Strategic Alliance Magazine Q1 2021 - 58

The Close
Collaborations in Hyperdrive
Maybe Partnering Can't Save the World-but What Else Will?
By Michael J. Burke
Alliances and partnerships may not be the answer to every
problem, but they certainly lead us in some interesting and
mostly positive directions. After the year we've all just been
through-was it really only one year?-it's safe to say we've
learned that more collaboration is needed than ever before to
help us tackle our toughest challenges.

Case in point? Most obvious, and most critical for the
world: the successful COVID-19 vaccines were all the product
of collaborations. Biopharma companies large and small are
used to partnering, of course-but to tackle the coronavirus
they shifted to hyperdrive. Even some of the usual alliance
cautions-about competitive risk, contractual obligations, the
perils of data sharing-were practically thrown to the wind initially in the service of the main goal: getting more people vaccinated and treated faster, bringing us closer to the day when
COVID is in our collective rearview mirror. (And lest we forget,
this was done while still following strict safety protocols; see my
article on clinical trials in this issue.)

And the collaborations around COVID aren't only on
the biopharma side. Did you know that Salesforce has a chief
medical officer? I admit I didn't, but practicing radiologist
Dr. Ashwini Zenooz is spearheading her company's campaign
to help vaccinate 2 billion people against COVID-19 by the end
of 2021 through distribution and scheduling efforts like Work.
com for Vaccines and Vaccine Cloud. Salesforce is working with
governments, private industry, and GAVI, the global alliance on
vaccines, on what Dr. Zenooz called " the largest public health
initiative in US history. " Better make that " world history. "
Public-private partnerships, meanwhile, not only loom
large in the battle against COVID-19, but may help us face
another huge global challenge: climate change.

In a February article in Strategy + Business, two PwC
leaders, Jessica Shannon and Richard Abadie, outlined ways
in which governments, private industry, and NGOs should
accelerate their postpandemic partnering to bring about a
worldwide " green recovery " -a planned economic resurgence
that's environmentally sustainable. They recommended infrastructure investments, government incentives that balance risk
and reward, open data initiatives, and the formation of " flexible
partnerships " that will encourage the reevaluation of programs
and solutions that aren't meeting their goals.

Saying there's " no time to waste, " Shannon and Abadie
drew a line directly from COVID-19 partnering efforts to the
equally important work around climate change: " The race to
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Strategic Alliance QUARTERLY

| Q1 2021

develop a COVID-19 vaccine in the face of the global pandemic
has demonstrated how effectively countries, companies, governments, financiers and citizens can solve seemingly impossible challenges when they work together. Problems related
to climate change are similar in criticality and in the need for
aligned partnerships. "

Pie in the sky? Maybe. Now, who wants more pie?

Make no mistake: none of this will be easy. Partnering
never has been and never will be, as its practitioners all know.
(That's why there are professionals who are trained to do it!) But
it seems like this innovative, " flexible " kind of thinking is what
often emerges from collaborations-and it's what we need most
right now.

After all, to make an alliance work, one party can't afford
to get stuck in the mud of their own culture, mindset, and congealed ways of doing things. They've got to understand the
partner's perspective and find a way to work together, seeking
common ground. As we begin to emerge from the Year of
COVID, it's clear that new ways must be found to come together
around our most urgent challenges. They include the current
pandemic and any future ones, as well as poverty, hunger,
climate change, racism, sexism, and other ills.

Given the example of some celebrated alliance " failures "
and disappointments-such as the recent untimely shutdown of
Haven Healthcare, an attempt by Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon,
and JPMorgan Chase to revolutionize the healthcare space-
solving these seemingly intractable problems becomes an even
more daunting task.

But we've done it before, in large and small ways, and we're
doing it now.

What's been achieved already with COVID-19-though
much remains to be accomplished-is still amazing. Just to use
the biopharma example, there was a burning recognition that,
as Andrea Robinson-Smith of AstraZeneca told me, " We had
to do it. " Or as Knut Sturmhoefel of Novartis acknowledged:
" Very often when you bring two big pharmas together, it takes
months to even align. This wasn't an option here. We jumped in
and said, 'Let's get going.' "

Obviously, we have yet to get beyond COVID, and the
challenges we see right in front of us, as well as those out on
the horizon, are almost too many to count. Could partnering
be the answer?

If not, then what's the alternative? n

Strategic Alliance Magazine Q1 2021

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