Collaborative Priority Management

The collaborative network priority management is an important process that must be actively managed in order to ensure the objectives are prioritized and executed based on the network priorities.  This being said though there is one network member that must always take precedence in the prioritization process and that is the consumer members.  Process based management of the priorities and objectives delivery will ensure that the objectives are executed and delivered in a manner that is fair to all members.  This is a critically important aspect to the retention and growth of the network members.  This must be treated as one of the key tenets of the collaborative network principles.

Above all else the collaborative network must act in fairness to all members and this includes the priority management.  Priority management should be a very straightforward process that identifies and reviews the requests and objectives submitted, or requested, from members and and then provide a forum to allow the members to present their case for execution of the request.  This forum provides the members an outlet to hear other members’ requests and objectives while presenting their own.  All of the requests, both new and outstanding unstarted requests, can then be compared and the members must then agree to priorities, sequences and relationships.  As you can imagine this process must be performed in a virtual meeting in which the members attend real-time.  The value of this process is realized from the review session and real time priority discussions.  The priorities must be reviewed and agreed by the members attending the review session to ensure acceptance by the members.  It is also critical to the success of this program that the benefits are also reviewed and agreed by the members.  

This priority provides all network members the opportunity to state their case for their individual requests and, most importantly, to agree the priorities assigned for all requests.  This collaborative approach to request prioritization ensures that all members have the opportunity to participate and fairly state their case.  Believe it or not, during this seemingly simple process the member participants will come to focus on defining the priorities that benefit the network rather than their own requests when they see that all the members act honestly and fairly when reviewing the priorities.  I have implemented this process in many situations and have found that participants act in fairness based on their requests being treated fairly based on the benefits delivered by the individual requests.  When provided with an open and fair forum to prioritize requests based on the benefits and the members have the opportunity to present and challenge requests based on their merits and benefits the members will participate in a manner that is most beneficial to the network.  I think you will find that the participants in this process police and maintain the fairness in the process themselves without the need for on overseer.

And now for the audience participation portion of the show…

ECommerce will have wide ranging impacts on both the retail and manufacturing sectors.  How can you focus these abilities to improve the consumer's experience?  Improving the consumer’s experience will require a re-evaluation of the sales channels, the manufacturing channels and practices and the supply chain channels and practices from the raw materials to the consumers’ homes.  In order to ensure and maintain success in this new reality you must harness the tools and capabilities in many new areas.  How can you support these continuously changing requirements?