The Collaborative Business Podcast

In this republished episode, I’m in conversation with Ben Gomes-Casseres , a longtime thinker and practitioner in the world of alliances and partnership strategy. Ben first joined me back in early 2015 to look ahead at alliance developments, and it was a real pleasure to welcome him back, this time to talk about his then-new book, Remix Strategy . If you listened to my previous episode with Russ B...

Alliances in a Complex World In this republished episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast brings a conversation that goes straight to the heart of modern partnership strategy. My guest is Russ Buchanan, at the moment of recording Vice President of Worldwide Alliances at Xerox, a leader whose career spans decades in high-tech, sales, general management, and, most notably, building and running...

In this republished episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, I sat down with not one but two guests: Elke Jeurissen and Cato Léonard, co-founders of Glassroots and co-authors of a book on stakeholder management. Their work revolves around a simple premise that many leaders find uncomfortable: today’s challenges are too complex to solve from inside one organization, one department, or one fam...

In the latest republished episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast , I sit down with Ramanath Suryaprakash. Ram is a Global Alliance Manager at Infosys, and we explore the intricate world of strategic alliances and the pivotal role they play in today’s interconnected business landscape. Infosys, a global system integrator with a workforce of 170,000 and a presence in over 50 countries, thrive...

In the latest returning episode from 2014 of the Collaborative Business Podcast , Laura McCluer shares her extensive experience in fostering meaningful business collaborations. With nearly two decades dedicated to partnerships and alliances, Laura offers a unique perspective on how collaboration is not just a business strategy but the very foundation of organisational success. Laura’s journey bega...

In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, I sat down with Tim Fitch, co-owner of Invent, a management consultancy working exclusively in the construction sector. Tim’s work spans the full range of the industry, from owner-managed niche suppliers to major clients commissioning multi‑billion‑pound infrastructure, and that vantage point makes one thing unmistakably clear: construction is...

Collaborative businesses are on the rise, and so are the challenges that come with working across organisational boundaries. In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast , previously published in 2014, I sat down with Alex Cameron, director of UK-based consulting firm Socia, to explore what it really takes to make collaboration work when no single person, or organisation, is fully in cont...

Collaboration is more than a buzzword, it is a journey, a deliberate process that evolves from consciousness to conversation, from cooperation to true partnership. In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast I’m in conversation with William Buist, founder of Abelard Collaborative Consultancy, to explore the nuanced layers of collaboration and its transformative power in business. William...

The word “partnership” is everywhere in business. It was already in 2014, when we recorded this episode, and now in 2026 maybe even more. It’s invoked in pitches, press releases, and strategy decks as if using it guarantees success. Yet, as Dave Brock , CEO of Partners in Excellence, reveals in this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, most alliances fail not for lack of opportunity, but...

In this latest returning episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast I’m in conversation with Michael W Young . We delve into the evolving landscape of partnerships within the pharmaceutical, biotech, and contract research sectors. An industry where collaboration is no longer a luxury but a necessity for innovation and survival. Michael’s journey, spanning over 25 years in the industry, offers a...

Strategic alliances are often framed as corporate transactions, deals struck to expand markets, reduce costs, or outmanoeuvre competitors. But for Manoj Kumar the essence of successful partnerships lies not in contracts or spreadsheets, but in human connection and long-term trust. His experiences in India’s tech sector and beyond reveal a fundamental truth: the strongest alliances are built when p...

In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, I bring back a conversation with David Archer about what collaborative leadership really demands in practice. David’s journey into this field is anything but theoretical. Trained as an engineer and shaped by years of work in complex infrastructure, oil exploration joint ventures and large scale rail programmes, he has spent his career examinin...

Collaborative business is no longer confined to a handful of industries or a niche professional discipline. In this episode from 2014 in the Collaborative Business Podcast, I speak with Joost Allard, a Dutch-born alliance professional who built his career in the United States and has witnessed the evolution of alliances from the late 1990s to today’s cross sector collaborations. Joost’s journey in...

In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, I am bringing back a conversation with Dave Luvison, a seasoned alliance professional whose career spans across practice, academia and consulting. Dave brings a rare dual lens to the conversation: practitioner realism combined with academic depth. What unfolds is not a textbook discussion of alliances, but a thoughtful exploration of what trul...

Business collaborations come in many shapes and sizes, but few environments test the discipline of alliance management as rigorously as a multinational organisation. In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, recorded in 2014, I sit down with Cees Bijl, who at the time headed Strategic Alliances and Emerging Business Areas at Royal Philips. The conversation offers a rare inside view of...

In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, I sit down with Dede Haas, a channel sales strategist who has been living and breathing “the channel” since 1985. If you have ever wondered what it really means to scale revenue through partners, or why some partner programmes never get traction despite great intentions, this conversation will give you both clarity and a few uncomfortable trut...

Today I’m bringing back an episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast where I explore a perspective on alliances that is often underestimated, and sometimes even resisted, until it is too late. The legal perspective. My guest is Luuk van der Laan, a lawyer specialised in strategic alliances, and someone who has spent much of his career at the intersection of collaboration, technology, and long-...

In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, recorded in 2014, I am in conversation with Francine Allaire, someone who brings both depth and pragmatism to the topic of collaboration. This is one of those conversations where experience speaks louder than theory. Francine has spent most of her career in sales, partner development, and ecosystem building, primarily in the IT and consulting...

In this episode of the Collaborative Business Podcast, I have the pleasure of welcoming back Anoop Nathwani. He was my very first guest on the podcast, and he is also the first to return. That alone already says something about the depth and relevance of our conversations. This episode was sparked by a short exchange we had after I wrote a newsletter inspired by a very practical weekend experience...

Alliance marketing is often treated as a supporting act in the world of partnerships, a function that sits somewhere between communications, sales enablement, and brand. Yet in practice it shapes how partnerships are understood internally, how value is expressed externally, and how the entire organisation develops the muscle memory needed for collaboration at scale. In today’s episode, recorded in...

Collaboration has never been more central to the way modern businesses create value. Even companies with strong organic capabilities and deep balance sheets are discovering that their most meaningful breakthroughs happen when they open their boundaries and connect with others. Yet as alliances evolve beyond familiar one to one constructs, a new class of partnership model is taking shape, one that...

When I first published this conversation with Ard-Pieter de Man in 2014, the field of alliances was growing fast, yet many organisations still struggled with the fundamentals. Revisiting the episode now, it is striking how many of the challenges he described remain exactly the ones managers face today. His insights from both academia and practice make this discussion unusually rich and still highl...

In this 2014 episode, Snehal Desai, then Global Business Director at Dow Water and Process Solutions, reflects on the wide range of partnerships that shaped the business. Dow worked across the full collaboration spectrum, and Snehal explains how each type played a practical role inside the organisation. He also highlights why executive sponsorship is not a formality but a decisive factor in making...

If you have ever travelled by air, the odds are high that you have encountered an airline alliance in one form or another. Sometimes the experience is invisible, sometimes you notice that a different carrier handles your check-in and sometimes you choose a flight because it earns miles with your preferred loyalty programme. Yet what sits behind these arrangements is far more complex than most pass...

When reading the title of this episode, “ combining work and travel ”, you would almost think that my guest is in the travel industry. However, nothing is further from the truth: Natalie Sisson is the “Suitcase Entrepreneur”. Natalie combines her work with a traveling life, living out of her suitcase. At the moment of recording this interview in 2013 I had been following Natalie online for about s...