A DAY IN THE LIFE OF DAVE MCCAMEY
Procter & Gamble's Dave McCamey likens part of his role as Associate Director of Global Alliance Management to that of a pre-marriage counselor, where he works with partners "to prevent problems before they happen, rather than try to fix them afterward," he says.
Unlike a pre-marriage counselor, though, McCamey sticks with the partnerships long after the 'vows' are inked, acting as a neutral third party to facilitate discussions, measuring success in real numbers, developing training tools to support alliances, and coaching P&G colleagues with their alliance management skills.
McCamey was originally trained as an analytical chemist for P&G's food and beverage business. His move into the company's upstream R&D healthcare division eventually led to a special assignment in R&D organizational design and effectiveness. It's lucky for P&G that he retooled his career following that assignment, honing skills in areas like team effectiveness, organizational assessment and design, systemic improvement, and executive coaching.
McCamey's career change yielded important benefits for P&G's partnership program going forward. He developed a portfolio of tools, which everyone involved with an alliance at P&G uses to help prevent problems and improve alliance effectiveness. He also developed and implemented an alliance effectiveness training curriculum. Unlike some other pharmaceutical companies, P&G doesn't have a stand-alone alliance management department. "We distribute that knowledge and grow it across all functions in P&G," he says.
But McCamey admits, "Mind-set trumps tools." By that he means if you focus too early and too much on tools and best approaches instead of focusing on your partner's needs to develop a win/win mind-set, then the best tools in the world won't help an alliance.
WHAT OTHER LESSONS HAS P&G LEARNED?
Partners must identify and develop their synergies, he says, and P&G has learned over time that trust is a vital component of that equation.
Building trust isn't easy. You need to be seen positive in four dimensions, says McCamey. "You must be seen as competent in your area of interest (do your homework, assign the right people to the right task), reliable (deliver what you say you'll deliver), open and honest (be transparent about your interests), and respectful and caring about your working relationship."
P&G has learned a lot from its partnerships during the last decade, including what it's like to be the smaller of the two players - starting with its Actonel alliance. P&G Pharma was still pretty young in 1997 when it partnered with Hoechst Marion Roussel (which, after several mergers, is now sanofi-aventis). McCamey says, "We've sat in the smaller company's shoes, so we can anticipate and address many concerns of a smaller company."
Together, they went on to make Actonel a huge success story. "Now we are celebrating the 10th year of our partnership," McCamey adds. "I'm particularly proud that we were able to maintain very strong ties with our partner through their three merger experiences."
It appears that with a strong enough foundation, the honeymoon never needs to end.
