Box 2: Strategic questions to ask to determine the level of HR support and integration across the
network required for each arrangement
• Does the long-term strategic intent of the collaborators remain competitive, is it co-operative or is it now
complementary?
• What is the importance of the collaboration to your organisation relative to other strategic activities in
the overall business portfolio?
• What is the degree of desired control over your organisation’s strategic resources?
• What is the strategic purpose of the collaboration: is it a consolidation arrangement (where the value
comes from a deep combination of existing businesses), skills transfer (where the value comes from the
transfer of some critical skills across partners), a co-ordination arrangement (where the value comes from
leveraging the complementary capabilities of both partners) or a new business arrangement (where the
value comes from combining existing capabilities, not businesses, to create new growth)?
• Is there a need for immediate and tight control of joint operations or can they be controlled through an
‘arm’s length’ strategy of risk management?
• To what extent does the partnering arrangement require the exploitation of current resources (for
example cost reduction, short-term HR expertise or resourcing needs) versus the need for the function to
build new collaborative capabilities?
• Does either the initial collaboration, or a future evolution of it, involve the creation of new knowledge
and capabilities (and the desire to leverage these capabilities) where the management of learning and
network capability will be more important?
• What is the strategic permanence of the business arrangement? Is the arrangement based on an ongoing
business concept, requiring permanent provision of support and resources, renegotiated co-operative agreements
over time and jointly owned assets and liabilities? Or is it a looser project-based co-operative network?