A new form of global organization grounded in “gateway” countries can allow a company to operate profitably around the world.

Many Western managers are becoming wary of joint ventures. They have learned through costly experience that such alliances - particularly with Asian partners - can become a low-cost route through which new competitors acquire technology and market access. However, with the costs of product and market development escalating, avoiding strategic alliances altogether is not an option many firms can afford. The question for Western firms is: Is it really possible to win at collaboration? Our research - a five-year investigation of 15 strategic alliances around the globe - suggests that the answer is "yes." But in order to succeed at the special kind of partnership that we call competitive collaboration, Western firms must become as adept as their Far Eastern counterparts at managing collaboration for competitive gain.

Looking at the line manager as a consumer of business technology will yield a nimbler company.

Companies spent the 20th century managing efficiencies. They must spend the 21st century managing experiences.

Maximizing the value of IT investments and boosting customer satisfaction should take the company outside its own borders.

Understand the full goals and complexity of collaboration before moving forward.

Now you see it. And then you don't. The emerging economy that will dominate the next century will be governed by a series of factors or "discontinuities" that managers need to prepare for.

Note: Older EBF articles are not currently online. I'm not sure if this is temporary or permanent. If you click you will be taken to the Archive.org site to find an archived copy.

---

Conventional mental models may be an impediment to the diffusion of internet benefits to poorer countries.