Introduction

Throughout the business world today, the competitive landscape is rapidly changing. Innovation, new value-creating propositions, blurring industry boundaries, and intensifying competition on a global scale are all driving businesses to form new connections and alliances at an unprecedented rate. The digital revolution that has engulfed us and profoundly changed our lives in unimaginable ways has been greatly facilitated by this alliance revolution that has fundamentally changed the way companies acquire resources, build capabilities, develop core competencies, and seek ways to create, build and sustain their competitive advantage. The alliance revolution that is presently sweeping the global economic landscape involves companies creating "value webs" that integrate specialized resources, specialized capabilities and specialized competencies, to develop new rules, new ideas, new markets, and offer fundamentally new value propositions. These connections have led to the emergence of the network economy, profoundly impacting businesses in the process. If anything, success in the new millennium will be greatly dependent on your firm's ability to formulate and implement at all levels strategies for developing and leveraging a wide array of alliances …