Product Description

Presented by The Drucker Foundation

"Austin has uncovered the common elements and key strategies that make for effective collaborations.... In The Collaboration Challenge, he illuminates these key lessons for all leaders, and makes it possible for each of us to meet the collaboration challenge."
--Frances Hesselbein, chairman of the board of governors, The Drucker Foundation, and John C. Whitehead, founder, The John C. Whitehead Fund for Not-for-Profit Management, Harvard Business School

"Austin has performed a valuable service for nonprofit organizations and their corporate partners by illuminating the dynamics of successful relationships. His useful book deserves to be widely read by leaders in both sectors concerned about increasing the effectiveness of their social action agenda."
--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, author of World Class and Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management

"The entire nonprofit sector has been searching for the expertise and tools this book provides. Nothing else like it exists."
--Bill Shore, executive director of Share-Our-Strength and author of The Cathedral Within and Revolution of the Heart

In these complex times, when no organization can succeed alone, nonprofits and businesses are embracing collaboration for mutual benefits. Nonprofits are partnering with businesses to further their missions, develop resources, strengthen programs, and thrive in the competitive world. Companies are also discovering that alliances with nonprofits generate significant rewards: increased customer preference, improved employee morale, greater brand identity, stronger corporate culture, and higher innovation.

In this timely and insightful book, James E. Austin provides a practical framework for understanding how traditional philanthropic relationships can be transformed into powerful strategic alliances. He offers advice and lessons drawn from the experiences of numerous collaborations, including Timberland and City Year; Starbucks and CARE; Georgia-Pacific and The Nature Conservancy; MCI WorldCom and The National Geographic Society; Reebok and Amnesty International; and Hewlett-Packard and the National Science Resource Center. Readers will learn how to:
* Find and connect with high-potential partners
* Ensure strategic fit with the partner's mission and values
* Generate greater value for each partner and society
* Manage the partnering relationship effectively

Click here to read Chapter 8, Guidelines for Collaborating Successfully.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #311283 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From Booklist
Already this year, in Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships, Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal outlined the benefits of partnerships between businesses and nonprofit organizations. There they profiled seven successful examples of such relationships. Now Austin, author of numerous books on business and management in developing countries and a business professor at Harvard, makes his own similar case in this Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management Leaderbook. He identifies major alliances and examines how they function, looking at the various stages through which they must pass. He explains the role of top leadership and emphasizes the importance of a strategic "fit" between the two partners. Austin suggests different areas within organizations for alignment as well as ways for partners to analyze the value of their collaboration. He then considers ongoing practical management issues and concludes with guidelines for collaborations and questions that must be addressed. David Rouse

Review
"Austin has uncovered the common elements and key strategies that make for effective collaborations.... He gained unprecedented access to the decision makers who instituted and managed these alliances and who provide firsthand accounts of their successes, trials, and lessons learned.... In The Collaboration Challenge, he illuminates these key lessons for all leaders, and makes it possible for each of us to meet the collaboration challenge." ---Frances Hesselbein, , chairman of the board of governors, The Drucker Foundation, and John C. Whitehead, founder, The John C. Whitehead Fund for Not-for-Profit Management, Harvard Business School

"Austin has performed a valuable service for nonprofit organizations and their corporate partners by illuminating the dynamics of successful relationships. His useful book deserves to be widely read by leaders in both sectors concerned about increasing the effectiveness of their social action agenda." ---Rosabeth Moss Kanter, , Harvard Business School, author of World Class and Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management

"The entire nonprofit sector has been searching for the expertise and tools this book provides. Nothing else like it exists." -Bill Shore, executive director of Share-Our-Strength and author of The Cathedral Within and Revolution of the Heart

"It's hard to imagine managers crafting a leading partnership and not applying all this book has to offer. It does a fantastic job in offering leaders crisp principles to be applied in navigating the landscape of collaborations." -Ken Freitas, vice president of social enterprise, Timberland Company

"Superbly provides a framework of order and understanding. I wish I had had this book to share with staff and board members during my tenure at Outward Bound. It will accelerate the coming together of the sectors." -Allen Grossman, Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Philanthropy, Harvard University, and former CEO of Outward Bound

"The book provides wonderful case studies, strong insights, and solid frameworks that I plan to use in my own nonprofit course next year." -Marc Lindenberg, dean and professor, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington, and former senior vice president of CARE

"A very timely book of landmark collaborations between nonprofits and businesses set within conceptual frameworks that provide both academics and practitioners guidance on how to make alliances better." -Alan R. Andreasen, professor of marketing, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, and author of Marketing Social Change

From the Inside Flap
Presented by The Drucker FoundationIn these complex times, when no organization can succeed on its own, nonprofits and businesses are embracing collaboration for mutual benefits. Nonprofits are partnering with businesses to further their missions, develop resources, strengthen programs, and thrive in today's competitive world. Companies are discovering that alliances with nonprofits generate significant rewards: increasing customer preference, improving employee recruitment and morale, promoting brand identity, strengthening corporate culture, building good will, and testing innovations.In this timely and insightful book, James E. Austin demonstrates how to establish and manage strategic alliances that are effective and mutually beneficial. He provides a practical framework for understanding how traditional philanthropic relationships can be transformed into powerful strategic alliances. Insights and lessons are drawn from the experiences of over fifteen collaborations, including Timberland and City Year; Starbucks and CARE; Georgia-Pacific and The Nature Conservancy; MCI WorldCom and The National Geographic Society; Reebok and Amnesty International; and Hewlett-Packard and the National Science Resources Center.Austin reveals the traits and keys for success these distinctive alliances hold in common. From his analysis, nonprofit and business leaders will learn how to:- Find and connect with high-potential partners- Ensure strategic fit with a partner's mission and values- Generate greater value for each partner and society- Manage the partnering relationship effectivelyPerceptive, powerful, and practical, The Collaboration Challenge offers valuable insights on the process of creating and sustaining successful strategic partnerships between nonprofits and businesses.

Customer Reviews

Well written and practical.
This is timely management book should be read by all those interested in leading, or advocating, a strategic alliance between a business and a non-profit, or by those who are already involved in such an alliance.

The issues covered by the book are very topical. Strategic alliances have become increasingly important to organizational survival. In addition, some organizations, including businesses, recognize that, for the long haul, they need to be in closer harmony with deeper aspirations of their customers, employees and shareholders. Others oppose such approaches as a dangerous temptation to fuzzy thinking and conflicted agendas. Yet others view the non-economic motives of their constituents as only relevant to marketing campaigns or high-minded mission statements.

This practical book addresses these opportunities and challenges systematically and with insight. It doesn't push quick fixes or high-risk strategies, but rather presents processes and analytical frameworks that support sequential acts of collaboration.

The author is a good teacher and effectively uses case studies to support his recommendations. His approach is practical and recognizes the reality that every relationship involves an exchange of value. His emphasis is on having clear agendas and then searching together for common outcomes built around relative strengths.

Good to start your mind thikning, lots of reading, but not ground breaking
Issue of non profit organizations and business partnership is discussed from perspective of what strategies and knowledge is necessary to achieve effective collaboration. Author leads through stages of developing this collaborative partnership and provides tools to measure both success and its potential.

I wish author would include more material on collaboration for companies from similar industry. In order to get a broader understanding of other type of partnerships, one chapter about that would have been a good idea to include in the next book revisions.

Prize Winning Book
At the Independent Sector's annual meeting in Atlanta on November 6, Professor James Austin of the Harvard Business School's Initiative on Social Enterprise was awarded one of The Virginia A. Hodgkinson Research Prizes for 2001for his book The Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed Through Strategic Alliances. The two Prizes recognize outstanding published research that furthers understanding of philanthropy, voluntary action, nonprofits, and civil society in the United States and abroad. The Prize Selection Committee is comprised of five senior academic researchers and practitioners and is chaired by Professor Howard Tuckman, Dean of the Business School at Rutgers University. The prize is named in honor of Virginia Ann Hodgkinson, who is renowned worldwide as a driving force behind the development of research on the nonprofit sector and voluntary action.