Evolution

Obviously a highly critical part of building a successful Virtual Network is getting an embryonic network set-up for the first time. We call this the Incubation Stage.

The next stage depends on whether the network is ready to attempt collaborative business development (Market Testing) or whether it first needs to undertake some internal projects to develop its capabilities and relationships (Mobilisation). Mobilisation and Market Testing can be conducted in sequence or in parallel - both are results-driven on producing member-facing or market-facing outcomes of real and measurable value.

At this point the virtual enterprise network is in excellent shape for taking on more difficult challenges and growing its membership and skill-sets. The next stage is the Viability Stage and addresses the question "can the Virtual Network recurrently sell its collective offers and can it successfully deliver what it has sold to the customers satisfaction?"

This is followed by the Differentiation Stage which involves building new product/service development as recurrent processes within the network. As with Mobilisation and Market Testing, Viability and Differentiation can be sequential or in parallel.

Finally we need to look at the exit strategy from the "supported phase" of Virtual Network operation into a "self-sustainability" model. This may involve commercialisation (Commercially Phase) and/or using the Virtual Network as regional resource to seed and spawn other networks (Reproduction Phase).