Cross-organisational Collaboration - Are you delivering maximal value?

For years now, I have been helping teams and organisations to collaborate better - either within teams or across teams; either within larger organisations or beyond company borders. Enabling these teams to give their best.

When did I start with this topic? The first time I dived into this theme was with my master thesis. At that time I was comparing and evaluating various forms of how companies collaborate. After a (very!) long time I have read my thesis again and was surprised and amused how accurate the content is today.

Let me share the opening quote (written in 1997; translated from German): 
"​After the golden eighties, the companies of the nineties face increased competition. Trade barriers have fallen and are causing a global opening of markets. Asian competitors are increasingly selling their products in Europe, where they have great price advantages thanks to the lower wage level of their production locations. For this reason, many European companies are also relocating their production to Southeast Asia. On the other hand, huge sales markets are opening up for companies from all industries. Furthermore, revolutionary product and information technologies are changing society and business life. Ever shorter product and technology life cycles are also challenging any organisation."
That was a very close description of what has happened in the next 20 years; and the shift in production, the new markets, the speed in businesses are changing, and how society has been transformed are beyond any imagination we had in the nineties. Amazing to look back; amazing to see what we have achieved.

Beyond that, it is also interesting to re-read the evaluation framework and the tremendous improvement potential we have when comparing joint ventures and franchising (arguably the most common forms of cross-organisational collaboration) to alternative forms of creating network organisations. Though, more to that later.

Which elements do you contribute to success in cross-organisational collaboration?