Comments on: Trust, Control and Risk in Strategic Alliances

By: Jan Husdal

Jan Husdal — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:38:52 +0000

Thanks for your comment and insights. The more I study supply chains, the more I realize that collaboration and cooperation are a major ingredient, much more so than processes, procedures and contracts.

By: Jan Husdal

Jan Husdal — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:11:02 +0000

Again, thank you for a great comment (I did some minor editing of a couple of grammar errors and spelling mistakes, I hope you don’t mind). It is true that collaboration doesn’t just happen, no matter what structures and process you put in place; even if the incentives are in place, unless the parties involved see a benefit, nothing is going to happen.

By: Daniel Ekwall

Daniel Ekwall — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:59:07 +0000

I think that the basics for economical activities are almost skipped in logistics research. That is why the discussions about collaboration/competition sometimes really feels like moralizing of organisational behaviour.

Here comes some of that basics:

The central principle in microeconomics is that “All households and firms do the best they can given their objectives and the constraints they face”.

The ten principles of microeconomics:
1. People face trade offs
2. The cost of something is what you give up to get it
3. Rational people think at the margin
4. People respond to incentives
5. Trade can make everyone better off
6. Markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity
7. Governments can sometimes improve market outcomes
8. A country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services
9. Prices rise when the government prints too much money
10. Society faces a short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment

All these 11 principles affect, intervene and alter the collaboration/competition relationship between all involved stakeholders in a supply chain. Therefore the key element is the different actors’ ability to optimize their relationships to all other parties. The sum of it all maybe or may not be a collaborative supply chain.

The only full conclusion possible to draw is that collaboration/cooperation/competition does not just happen. It depends on a array of elements and reasons.

Note: Edited by Jan Husdal for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

By: Joost Allard

Joost Allard — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:42:37 +0000

Thank you for the review, I am inspired to read the book.

Building trust, managing risk and instituting control are the three major areas organizations stumble on, due to lack of self awareness and recognition that collaboration requires a different mentality than traditional top down control.

There are increasingly good insights such as these being published that should make their way into best practices for the alliance management community of professionals. One place to include in an executive’s bookmarks is the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals

My company’s unbiased instrument assesses the degree to which organizations employ a broad set of best practices and provides an industry benchmark to evaluate against. It is aimed at enhancing self awareness and improving the overall capability of the organization to address the challenges of collaboration.

Joost Allard
CEO
Allinnova
734-620-0690

By: janhusdal

janhusdal — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 08:35:11 +0000

Again, thank you for a great comment (I did some minor editing of a couple of grammar errors and spelling mistakes, I hope you don't mind). It is true that collaboration doesn't just happen, no matter what structures and process you put in place; even if the incentives are in place, unless the parties involved see a benefit, nothing is going to happen.