As we enter 2008, businesses face mounting uncertainty. Political tensions, shifting economic power, threats to the financial system … it is tough to predict how the world will look a year from now. These issues add to (and to some extent result from) the underlying changes still being driven by the networked world. An era of cheap and easy communication is transforming how, where, when and with whom we do business.

While periods of rapid and unpredictable change may seem threatening to many, they also represent tremendous opportunity. Some will simply prove lucky - but others will focus on the key issues and attributes necessary to ensure their survival.  As highlighted by a recent article in the Financial Times, true leaders view risky conditions as a time when their competitors are likely to stumble - and therefore times when they can create some real advantage. That same belief should also influence the attitudes and behaviors of individual employees who want to not just weather the storm, but emerge with their status stronger and their career plan intact.

In this spirit, IACCM will continue to focus not only on the issues confronting the leaders in sourcing, sales contracting and legal groups, but also in identifying practical and innovative solutions. Our planning and strategy meeting with the new Board of Directors will focus on strengthening the standards that we already offer to our members - and on introducing new initiatives for our rapidly expanding worldwide community. 2008 will be another year of tremendous growth for our community - and for the services we are able to offer.

In addition to the regular updates on the website, you can also follow some of the key trends - and comment upon them - at our new blog, Commitment Matters. The introductory articles focus on Globalization and Networking. In coming days, articles will feature Risk, Innovation and Talent. Each commentary suggests ways that leaders and professionals can not only 'manage uncertainty', but also take advantage of the opportunities presented by today's business environment.

IACCM Americas 2008 will focus on the role of our community in delivering competitive advantage through commercial leadership and innovation. "Collaborate to Innovate" is about using and expanding our skills, resources and methods to enable high-performance relationships - whether with co-workers, customers, competitors, suppliers or partners - in order to deliver against key corporate goals:

• Reputation
• Trust
• Profitability and growth
• Excellence in execution

Those charged with contracting and negotiation have a critical role in establishing the framework for successful business offerings and relationships. But most of us have learned our behaviours in a competitive culture of winners and losers, where trust often gives way to the need for protection. As a result, many of the terms and conditions we use, the way we approach negotiation, the methods for post-award contract management result in perceptions of bureaucracy, confrontation and risk aversion.

In this environment, collaboration is usually hard to achieve. Yet without collaboration, implementation will always suffer and 'innovation' becomes a source of risk. In the words of John Mahoney, CFO at Staples "A fear of failure is the surest way to stifle new ideas".

Today's complex, fast-moving, global economy demands new sources of commercial innovation and creates fresh horizons for those in Contract Management, Sourcing and Legal. As we rise to this challenge, we must collaborate to develop ideas and methods that raise our value and contribution. This includes creating better understanding of the economic impact of contract terms and structures; a greater focus on 'ease of doing business' (waste elimination); an appreciation that both buyers and sellers must make their company one that is 'attractive to do business with' - open, honest, committed to mutual success, and operating with competence and integrity.

While technology makes information sharing so much easier, collaboration and innovation still depend upon the intentions and attitudes of those who do the sharing. The new leadership challenge is to bring real collaboration to an increasingly virtual world.

Contracting practices and the approach to negotiation can frustrate broader business goals and strategies - especially innovation. That was the conclusion in a recent article "Is innovative outsourcing a pipe-dream?" featured in CIO magazine (and will be the subject of a discussion with Les Mara, EMEA head of outsourcing at Hewlett-Packard, on an IACCM Ask The Expert call on January 10th). Reinforcing that article, this short case study provides an example from the telecoms industry of the dangers that flow from risk-averse and inflexible standards. Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that similar behaviors permeate many other industry sectors - and this is therefore an area rich with opportunity for forward-thinking IACCM members.

Recent conversations with a variety of companies in the telecoms supply chain suggest that the industry would benefit from re-thinking its approaches to contracting and relationship management. At present, the major telcos appear to be taking an uncompromising view in their allocation of risk through onerous liabilty and indemnity terms. It has become common practice for their suppliers to then package these terms and pass them down the supply chain.

At the end of the supply chain there are typically a number of small companies - often highly innovative, but lacking substantial resources. Even if they accept the onerous terms being imposed from above, that acceptance has no value since they do not have the assets to support it. So their customers find themselves with a dilemma. Do they focus on innovation, or instead 'play it safe' and limit their risk? Even more to the point, do they offer different products and services to their customers, based on the contractual behaviors of that customer? For example, if US companies demand onerous terms, but Asian customers do not, then do they restrict the innovative (higher risk) products to the Asian customer base?

"In our BlackBerry culture, a day late is, by definition, a dollar short. More and more clients seem to expect a response to an e-mail or a voicemail within an hour. Twenty-four/seven availability is assumed, and many view turning the BlackBerry off, even during religious observances, weddings and funerals, as professional sacrilege." Writing on Special to Law.com, law firm Managing Partner Gregory S. Gallopoulos highlighted the dangers of these instant demands - and some ways to counter them. IACCM has added to those observations with ideas about the wider implications of an 'on-demand' culture.

Before setting out those recommendations (which make good sense), it is perhaps important to make the point that the Blackberry (or more appropriately, the 'on-demand') culture will not go away. Networked technology has created a de-facto expectation for speed - and it is now a core competitive differentiator. So rather than resist, we must instead tune-up our systems and re-engineer our capabilities. This applies at both the functional and organizational level. So what should you do?

Since investment in extra resources is not likely to be a solution, there are at least three ways you need to be thinking about future service delivery. They are the methods typical to areas like software support. But before you begin, you need to understand what services you are providing and what types of questions and demands you are answering. The key goal is to eliminate low value work (the equivalent of 'commodities'); to handle repeat activity ('mass-customized') through low cost resource; and to free up your experts and top performers for the innovative, groundbreaking assignments ('first of a kind').

Many organizations do not have the data to know what they do, or how frequently they do it. If you are one of those, you need to get moving - and start by collecting your best estimates. If you meet resistance from your senior professionals ('everything I do is unique and / or high value'), then it is time to fire them. They are clearly not suited to the Blackberry culture and should be working for a competitor.

Once your work is categorized, you have three steps to take:

1. Automate. As far as possible, create on-demand databases with the answers to the regular and repetitive questions. Make this available to your internal customers - Sales, Business Units, Finance etc. - so that they can benefit from 'self-service'. It streamlines their work, makes your company more responsive, reinforces use of standards - and takes your team off low-value, disruptive work. Because this stuff is boring, it often suffers from long delays - and creates much of the negative image for your function.
2. Create a Help Desk. This is really so obvious. What company today does not operate help desks? Yet somehow most contracts groups feel this is impossible to achieve for their services. They claim that every situation demands individual judgment - and only by seasoned practitioners. This approach cannot be defended. We don't have a monopoly on complex work and if we cannot identify replication, it really does raise questions over the quality of the judgment we claim to be making. It certainly means we cannot be deemed 'a profession' because by nature, a profession has a body of knowledge that can be taught to others. So push past these objections. Hire graduates or employ an outsourcer. Move work offshore and create call centers. They will soon identify patterns for you; they will help you continue to populate and update your automated databases. Of course, they must be supported by higher level and more experienced experts - but many fewer of them.
3. Deploy Specialists. Your third level support consists of the true experts who are now focused on the high value and innovative work that gains executive attention and potentially makes your name as a group and as a manager. In truth, this represents only some 5 - 10% of the volume of requests coming to your team; but it may be as much as 35 - 40% of the workload - and 90% of the perceived value! And in truth, everyone understands that these level 3 issues are not 'instant answer' items - thought they do expect rapid acknowledgement of receipt and an estimate of when they will hear back from you.

In truth, the Blackberry culture may have exaggerated issues of timing and responsiveness - but groups that suffer most are typically those which provide poor service in the first place. If you are seen as difficult to work with or adding little value, the natural tendency is for clients to contact you late (if at all). So the problem of delay becomes self-reinforcing.

So if re-engineering is the real solution to our 'on-demand' business culture, what are the short-term steps that Mr Gallopoulos advocated in his article and which should certainly also form part of your thinking?

Show respect. In a world of instantaneous communication, failure to respond offends in large part because it suggests a lack of respect. To demonstrate respect, an immediate response may be required, but an immediate ill-considered answer isn't. Try instead an immediate response to the effect that you understand the importance of the problem and will, therefore, give it the time and attention that it warrants.

Reduce anxiety. The BlackBerry Culture takes the Age of Anxiety to a new level. For a surprising number of clients, every second that elapses from the time he or she hits "send" to the time a response appears in the inbox creates stomach-churning tension. The best way to deal with this is to lay out a response plan. When significant time is required to develop a reasoned and thoughtful response, establish and follow "just checking in" milestones. This will create a framework for and a palpable sense of progress, which in turn will help to keep anxiety at bay.

Explain the importance of good judgment. Take the time to educate your clients about your philosophy regarding the practice of law including how the cultivation and application of judgment forms an integral part of professional excellence. Frankly acknowledge the tension with the BlackBerry culture. Discuss the implications for conveying respect and controlling anxiety.

And in his conclusion, Mr Gallopoulos makes the following observation: "Of course, however worthwhile this process of forming and applying good judgment may be in theory, the client will judge by results. Having taken the time required for good judgment, the value of that judgment must be made manifest. While substance matters most, presentation is not irrelevant: Make sure that your long-awaited response is coherent, pithy and compelling. In the sense of creating heightened expectations, renouncing the BlackBerry culture only increases the pressure. But at least the pressure for excellence tends to produce something worth having, while succumbing to the pressure for an arbitrarily quick response tends to produce nothing more than BlackBerry mania."

• Nike, for example, performs surprise inspections to make sure its global manufacturers meet worldwide standards.
• Carrefour worldsources fresh produce by training its supplier-farmers around the world in the use of safe pesticides.
• McDonald's creates closed, proprietary supply chains on a global basis to assure product quality.
• BT has developed a "scouting" process with staff deployed around the world from bases in Israel, Japan, Korea, the U.S., Hong Kong and Taiwan to search for the best new technology to use in its products.

William J. Amelio is the President and CEO of Lenovo, a global PC company with research, manufacturing, sales, and marketing operations on six continents.