Co-Opetition

The RTP chapter of ASAP had a great event here in North Carolina yesterday in conjunction with LES.  The SAS and IBM teams had a panel discussion talking about co-opetition.

IBM has probably been the most important partner for SAS these past 3.5 decades.  They have also been buying bunches of SAS' competitors in recent years.  They now heavily compete in one sliver of IBM's business and still partner in many other areas. 

This creates understandable issues among sales teams wary of walking their competitor into an account.  How do you overcome the inherent distrust to partner effectively for the long haul?  Below are some takeaways from the event:

1)  Build Trust:  Clearly, building trust among the teams is key.  But how?  Having dedicated partner teams with limited turnover builds a strong foundation.  Shared goals and open communication foster this growth.

2)  Combined Focus:  Ah, the namesake of this blog... Fusing the focus of the two teams is critical.  What are you working toward together?  Quarterly business reviews and weekly sync meetings keep you on track.  It is important to nderstand existing action items, who owns them, and upcoming milestones.

3)  Improve Communication:  No secrets, no sacred cows, no half-truths.  Both sides need to know what is going on if business will grow.

4)  Firewalls:  Look, it's competition.  It's cooperation, too... but it is competition.  Make sure there are sufficient boundaries and firewalls in place so that what needs to be protected is protected.  This probably means assistance from the legal team.

5)  Get Personal:  Don't be afraid to be friends with these people.  Ultimately, this is the best and most enjoyable way to accomplish #1 and #3.  Have social events, go to each others' homes, talk about families.