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How to Keep Joint Projects Jumping
Benjamin Gomes-Casseres, a Brandeis University professor who has written several books on alliances, offers this advice for copacetic co-development.
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COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE- Spell out in advance which partner controls the resulting intellectual property and for how long. Protect existing intellectual property to which your customer may gain access.
- Make sure there's a mechanism for swiftly resolving any issues that arise. If the project is more important to the supplier than to the customer, the customer may let things grind to a halt when obstacles emerge.
- Insist the customer commit enough people to see the project through.
- Make sure the resources each side commits are commensurate with the amount of risk each bears.
