The Buzz 1: “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” [Phil Jackson, former NBA professional basketball player and coach]

The Buzz 2: “People achieve more as a result of working with others than against them.” [Dr. Allan Fromme, psychologist, teacher, author]

The Buzz 3: “It takes both sides to build a bridge.” [Frederik Nael, Indonesian writer of science fiction and fantasy short stories]

The Buzz 4: If designing a traditional business model is like planning and building a house, designing an ecosystem is more like developing a whole residential district: more complex, more players to coordinate, more layers of interaction and unintended emergent outcomes.…business ecosystems, similar to residential districts, cannot be entirely planned and designed—they also emerge. [www.bcg.com]

Businesses frequently talk about collaboration with their partners as the path to business growth and ongoing success. But is it just talk? Their challenge has been how to successfully execute, addressing top-of-mind concerns over working with competitors, as well as intellectual property rights and protection. Today, collaboration along the value chain as a unified ecosystem – with competitors, customers and suppliers – is increasingly important for staying competitive.

Who are the winners in today’s dynamic and challenging marketplace? Companies with broad partner ecosystems, who bundle their products with customized products, financing or more attractive terms, extended services, equipment maintenance services, and even application services – all of which may come from partner companies. This requires a new mindset facilitated by supply chain collaboration, strong business networks, and close customer engagement.

We’ll ask Muriel Rakotomalala, David Dunn and Matt Reymann for their insights on how the Chemical industry is benefiting from Cutting-Edge Business Networks: The Future of Collaboration.