The glue between Partners & Alliances - 2010 Biopartnering Study

We are in the process of developing our BioPartnering 2010 study. The study examines three areas:

1. Deal Sourcing: - Proactively sourcing for the best deals and enabling prospective partners to easily access the pharma company; building a reputation for being a “Partner of Choice”
2. Deal Making: - Trust building, due diligence, valuation, negotiation and contracting
3. Alliance Management: - Realizing value through the creation and execution of an alliance business plan, organization and governance arrangements

The study surveys companies in the biopharma industry and delivers three tangible outputs:

• Fresh thinking - every study builds on the last and new insights are derived every time we run this. One key area of focus is always on what did "outperformers" do that the "underperformers" did not.
• Scoring for Companies that participate in the study - Top 5 rankings for each of the three areas we study (Merck and Genentech were the only companies in the 2008 study that made top 5 ranking for all three areas).
• Drivers of Alliance Formation - Understanding what motivates interest in a deal. The "Deal on offer", not suprisingly, is the most important; however what else drives the deal?

In preparation for this year's study I have been doing some research and took time to read Stefan Lindegaard's blog. In his most recent posting he responds to an open innovation posting from John Hagel and John Seely Brown. The nugget I really caught onto was at the end of his posting.

He refers to a talk given by Peter Erickson who leads the innovation efforts at General Mills. General Mills have been leaders in the open innovation field along with companies such as P&G (Connect & Develop) and IBM. He writes in his blog "The next practices of open innovation will be about developing systems, enablers, and processes that speed the connection to innovation partners in a repeatable, cost effective, quick way".

Open innovation is not a new practice. In fact Professor Chesbrough first coined the term back in 2003. So my hypothesis is that outperformers in the biopharma industry have mature processes and systems for the operation of their alliances and collaborations.... not just the scouting and deal making aspects.

Therefore in the 2010 study we will aim to evaluate this hypothesis; we will examine the maturity of systems, enablers and processes and see if they are at a level where one could describe them as "repeatable, cost effective, and fast"?

Check out the 2008 study titled "A Marriage of Minds" and a related publication "The Power of Many" to understand the ABCs of collaboration.