Business Dating A new way to collaborate

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Business Dating

A new way to collaborate

Master thesis H.J. Kremer

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Business Dating

A new way to collaborate

H.J. Kremer Student number: 1518623 Phone number : 06 1962 0661 Email: jeroen@kremer.livedsl.nl 25 April 2007 University of Groningen

Faculty of Management & Organization Master of Technology Management

Supervisors:

Dr. Ir. R. de Graaf Drs. J. van Bussel

Faculty of Management & Organization Stratix Consulting

University of Groningen Hilversum

Dr. Ir. E. den Ouden Drs. G. Boverhoff

Philips Applied Technologies, Conclusion Consulting Industries

Industry Consulting Utrecht

Eindhoven

Co-assessor:

Dr. Ir. J. Slomp

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BUSINESS DATING

PREFACE

This thesis represents my research on the validation and development of Business Dating and thereby the end of the Masters program in Technology Management at the University of Groningen. This research is performed at Conclusion Consulting Industries in Utrecht and Stratix Consulting in Hilversum within the time scope of six months.

This research was not possible if some people had not dedicated time and effort to make this research possible. Therefore I would like to thank the organization of Conclusion Consulting Industries, Philips Applied Technologies and Stratix Consulting for giving me the opportunity to conduct research with full support and fully access to their resources. I hope this research will contribute to the success of Business Dating and will be a foundation for further development.

Personally, I would like to thank G. Boverhoff (Conclusion Consulting Industries), J. van Bussel (Stratix Consulting) and E. den Ouden (Philips Applied Technologies, Industry Consulting), for their cooperation and supervision.

I also want to thank the following people who dedicated time and effort to this research via interviews and other input: E. Bleumink (SURFnet), B. Brevé, E van den Berg, W. Enzing, H. Raadsen (Philips Applied Technologies, Industry Consulting), B. Boverhoff- van der Meer (Eneco Energie Infra), M. Vos (Astron) and K. Heijns (Stratix Consulting). Special personal thanks I would dedicate to R. de Graaf (RUG) for his support and supervision during this research. He provided me with insights which I would never had without him. It was a great and helpful time working with a man like him.

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BUSINESS DATING

SUMMARY

Due to the hard competition nowadays, organizations struggle to survive. Many organizations are looking for partners to collaborate in order to attract the necessary competencies or outsourcing activities, to get the best performance of their organization and survive the competition. Despite of all good stories on collaboration there are also many organizations which fail to collaborate notwithstanding their good intentions. This thesis addresses the problem why organizations fail to collaborate in order to develop a business model, called Business Dating, which helps organizations to overcome this problem. For the purpose of this research the following research questions are defined.

1. Which aspects cause organizations to fail in collaboration and need to be

addressed in the Business Dating concept?

2. What are the essential parts of the Business Dating concept to enable

collaboration between organizations?

3. How should the Business Dating concept be set up, and how can it be ramped up

if successful?

For answering the first research question an empirical and literature research is performed. The empirical research contains qualitative interviews with potential customers of the concept and focus group sessions (a group of individuals that discuss and comment, from personal experience, on the topic that is the subject of the research). For answering the second research question, a new product development approach is used. With empirical and literature research, methods, methodologies and ideas are generated and used to design the concept, organization and processes of Business Dating. The last research question is answered by combining gathered information from proceeding questions and performed market research.

Which aspects cause organizations to fail in collaboration and need to be addressed in the Business Dating concept?

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SUMMARY BUSINESS DATING

• Not knowing where to find partners

• No or invalid partner selection model

• Lack of collaboration experience

• Vague problem statement

• Wrong collaboration partner

• Collaboration partners do not speak same language

• Lack of awareness of possibilities and advantages

• Bad experience from the past

What are the essential parts of the Business Dating concept to enable collaboration between organizations?

Business Dating assists organizations to collaborate. Business Dating functions as a broker of knowledge, experience and technologies between supplying organizations and demanding organizations and tries to bring both sides together. To achieve this goal, Business Dating addresses the above mentioned aspects by delivering the following four services:

1. Support for problem identification

2. Facilitation of partner selection

3. Support for the development of a partnership

4. Support for collaboration and implementation process

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Despite of all good intentions and effort, the research lacks customer involvement. The identification of customer needs and values are based upon a very small number of interviews (seven) from even a smaller amount of companies (four). This leads to an uncertainty in the customer fit of the concept. To set off this uncertainty concept testing should be performed to assess the customer fit of the concept. It is possible to perform concept testing as minor step to concept initiation.

Concept testing should be performed by attracting a few participants and match them free of charge. Personal contact is in this stage very important to get customer information. A real problem or question is not needed to test the concept, it is also possible to pretend a problem. Another possibility is to attract participants with existing partnerships and support and facilitate these partnerships in order to assess the concept.

Steps to be taken during the concept testing stage:

1. Assign project leader

2. Attract participants by networking

3. Introduce concept

4. Registration of participants

5. Business dating processes

6. Evaluation and feedback session

7. Improve concept if possible.

Finally a go/no-go decision is needed for concept initiation. The decision makers have to decide if they want to carry the risk of the investment.

How should the Business Dating concept be set up, and how can it be ramped up if successful?

The concept should be initiated small and simple and scaled up if successful. Steps for initiation are:

1. Consider a possible name for concept and patent this

2. Design a logo

3. Establish legal form (foundation) by registration at KvK (Kamer van Koophandel)

4. Designation of intermediary

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6. Realization of web portal of Business Dating

7. Realization of Excel-database

8. Communication and promotion of concept

After successful initiation of the concept and Business Dating is gaining popularity, the concept should be developed further by investing the generated profit. This situation should be characterized by a lot of success cases and many demanding and supplying organization participating with the platform. Steps for further development after initiation are:

1. Start small

2. Express benefits to demanding and supplying organizations

3. Make success stories

4. Seek free publicity

5. Attract extra participants (demanding and supplying organizations)

6. Scale up the platform

The concept can be scaled up by attracting more resources, implementation of a professional database, add more tools to the concept and invest more in promotion.

The Business Dating concept is supposed to be self sufficient. Revenues are generated by asking a fee of € 450,- for yearly registration of supplying organizations and a match fee of € 450,- for demanding organizations. Besides earning money the fees are supposed to function as a barrier for attracting only seriously interested organizations.

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In conclusion to this thesis one final question is answered: Why should one invest in the Business Dating concept?

1. Business Dating is a strong distinguishing concept in relation to the market

a. As a cross sectorial branch platform

Most comparable and related concepts are specified to a certain target group or branch. The strength of Business Dating being a cross sectorial branch platform is that a broader target group can be served but also cross sectorial matches can be made which should lead to more impressive innovations (for example: DSM helped a hospital to innovate their processes)

b. We ‘seek’

In contrary to related concepts Business dating is the only one which actually takes over the partner selection process from the demanding organization. Related concepts give possibilities as online partner search, nevertheless demanding organizations have to select their partner while the selection process is one of the sources for failing collaboration.

c. Full support

In contrary to most related concepts participants could require full support from problem identification till collaboration in order to enhance the chance of successful collaboration.

Only Syntens also provides some support for problem identification and collaboration, although they have a specific target group (MKB-market).

d. No nonsense and trustworthy image

The fee structure should work as a barrier for attracting only serious parties to enhance the chance of successful collaboration.

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2. Low investment with great potential

The organization and set-up of Business dating is simple, therefore only a relative small investment of € 20.000,- totally is needed to put this concept into the market. On the other hand, the potency of this concept is great. Not only for Business Dating itself but also for participating organizations. In fact there is a WIN – WIN – WIN situation:

a. Demanding organizations

Problems get solved or innovations are made.

b. Supplying organizations

Benefit from the collaboration because they get paid. Besides this, there are possibilities for spin offs (projects derived from previous collaborations)

c. Business Dating

In first operational and investments costs must be covered, but when becoming successful profit will be made.

Final message:

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BUSINESS DATING

1. INTRODUCTION

Due to the globalizing world the competition is getting harder and harder and many organizations are struggling to survive. For many years, organizations could compete successfully by exploiting scale and scope economies or taking advantages of imperfections in the market. But these ways of competing are no longer as profitable as they once were (Hansen & Nohria, 2004). Therefore more and more companies focus on core competences and try to reorganize their business to keep ahead of the competition (de Graaf & Kornelius, 1996). Knowledge and experience has become in this context one of the most valued assets of organizations (Tödtling, Lehner & Trippl, 2006). Because of this focusing, organizations have experiences and competencies on specific fields. It is almost impossible to attract all possible knowledge, experience and even technologies in one organization. That would also be too expensive. From this point of view it should not be rare that many organizations keep an extensive relationship with suppliers and customers to attract the necessary competencies to distinguish their selves in the market (Venkatesan, 1992; Chapman & Corso, 2005). This principle is used for instance in the product development field. Organizations collaborate in new product development (NPD) to use their joint competencies to develop better or innovative products, in less time with less money (Mohr & Spekman, R., 1994; Willaert, de Graaf, & Minderhoud, 1998). Another consequence of focusing on core competencies is outsourcing of all activities that are not core business. Other common arguments for outsourcing are cost reduction, development of supply chain partnerships, success of the firms using contract logistics, globalization, improvement of services and efficient operations, or capabilities of the providers to support their clients with the expertise and experience that otherwise would be difficult to acquire or costly to have in-house (Razzaque & Sheng, 1998). To outsource activities collaboration is needed to match objectives and requirements.

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1. INTRODUCTION BUSINESS DATING

all good stories on collaboration there are also many organizations which fail to collaborate notwithstanding their good intentions.

1.1. Problem statement

This thesis addresses the problem why organizations fail to collaborate in order to develop a business model, called Business Dating, which helps organizations to overcome this problem. This problem is recognized for instance in literature about NPD (Emden, Calantone & Droge, 2006; Athaide, Stump & Joshi, 2003; Dev, Klein & Fisher, 1996; Glaiser, 1996; Saez, Marco & Arribas, 2002, and Hansen et al., 2004), however no generic practical solutions have been implemented yet.

1.2. Goals and purpose of research

The purpose of this research is to develop and validate the idea of Business Dating, which has been invented by cooperation between Philips Applied Technologies, Conclusion Consulting Industries and Stratix Consulting, for a possible entrance in the market. Business Dating is about bringing organizations together for collaboration and facilitating this process where needed. It is assumed that organizations not only experience difficulty in finding and selecting a good partner but also in collaboration with partners. Business Dating functions as a broker between supplying organizations, which offer experience, knowledge and technologies, and demanding organizations, which seek for partners for collaboration on a certain field. In figure 1 the idea of Business Dating is visualized.

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The goals of the research are:

1. Address the problem situation of organizations which fail to collaborate;

2. Develop a business model which facilitates organizations in collaborating with

each other;

3. Address the business case and implementation steps of the business model.

1.3. Project organization

The project of Business Dating is organized as follows: Jeroen Kremer (student of University of Groningen) has researched the business and managerial part of Business Dating. Arjen Seton (student of Rotterdam University) has researched the marketing part of Business Dating. This thesis is a product of the business and managerial research of Business Dating and includes some marketing implications from the market research. The whole project is supervised by a steering committee which existed of the following members: Gert Boverhoff (Conclusion Consulting Industries), Elke den Ouden (Philips Applied Technologies), Jolanda van Bussel (Stratix Consulting) and Rob de Graaf (University of Groningen).

The scope of this thesis is the business and managerial research of Business Dating. It contains the exploration of the problem situation, the development of the Business Dating concept and a short analysis of the business case and implementation steps of the concept. Concept testing and market research are outside the scope of this thesis.

1.4. Thesis structure

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2. RESEARCH APPROACH

In this chapter the problem situation is explained. To addresses the problem situation and the possible solution, research questions are formulated. Finally a research design is introduced, which addresses the way the research questions will be answered.

2.1. Problem situation

To achieve the goal of this research the problem statement, mentioned in chapter 1, is put through further investigation. An article of Hansen et al. (2004) is used to clarify the aspects which could be responsible for the failing of organizations to collaborate. Hansen et al. (2004) have identified four barriers that prevent organizations to collaborate:

1. Unwillingness to seek input and learn from others;

2. Inability to seek and find expertise;

3. Unwillingness to help;

4. Inability to work together and transfer knowledge

These barriers are visualised in the matrix in figure 2. The first barrier is about organizations that close themselves off from others. According to Hansen et al. (2004) reasons for this behaviour could be that these organizations have norms or values which expect managers to fix their own problems. In other cases, formal and informal reward systems may give more credit for heroic individual efforts than for collaborative efforts. Or some managers may simply believe that others have nothing to teach them. This leads to a rejection of inventions developed outside their own group.

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2. RESEARCH APPROACH BUSINESS DATING

The second barrier is about organizations which are willing to seek help across the organizational boundaries, but are not able to find it or to search efficiently so that the benefits outweigh the costs of searching. The third barrier is about potential providers of help which are not willing to share experience, knowledge or technologies and refuse to help others. One reason for this attitude could be the protection of intellectual property. Another possibility is when members are pressured to perform, this way they feel that they do not have the time to help others or they do not even care. The last barrier is about organizations which want to share knowledge, experience and technologies but are not able to find the right organization to do so. In this case it is about not having the right relations for sharing or the inability to understand each other when having a relation (Hansen et al., 2004).

2.2. Conceptual framework

A conceptual framework is developed for visualizing the problem situation of this research (figure 3). This framework gives a possible view of influencing aspects on the problem statement and their relations (de Leeuw, 2003).

In the conceptual frame work the terms ‘demanding organizations’ and ‘supplying organizations’ are used instead of ‘seeker’ and ‘provider’ of Hansen et al. (2004). These terms are more appropriate in the context of Business Dating.

The barriers mentioned in the preceding section are translated into aspects which are supposed to influence the problem statement. Supplying organizations are almost facing the same problems as demanding organizations. Therefore barrier one and three are taken together, even as barrier two and four. Barrier two and four are divided into two aspects called: ‘unable to express’ and ‘unable to find’. When organizations are willing to seek for help it is possible that they are not able to express themselves. For example when they do not understand their problem situation. And even when organizations do understand their problem situation it is possible that they are not able to find the right expertise. From suppliers point of view it is possible that they are not aware of the expertise they can provide. Or they might not know where to find consumers for their expertise.

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do not speak the same language and therefore expertise could not be translated between one and another. For example problems around collaboration between a sales manager and a production manager. Both use very different jargon and could have different interests, which causes difficulty to collaborate.

At last the barriers one and three are translated into the aspect ‘unwilling’. One could argue if this is a real aspect, because if organizations do not want to collaborate they do not fail.

Figure 3: Conceptual framework

Like already mentioned in the introduction chapter, Business Dating should give a practical solution for the problem situation. Business Dating could be the missing link between demanding and supplying organizations in case of collaboration. This principle of intermediary is already used in businesses like brokerage or insurance agents. When the market is really fuzzy an extra chain could be needed and create value by clarifying the market or providing the missing expertise. Another example from E-commerce is ‘bellen.com’ which provides insight into the fuzziness of the telecom market by an intermediary website between suppliers and the marketplace.

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that they want to take notice of a working concept first and see the advantages and opportunities of collaboration, before changing their attitude against collaboration. When putting this solution into the conceptual framework the evolved model on the next page is acquired (figure 4).

Figure 4: Solution embedded into the conceptual framework

2.3. Research questions

This research tries to validate the conceptual framework and develop the concept of Business Dating. For the purpose of this research the following research questions are defined.

Questions

1. Which aspects cause organizations to fail in collaboration and need to be

addressed in the Business Dating concept?

2. What are the essential parts of the Business Dating concept to enable

collaboration between organizations?

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b. How does the Business Dating process model look?

c. How could technology be used to enable Business Dating?

d. What is the business case for Business Dating?

3. How should the Business Dating concept be set up, and how can it be ramped up

if successful?

a. How can Business Dating be initiated?

b. How can Business Dating be developed further when successful?

In the next section the research design will be explained to describe the way these questions will be answered.

2.4. Research design

To develop a business model that addresses the central problem and the influencing aspects, a research design is made. The research can be divided into two parts. First part investigates and validates the conceptual framework and second part develops the Business Dating concept as solution for the problem situation. When visualised this approach a concept research design is acquired (see figure 5). In the next sections this research design is further evolved and explained. The final research design is visualised on the last page of this chapter (figure 10).

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2.5. Validation of conceptual framework

Before developing the Business Dating concept further, an analysis of the problem situation is done. The purpose of this analysis is to validate the conceptual framework. It would be a waste of time if the designed business model appears to be invalid because the problem situation did not exist in the first place. The conceptual framework is validated by performing an empirical research and literature research. This validation is supposed to discover new influencing aspects, which lead to a verified conceptual framework.

2.5.1. Empirical research

Because of the limited recourses and the fuzziness of the idea at the start of the project, qualitative inquiries seemed the best way to investigate the problem statement and the influencing aspects. Participants for a qualitative study are not selected because they fulfil the representative requirements of statistical inference but because of their experience (Polkinghorne, 2005). The general rule in qualitative research is that you continue to sample until you are not getting any new information or no longer gaining new insights (Website ‘Interactive textbook on symptom research’, 2006). The chosen population exists of good costumers or contacts of the founders (Philips Applied Technologies, Conclusion Consulting Industries and Stratix Consulting) of this project.

To fill up possible gaps between the reality of the problem statement and the results of the inquiries, a focus group is used. A focus group is a group of individuals that discuss and comment on, from personal experience, the topic that is the subject of the research (Powell & Single, 1996) and is an often used method in New Product Development (Mahajan & Wind, 1992). The main purpose of focus group research is to draw upon respondents’ attitudes, beliefs, experiences and reactions in a way in which would not be feasible using other methods as one-to-one interviewing, or questionnaire surveys. The focus group is composed with members of the steering committee and the researchers of this project.

2.5.2. Literature research

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2.6. Development of the Business Dating concept

The main part of this research is about the development of the Business Dating concept. For the development of the Business Dating concept a New Product Development (NPD) approached is used. First literature is reviewed for suitable development approaches.

2.6.1. Literature review on NPD

From literature review on NPD, three main ways of facing new product development processes are identified. In chronological order known as first-, second- and third-generation NPD processes (Varela, & Benito, 2005). First-third-generation NPD process has a functional structure where the technical area acts as the new product development guide and customer orientation is limited to the final phase. Second-generation NPD process is sequential from nature and, as happens with first-generation schemes, has a rigid structure. On the other hand it includes an inter-functional approach from the beginning. In other words a customer orientation in the entire process of the NPD project. Third-generation NPD process has an inter-functional approach, like the second Third-generation, and a flexible structure. In other words a non-sequential approach. The team is responsible for combining and coordinating every development phase. This should lead to less development time and greater flexibility.

The process approach in this project utilizes a third-generation NPD process because of the required short development time, the needed flexibility and of course the needed customer orientation. Because of the fuzziness of Business Dating many iterative circles will be needed to develop a customer orientated business model.

In basis, a process is a specific ordering of work activities across time and place, with a beginning and an end, that transforms a set of inputs into a set of outputs (Davenport, 1993). A further review of the literature on new product development identified the activities in a NPD process. According to Crawford & Di Benedetto (2003) a basic NPD process has five phases (activities):

Phase 1: Opportunity Identification and Selection Phase 2: Concept generation

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Phase 4: Development Phase 5: Launch

Ulrich and Eppinger (2003) and also Cooper (1994) have developed a model based on these phases. Ulrich et al. developed the ‘generic development process’ (figure 6), a non-sequential approach, and Cooper developed the ‘state gate model’ (figure 7), a non-sequential development model. Johnson, Menor, Roth & Chase, (2000) have developed a cyclic model for new service development (see figure 8). They see the development process as cycle with the sub processes design, analysis, development and full launch.

Like already mentioned the development of Business Dating is an iterative NPD process with pressure on time. Although Cooper provides a descriptive view of ongoing processes in NPD, sequential development models suffer from major weaknesses. They lead to time-consuming and overly bureaucratic processes that slow projects down (Stevens & Dimitriadis, 2005). Therefore the ‘state gate model’ of Cooper drops out in first place because of supposed iterative character of the development of Business Dating concept. But the tollgate principle of the ‘state gate model’ will be imbedded into the NPD process in time.

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Figure 6: The ‘generic development process’ of Ulrich et al. (2003)

Figure 7: The ‘state gate model’ model of Cooper (1994)

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2.6.2. Development design

The development design is based upon the model of Ulrich et al. (2003) and is structured as a third-generation NPD process. This implicates a customer orientations from the beginning and a non-sequentially structure. Toll gates are embedded into the development process on basis of needed feedback of the steering committee, but not in the end of a certain phase and therefore not mentioned in the research design. Because of the limited time for this project only the first two phases of the generic development process are investigated in depth. The other downstream phases are briefly investigated.

Phase 0: Planning

Based on the validation of the conceptual framework (chapter 3) a mission statement is defined in cooperation with the steering committee. Furthermore some input is used from market research. The mission statement summarizes the direction of the development project.

Phase 1: Concept Development

First the customer needs and values are identified based upon interviews with potential customers, and focus group meetings. These needs and values are used as input for the formulation of the product specifications.

Second, the concept generation is structured according to the Five-Step method of Ulrich et al. (2003) (see figure 9). This reduces the risk of ineffective integration of partial solutions and the failure of considering entire categories of solutions. Step one of the Five-Step method is done in chapter 3. The influencing aspects of the problem statement are in this case seen as the sub problems. In step two sub solutions are identified for the sub problems by external and internal search procedures. Used methods in this context are: literature research, field research, interview with potential customers and focus group. After searching for sub solutions, an exploration takes place to integrate the sub solutions into an integral solution, the Business Dating concept. Finally a reflection takes place on the validity and applicability of the results by combining the results with the

costumer needs and product specifications. This solution is represented to the steering

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Figure 9: The five-step concept generation method (Ulrich et al., 2003)

Phase 2+

Third, after the development of the concept the organization and processes behind Business Dating are developed. After development of the processes the steering committee is asked for feedback. Due to the limited time no feedback is asked from customers on the Business Dating concept.

Fourth, an examination takes place which technologies are needed for enabling the concept using literature and common sense.

Fifth, a description follows of steps needed to initiate the Business Dating concept into the market, followed by a description of a possible scale up when the concept appears to be successful.

Finally, the concept is submitted to an economic analysis. Therefore a financial model is developed and a sensitivity analysis is performed. Models that used are Net Present Vale (NPV) and payback period. (Drury, 2004). To develop a financial model some input from the market research, like price positioning, is used. The concept in combination with the process and financial models forms the final business model of the Business Dating concept. This business model is presented to the steering committee for constructive feedback.

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3. VALIDATION OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

In this chapter the problem situation and the conceptual framework is validated. The reason for this is that it would be a waste of time if the designed business model appears to be invalid because the problem situation stated, did not exist in the first place.

3.1. Validation of conceptual framework

The empirical and literature have lead to some new insides in the problem situation. The problem situation is not only recognized in literature, as already supposed, but is also confirmed by the interviews and the focus group. According to the performed research, the problem statement can be split up in failure to collaborate with attempts and without attempts. Furthermore the four aspects, already defined in chapter 2, can be split up in other aspects and some more have been discovered. This gives direct answer on the first research question:

Research question 1: Which aspects cause organizations to fail in collaboration and need to be addressed in the Business Dating concept?

Unable to find

• Not knowing where to find partners (focus group, Hansen et al., 2004)

It is possible that organizations do not try to collaborate because of this aspects but it is also possible that organizations try and do not find a collaboration partner.

• No or invalid partner selection model (Emden et al., 2006; Jharkhariaa &

Shankarb, 2007)

If organizations do not have a selection model or an invalid selection model this could lead to unable to find a collaboration partner, when trying.

Unable to express

• Lack of collaboration experience (interviews, focus group)

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3. VALIDATION OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK BUSINESS DATING

• Vague problem statement (Moehrle et al., 2006)

If organizations have problems with expressing themselves, this could lead to vague problem statements. From here there are two possibilities, organizations do not even try to find a partner or try to find a partner. If organizations try to collaborate it is possible that no solution will be found, or a wrong one because the problem was not clear in first place.

• Wrong partner (Emden et al., 2006; Jharkhariaa & Shankarb, 2007)

If organizations have problems with expressing themselves this could lead to selecting the wrong partner for collaboration.

Speak different languages

• Collaboration partners do not speak same language (Hansen et al., 2004)

Unwilling

• Lack of awareness of possibilities and advantages (focus group, Hansen et al.,

2004)

• It is supposed that unwilling organizations are so called late maturity or laggards

(Rogers, 1995), which need to see a working concept and benefits first before adopting this solution.

A last aspect which can not be position under one of the four aspects of chapter 2:

• Bad experience from the past (focus group)

Bad experience from the past could lead to another failure of collaboration in the future if no lessons have been learned from the past.

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The enormous amount of potential partners increases the chance of selecting the wrong partner. Furthermore a ‘lack of experience in partner selection’ increases the chance of not having an adequate partner selection model and selecting the wrong partner. It is obvious that not having an adequate partner selection model is increasing the chance of selecting the wrong partner. Finally collaborating with the wrong partner leads to more bad experiences.

Unable to translate expertise is enhanced by the aspects ‘vague problem statement’ and ‘lack of collaboration experience’. Although the aspects and their relationships from the conceptual framework are not supported with broad empirical evidence it gives a clear overview of the problem situation. In cooperation with the steering committee the decision has been made to proceed with the research, taking this lack of empirical evidence into account.

As result of this validation research the conceptual model evolved to a verified conceptual framework, visualised in figure 11.

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As seen in figure 10, failure to collaborate can be divided into failure with attempts and without attempts. Notwithstanding the fact that this difference is not validated by literature, it gives a better view of the total problem situation.

3.2. Decomposition of central problem

The problem validation is used to clarify the problem situation. After identification of the influencing aspects of the central problem, sub problems are formulated in order to decompose the central problem. This reduces the complexity of the central problem by addresses sub problem with sub solutions. The following sub problems are identified:

1. Difficulties with problem identification;

Obtained from aspect ‘vague problem statement’.

2. Problems with finding a partner;

Obtained from aspect ‘not knowing where to find partners’.

3. Problems with partner selection;

Obtained from aspect ‘lack of experience in partner selection’, ‘no or invalid partner selection model’, ‘wrong partner’ and ‘bad experience’

4. Problems with building a partnership;

Obtained from aspect ‘lack of collaboration experience’.

5. Problems with collaboration process;

Obtained from aspect ‘lack of collaboration experience’.

6. Lack of awareness of the possibilities and advantages of collaboration.

Obtained from aspect ‘Lack of awareness of the possibilities and advantages of collaboration.

3.3. Research validation

The validation of the conceptual framework leads also to a validation of the research. In other words, if the problem situation does exist then this research has purpose to develop a model to solve the problem situation.

3.3.1. Empirical research

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means that Business Dating could give a practical solution for a real problem. The first impression of interviewed potential customers is that the idea of Business Dating has a lot of potential. If Business Dating could help organizations to overcome the mentioned aspects then a lot of organizations would join Business Dating according to the interviews.

The problem situation is also recognized in literature. According to Jharkhariaa & Shankarb (2007) organizations struggle to find partners for outsourcing activities due to issues as lack of experience and knowledge for outsourcing. In many cases, organizations bring in an expert to search for a good outsource partner. According to Hansen et al. (2004) there are four barriers which enhance the possibility of failure in collaboration. If Business Dating could addresses the mentioned aspects, the concept could help organizations to collaborate.

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4. MISSION STATEMENT

In order to provide clear guidance for the concept development stage a mission statement is formulated. In this statement the key services of Business Dating, requirements, preconditions, business goals, assumptions and requirements are explained. The mission statement is summarized in table 1. For the formulation of the mission statement the environment is analysed (market research).

4.1. Requirements

Requirements for the development of the Business Dating concept are derived from the aspects of chapter 3, the demands of the steering committee and the scope of the concept. Finally some assumptions are made for the ease of the development, which also leads to requirements.

4.1.1. Key Services

The analysis of the problem situation has lead to a number of aspects which influence the problem statement. The Business Dating concept has to address these aspects to become a solution to the problem situation. To address these aspects the concepts must contain the following key services:

1. Support for problem identification

This service helps organization to clarify the problem or the needed experience, knowledge or technologies.

2. Facilitation of partner selection (matching);

This service helps organisations which have no or an invalid selection model or are unable to find a collaboration partner.

3. Support for the development of a partnership

When organizations lack of collaboration experience they can get support to develop a partnership.

4. Support for the collaboration and implementation process

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4. MISSION STATEMENT BUSINESS DATING

These key services should helps organizations with bad experiences from the past or organizations which have lack of collaboration experience.

4.1.2. Demands of steering committee

Requirements provided by the steering committee:

1. Business Dating as concept must be simple and scalable if it becomes a success;

2. The payback period of the investment must be less then two years;

3. The operational cost must be covered.

4.1.3. Assumptions

At the start of the project there are some assumptions made to give the concept some more guideline.

1. The platform will be independent to get more trust from (potential) customers;

2. To reach a broad range of (potential) customers a website will act as web portal

for the platform;

3. Demanding organizations only pay when they get matched with a partner (match

warranty).

These assumptions are made in consideration with the steering committee.

4.2. Preconditions

The requirements of the preceding section are translated to preconditions. The Business Dating concept has to meet these preconditions. The preconditions are:

1. Implementation of the four key services;

2. Business Dating as concept must be simple and scalable if it becomes a success;

3. The payback period of the investment must be less then two years;

4. The operational cost must be covered;

5. Independent platform;

6. Website will act as web portal of the platform;

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4. MISSION STATEMENT BUSINESS DATING

4.3. Key business goals

In considerations with the steering committee the following business goals of Business Dating are formulated:

1. Business Dating has at least five supply organizations at the end of the first year

and ten at the end of the second year;

2. Business Dating has at least made thirty five matches in the first year and sixty

matches in the second year.

4.4. Market positioning

According to the market research (performed by A. Seton) Business Dating should be positioned as a service organization. This sector is characterized by growth and flexibility. According to interviews with potential customers, substitutes, for example consulting firms are characterized by their lack of discernment. The aim of Business Dating should be to distinguish itself by delivering excellent services, which fit to customer demands. Furthermore Business Dating should not aim on a specific market sector. Any organization, despites its size or sector, in search of a partner can get help from the Business Dating platform. It all depends on the capacity and knowledge fields of the supplying companies of Business Dating.

Product Description Bringing organization together for collaboration · Implementation of four key services:

1. support for problem identification 2. facilitation of partner selection

3. support for development of a partnership

4. support for collaboration and implementation process

· Business Dating as concept must be simple and scalable if it becomes a success · The operational cost must be covered

· Independent platform

· Website will act as web-portal of the platform. · Only pay when matched

· Business Dating has at least five supply organisations at the end of the first year and ten at the end of the second year

· Business Dating has at least made thirty five matches in the first year and sixty matches in the second year

· Business dating is positioned as a service provider · Business Dating aims not on a specific market sector

· Market focus depends on experiences fields of participating supplying organizations

Mission statement: Business dating

Market positioning Preconditions

Key Business Goals

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A BUSINESS DATING

5. CUSTOMER NEEDS/VALUES & ATTRIBUTES

In this chapter the customer needs and values are exposed. Furthermore a final direction of the development process is revealed by explaining the priority of attributes of Business Dating.

5.1. Customer needs/values

To keep the concept customer focused (Ulrich et al., 2003), the customer needs and values are identified using interviews. The first stumbling block is: how many potential customers or parties have to be interviewed in order to reveal most of the customer needs? Griffin and Hauser (1993) give a practical guideline for most products. Conducting fewer than ten interviews is probably inadequate and fifty interviews is probably too many. Although the aim was twenty-five interviews, only seven interviews have been achieved. Due to the fuzziness of the concept the willingness of organizations to invest in this concept was almost zero, although the steering committee tried to involve good customers and network contacts. To fill up the gaps that were left as a result of this small number of interviews, brainstorm sessions are held during the steering committee meetings to address all relevant customer values and needs. In the next few sections the interviews are shortly summarized.

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5. CUSTOMER NEEDS/VALUES & ATTRIBUTES BUSINESS DATING

Consulting experience have emerged that some one gets only one chance to prove oneself. Furthermore most organizations will look for a partner in their own network for a long relationship based on mutual trust. Therefore much effort is needed in the acquisition process besides a possible internet based platform. Finally, and this is already mentioned sideways, the concept must be well positioned in the market to make this concept to a success. Potential customers need to know on first sight what they can expect from Business Dating.

The strength of Business Dating is to take away possible collaboration problems from organizations. Depending on customer this could be the identification of the problem, selection of a partner, or facilitation of the collaboration process. Another possible strength of Business Dating could be the ability to match organizations cross functional or cross sectorial. Horizontal collaboration leads to more knowledge redundancy then vertical collaboration. It is a common used principle in new product development and is also validated by literature (Rindfleisch & Moorman 2001; Kahn, 1996).

Research question 2a: What do users (demand and supply) expect from Business Dating?

The identified needs and values from the interviews can be summarized into nine basic values (see table 2).

No. Basic values

1 Long-term relationships 2 Pratical solutions 3 Implementation focus 4 Indepentent third party 5 Efficient network 6 Transparency 7 Trustworthy

8 Possible direction support 9 Personal contact

Table 2: Basic values

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small number interviews could drive the concept away from the market. Of course development is an iterative process and more customer needs and values could be addressed along the ride. But when the concept becomes more mature it would take a lot of effort to change it to the need of the customer, if of course the customer needs are different then expected. This leads automatically to an uncertainty which could be cancelled by performing concept testing. But as already mentioned this falls outside this research, but will be recommended to the steering committee.

Nevertheless the amount of statements would be enough to development a concept.

No. Customer needs / values

10 Simplicity 11 Easy accessibility 12 Clear positioning 13 Open to anyone 14 Professionals

15 Broad knowledgebase of intermediary 16 Fast feedback on possible match(es) 17 Clear problem statement of customer 18 First match is a good match 19 If possible cross sectorial match 20 Match warranty

21 Clear responsibilities

22 Knowledge database (like wikipedia) 23 Organisation benchmarking

24 Electronic exchange of expertise 25 Organisational health diagnose

Table 3: Customer needs

Customer needs are generally expressed in a so-called language of the customer. However they leave some margin for subjective interpretation. This is why a set of specifications is established and is added in appendix 1.

5.2. Relevant attributes of business dating

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Based on the interviews the basic values get a relevance importance from 1-5 (see table 4). In this context 1 means not important, 5 means very important. The linkage between attributes to values can get a score from 1-5 depending on their relevance. Is the attribute almost not relevant for fulfilling the customer value then a score of 1 is granted. A score of 2 is granted if the attribute shows a little relevance for fulfilling the customer value. A score of 3 is granted if the attribute shows an average relevance for fulfilling the customer value. A score of 4 is granted if the attribute is really relevant for fulfilling the customer value. When an attribute can not be misted to fulfil the customer value then a score of 5 is granted. The results are shown in table 4. The priority of attributes are, from high to low: Partner search & selection, Facilitation of collaboration process, Participating parties, Facilitation of relation building, Personal contact, Problem identification support, Online portal, Online collaboration tools, Online knowledge database, Diagnosing tools.

Because of the limited time and needed scalability (see mission statement), the hierarchy in attributes plays a specific role in prioritizing to some aspects of the concept in the development. The following attributes will be included in the initial phase of the concept because they contribute the most to a possible success of the concept:

• Partner search & selection,

• Facilitation of collaboration process

• Participating parties

• Facilitation of relation building

• Personal contact

• Problem identification support

• Online portal

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5. CUSTOMER NEEDS/VALUES & ATTRIBUTES BUSINESS DATING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ₁₀ O nl in e po rt al Su pp or t o f p ro bl em id en tif ic at io n Pa rt ic ip at in g pa rt ie s Pe rs on al c on ta ct Pa rt ne r s ea rc h & s el ec tio n Fa ci lit at io n of p ar tn er sh ip d ev el op m en t Fa ci lit at io n of c ol la bo ra tio n pr oc es s O nl in e co lla bo ra tio n to ol s O nl in e kn ow le dg e da ta ba se D ia gn os in g to ol s 1 ₅ ₂ ₂ ₅ ₄ ₅ ₅ ₄ ₁ ₁ ₁ 2 ₄ ₂ ₄ ₃ ₃ ₄ ₃ ₅ ₂ ₂ ₃ 3 ₅ ₁ ₃ ₃ ₃ ₄ ₃ ₅ ₂ ₁ ₁ 4 ₅ ₂ ₃ ₅ ₂ ₅ ₄ ₃ ₃ ₂ ₁ 5 ₃ ₅ ₃ ₅ ₂ ₄ ₃ ₃ ₄ ₁ ₁ 6 ₃ ₅ ₃ ₃ ₃ ₄ ₂ ₃ ₂ ₃ ₂ 7 ₄ ₄ ₄ ₅ ₅ ₅ ₄ ₄ ₂ ₂ ₁ 8 ₃ ₅ ₁ ₁ ₃ ₁ ₁ ₁ ₅ ₅ ₃ 9 5 1 5 3 5 5 5 5 1 1 1 99 118 139 126 158 131 142 84 68 54 7 6 3 5 1 4 2 8 9 10 Practical solutions Implementation focus Independent third party Efficient network Personal contact Transparency Attribute priority Attributes V al ue p ri or ir ity Customer Values Total score Long-term relationships Trustworthy Easy accessibility

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BUSINESS DATING

6. CONCEPT GENERATION & SELECTION

After identifying the customer needs and the establishment of target specifications the next step is generating a concept. A broad exploration of alternatives takes place to reduce the likelihood that a superior concept is expressed late in the development process or that a competitor introduces a concept that is dramatically better then the Business Dating concept. Furthermore some issues around knowledge transfer in organizations has been addressed to develop the concept as integral as possible.

As mentioned in the research design, the Five-Step method of Ulrich et al. (see figure 8) is used to reduce the risk of problems ineffective integration of partial solutions and failure to consider entire categories of solutions. The first step, clarify the problem situation, is already accomplished in section 3.2. In the next two sections the result of the external and internal research are drawn to identify possible (sub) solutions for the six sub problems of section 3.2. After this exploration of sub solutions, the final Business Dating concept is developed. This chapter ends with a short reflection on the concept and the development process.

6.1. External research

The aim of the external research is to find existing solutions to both the central problem and the sub problems. Implementing an existing solution is usually quicker and cheaper than developing a new solution (Ulrich et al. 2003). Furthermore, the combination of conventional solutions and novel solutions to sub problems frequently yield to a superior overall design. To gather information from external sources three ways are used: literature research, field research and interviews with potential customers.

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6. CONCEPT GENERATION & SELECTION BUSINESS DATING

To get advantage of collaboration, knowledge and experience exchange between organizations is needed. A lot of literature focuses on knowledge and experience exchange within organizations, called knowledge management (Purvis, Sambamurthy & Zmud, 2001; Robertson, 2005), or between persons, called knowledge network (Kant & Sprenger, 2004). Although knowledge and experience exchange between organizations is a hot item according to the interviews with potential customers, minor to non concrete models or methodologies are available from literature. A reason for this could be the complexity or unfamiliarity of knowledge exchange between organization and intellectual property issues (protection of competitive advantage (Leslie, 2006)).

Another contributing factor could be the differentiation of knowledge into explicit and tacit information. Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be captured and written down in documents or databases. Tacit knowledge is knowledge that people carry in their heads. (Weggeman, 1997). While tacit information contains the most valuable knowledge it is also very hard to exchange this kind of information because of the human aspect. In this research this differentiation is already made: explicit knowledge is called knowledge and tacit knowledge is called experience.

Summarized, from literature no practical solutions for collaboration have been implemented yet outside the NPD field. Furthermore minor to non concrete models or methodologies for knowledge and experience exchange between organizations are available from literature. Because of this possible gap in literature, models and methodologies from other fields are reviewed to address usable sub solutions for Business Dating. In search for models and methodologies on problem identification, partner selection, relationship building and collaboration processes, used fields are: knowledge networks, supply chain management, collaboration, project management, procurement, outsourcing and collaborative engineering.

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Saez et al., 2002). In table 5 usable models and methodologies derived from literature research are summarized.

Usability Model or methodology & Author(s) Description

Cause and Effect Diagram Graham, Anderson & Janson (1979)

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Tender process

Website ‘Winning Government Business’ General purchase process

Van Weele, 2001

Purchase process for selection of 3PLs Andersson et al.,2002

3PL selection model Jharkhariaa et al., 2007 ANP-model

Jharkhariaa et al., 2007

Partner Selection for Collaboration Emden et al., 2006

Process of building a partnership Lambert et al., 1996

Collaboration process model Chiu, 2002

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Kant et al., 2004 Service 1: Support for

Problem identification

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Cause and Effect Diagrams give insights into a problem with a minimum of effort. The Cause and Effect Diagram is a graphical method, employing vectors indicating the relation between cause and effect.

Service 2: Facilitation of partner selection

A tender process is commonly used by governments and construction industries for obtaining products and services.

Service 4: Support for the collaboration process

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Service 4: Support for the collaboration process

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Chiu introduced a model for designing a collaboration process. The purpose of design collaboration is to share expertise, ideas, resources or

responsibilities. The process is visualised as a cycle of consultation (meetings), negotiation, decision making and reflection. Before an collaboration is accomplished (reaching from initial state to final state) more than one cycle may be necessary. According to Chiu (2002) negotiation is the major task in the decision making in collaborative design. Computers are used to supported the process of collaboration design.

To let knowledge flow Kant et al. (2004) introduced a method called 'communities of practice’. By using a platform, participants in search for similar knowledge could share and exchange knowledge and experiences. Commitment and trust are enablers to succeed in this context (Robertson, 2005). Because commitment and trust must be developed Kant et al. (2004) speak of a life cycle of 'communities of practice’.

Service 2: Facilitation of partner selection Service 3: Support for the development of a partnership

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Emden et al. (2006) have developed a model for partner selection (validated by empirical evidence), which distinguish three phases for selecting a partner: technical alignment, strategic alignment, relational alignment.

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Service 3: Support for the development of a partnership aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Lambert et al. (1996) developed a partnership model for the development of a partnership. The model has three major elements: drivers, facilitators and components, which leads to outcomes. The model has been designed primarily as a tool to help develop new partnership, but can also be used as a model to diagnosing an existing relationship. The model offers a systematic process for ensuring that partnerships are developed and managed in the most beneficial way for both organisations.

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Jharkhariaa et al. (2007) have refined the model of Andersson et al. by separate the selection in two parts: preliminary screening (eight step purchase process) of available providers and final selection (ANP-model).

Service 2: Facilitation of partner selection aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa a

An ANP-model is a mathematic decision-making methodology which makes it possible to add every relevant criteria (quantitative or qualitative) needed for a proper decision (Saaty, 2004). This selection model is not a simple assessment of alternatives but a well structured mathematic method with focus on the objectives of the collaboration. Disadvantages of this model are its complexity, resource intensively, and the needed openness and kindness of involved parties. Service 2: Facilitation of partner selection aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Van Weel distinguishes six basic aspects of a purchase process and translated this in six process steps. The essence of this model is the linkage between the process steps. The quality of the output of the last step, depends on the quality output of the previous steps. This is why the output of every step must be specified and preferably documented. Further Van Weele underlines the need of determination of responsibilities due to the cross functional background of the purchase process.

Andersson et al. have addressed an eight step purchase process for the selection of 3PL’s.

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Question rises if some models or methodologies have been overlooked. Of course more models and methodologies could be derived from literature but above mentioned models and methodologies give a good overview of what is available in literature. More models and methodologies would not necessary lead to a better output of the development process.

6.1.2. Field research

During the field research the internet is searched for comparable concepts in the market. The reason for this is that the concept of Business Dating uses also a website as portal for the platform. The internet sites are shortly assessed based on the presence of the attributes of Business Dating (section 5.2):

1. Online portal

2. Support for problem identification 3. Participating parties

4. Personal contact

5. Partner search & selection

6. Facilitation of partnership development 7. Facilitation of collaboration process 8. Online collaboration tools

9. Online knowledge database 10. Diagnosing tool

Furthermore the sites are briefly described and usable methods and ideas are summarized in table 6. As seen in table 6, Syntens has very good overall score and includes all most every attribute. Question rises if Syntens already serve the market with a comparable concept as Business Dating. The answer on this question is no, Syntens does not already serve the market with a comparable concept. The first reason for this statement is that Syntens focuses on the MKB-market (middle and small companies) and has therefore a limited scope. Furthermore Syntens is not primarily an intermediary between supplying and demanding organization and rather a supplying organization itself. Syntens provides knowledge and experience to demanding organizations for innovation. Although Syntens has embedded almost every attribute, Business Dating plays another role and serves another market then Syntens.

Business Dating A new way to collaborate

Business Dating

A new way to collaborate

Master thesis H.J. Kremer

Business Dating

A new way to collaborate

PREFACE

SUMMARY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.

INTRODUCTION

2.

RESEARCH APPROACH

3.

VALIDATION OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

4.

MISSION STATEMENT

5.

CUSTOMER NEEDS/VALUES & ATTRIBUTES

6.

CONCEPT GENERATION & SELECTION