members with information they can use that will help them in their daily work, in their careers, and in their strategic thinking. We’ll absorb and retain the lessons of the past while trying to see around corners into the future, living by the mantra that success that is repeatable is sustainable. So enjoy the read, and the trip down memory lane—and let us know what you think.