By Jonathan Oh
Those of us who manage alliances are constantly working to improve our processes and our approaches to problems and conflicts. We’re always asking: What’s working? What’s not? What can we change to make things better?
One of the key areas we can always look to improve is governance; specifically, setting up governance committees so that they work best and most efficiently. Getting the right people on the joint steering committee and other governance bodies is critical to alliance success: if JSC members are less invested in the alliance, less engaged, and less involved, it’s harder to achieve alignment, make decisions, and move quickly to execute them. And if we don’t move quickly, our competitors will!
Governance needs
The alliances I manage in the biosimilars space are all commercial stage, but otherwise they run the gamut: from brand-new collaborations in the “honeymoon” phase to older, inherited alliances that may have lost their momentum and their spark; from alliances where the relationship is healthy and running smoothly to those that may be sailing through rough and stormy waters.
At the most basic level, for our commercial alliances that are pre-launch, we need governance members who have development and/or regulatory responsibility and expertise; once those alliances are in the post-launch phase, we need to stock the JSC with functional leads from the commercial, finance, and supply areas. Not only are these the functions most relevant to the alliance at this stage, but also it’s our hope that these governance members, when wisely selected, will be the most invested and have the most to contribute to alliance decision making.
Vision and value
It also helps, ideally, to have individuals on governance committees who can work collaboratively and who understand alliances, their purpose, and their needs. Of course, this doesn’t always happen! But setting up alliance governance represents an opportunity for alliance managers to appropriately exercise their role of influencing, educating, and informing stakeholders about the alliance. Governance members need to understand why we’re in this alliance, what we hope to get from it, what our partner seeks from it, and what their needs and perspectives are.
This is easier when the alliance is new: you communicate the vision and value right from the start and get every one excited, inspired, and aligned. With an existing or “inherited” alliance, it can be more challenging. Maybe the relationship went a bit sideways at some point; maybe sales are down; maybe personnel have changed and attitudes have soured. So we have work to do to change some of those perceptions, get people motivated, and revitalize, or even relaunch, the alliance.
Key to this effort, in my mind, are three related concepts: openness, transparency, and trust. If sales are disappointing, we can explain why the market is tough, competitors are underselling us, there’s price erosion, whatever’s going on, if we’re open and transparent about it, both internally and with our partners, it goes a long way toward getting everyone back on the bandwagon and working together.
An inside job
Sometimes the functional-lead governance members are more focused on their own roles than on the alliance or being collaborative. That’s OK, we still need them as subject matter experts, for their expertise and their input. The relationships, the personalities, internal and external, that’s my job. As an alliance manager, I’m the mediator between everyone, in the middle of it all, not only with our partners and our JSC, but above that level, with senior executives and even our CEO. They’re very much involved and interested in our alliances, and we keep the information flowing to them so they know what’s going on.
It won’t be a news flash for other alliance managers to hear that much of my work is internal. Within my own company, I represent the alliance and the partner, explaining their situation and why they’re taking a certain position. I sometimes hear people say, “It seems like you’re always on their side!” What my internal colleagues may not realize is that I’ve already had these conversations with my alliance counterpart, we get into in-depth discussions and debates, I’m pushing them hard, and I’m fighting for my own company’s interests. I’ve challenged them on their positions because I want to understand, but also because I know when I go back to my colleagues, I’ll be challenged too. But when we’re all open and transparent in our communication, when we keep the information flowing, then we’re consistently building trust, and it goes better both ways.
The spirit of the alliance
When new people come on as governance members, it’s my job to onboard them and help infuse them with the spirit of the alliance, so they understand its purpose and why they should care. Whether new or not, it’s always important to keep governance members engaged, invested, and involved. That way they’ll be better contributors to the alliance and will playa supportive, positive role in decision making.
I’m always preaching to governance members and the rest of the organization about our alliances and our partners. It’s the hardest part of my job. When I face resistance, I might explain, “If we give a little bit here, we’ll get something bigger in return.” It’s a mutually beneficial and valuable relationship, and often alliance managers are the only ones who see and understand the longer-term, bigger picture.
Governance tips
Just to recap, for alliance managers the keys to setting up good governance are:
- Ensuring that the appropriate functional leads serve on committees, based on the stage of the alliance
- Letting those functional leads contribute to alliance decision making as subject matter experts
- Serving as the mediator between functions, governance members, executives, and representatives of both partners
- Onboarding new governance members by infusing them with the spirit of the alliance
- Always acting with openness, transparency, and trust
In short, setting up alliance governance appropriately means always keeping the needs of the alliance uppermost in mind. It means keeping information flowing so others understand what’s happening and don’t just reflexively place blame.
If we do it right, and if we work with a one-team mentality, we can be agile and flexible in our decision making instead of getting bogged down in disagreements and conflicts. And in that spirit, instead of placing blame, we can all share the credit for our eventual alliance success.
Jonathan Oh, CA-AM, is director of alliance management, commercial division, for Samsung Bioepis.
About the alliance leadership spotlight series
The alliance leadership spotlight series is a joint initiative of The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) and allianceboard to share practical knowledge in the alliance management community. It showcases Alliance Management professionals taking the lead in addressing challenges and driving alliance success.
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