There are 10 really critical foundations to make a Virtual Enterprise Network a success: 1) Communities and Project Dynamic, 2) Network Ground Rules, 3) Group Membership Structures, 4) Practical Group Structures, 5) Complete set of Network Roles, 6) Appropriate Legal Frameworks, 7) Practical Exchange Model, 8) Viable Stakeholder Ecosystem, 9) Realistic Network Development Model, 10) Proven Development Road Map. This article offers an introduction to these ten foundations.

A unique reference card for printing on 2-sided A4 (Landscape) which folds into 6 sections showing the key priorities and resources in developing The Networked Enterprise through its 7 maturity stages with the 8 key techniques and their checklists. A must-have for all group collaboration coaches, leaders and practitioners!

A few years back I developed a simulation to expose key dilemmas in the incubation stage of Virtual Enterprise Networks. I used a powerful simulation-building tool called ithink from Isee, the newest version of which now allows deployment of simulations over the web. So I just republished the VEN simulation for free on www.bioteams.com.

Bizeazia have pulled together a number of my articles on Virtual Business Networks from www.bioteams.com into a neat 10-page guide within their Online Business Library of 700 articles. You can download it free here.

Alex Lin (CEO of ChinaValue Business New Media) has just conducted a major interview with me (Ken Thompson) where we explore in detail the concept of The Networked Enterprise for Chinavalue.net. Here are the full interviews in both English and Chinese.

I would just like to thank the many people who expressed their interest so enthusiastically in The Bioteams Practitioners Network and to let everyone know I have their contact details and will arrange a time to talk before the planned launch in the New Year. Also if you missed it here is the link to the original post. Best Regards Ken Thompson

Since publishing the Bioteams book it has become very clear that there are a small number of defining characteristics of a bioteam. For best results you should ensure that bioteams is right for your particular team / group / community challenge. Here is how to check!

My new book THE NETWORKED ENTERPRISE contains over 30 diagrams and charts which provide detailed Blueprints, Roadmaps, Worksheets and Techniques for creating successful Virtual Enterprise Networks. In a free downloadable 30-page PDF, produced in response to reader requests, I have put together a book overview plus about 20 of the book's key diagrams in full A4 page format to assist network facilitators, coaches and leaders.

In How To Innovate And Create New Business Opportunities When You Are A Small Fish: Here Comes The VEN, Robin Good and Ken Thompson argue that when you are a small fish, it may appear pretty difficult, if not altogether out of your reach, to be able to "network up" with other small firms to provide higher value services to major clients. But is it a real physical limitation or is it just that small companies lack a proven and effective business collaboration model - The Virtual Enterprise Network (VEN)?

Many networks and communities seem to require constant attention from the leaders or facilitators. Its always the same old people who seem to do all the work. Take away the leader, perhaps because the funding runs out, and the community just withers and dies - sometimes within a matter of weeks. Often this happens because the network has not cultivated the 3 critical dialogues in a community: taking care of business, grooming and emoting. These dialogs must take occur across the 3 key network encounters: one-one, one-many and many-many. Heres how you can make your networks and communities less fragile!

For a manager, whose only background is traditional monolithic enterprises, being put in charge of a virtual business network or a collaborative supply chain is like a fixed wing pilot trying to fly a helicopter without any training. With the extra degree of freedom and the lack of inherent stability involved there is only going to be one outcome unless that leader spends some time on a network simulator first. Here is a chance to build-up some solid flight training hours before you take-off in the real thing!

Ken Thompson, author of Bioteams and The Networked Enterprise, gives a 25 minute introduction to bioteams and describes how it can be applied to make social networks, fan groups, virtual communities and business networks more agile, intimate, satisfying and sustainable. The presentation also addresses todays big question - "How do you get engagement in a large group?"

As 9 out of 10 networks fail, including social networks, virtual communities and business clusters, I decided to start developing some “Sustainable Network Model” techniques to predict if a network has the necessary ingredients before huge amounts of effort are expended in vain.

Leading a virtual business network requires different skills than leading a traditional team. Many of these skills are unfortunately very counter-intuitive due to the living, evolving nature of such networks. Discovering this 'on the job' is almost as crazy as training airline pilots without using flight simulators!

In a new book, From Global to MetaNational, Strategy experts and Insead Professors, Yvez Doz, José Santos and Peter Williamson argue that the future form of successful global enterprise has now changed from the multinational to the metanational.

Here is a collection of my 7 most popular articles on collaborative and virtual business networks based on user feedback and page views:

Andrew Faughy, General Manager and Director of VEN Operations Ltd, gives an excellent video lecture ‘VEN: The Story so Far’ at the ICE Conference (Milan 2006) on the Virtual Enterprise Network concept in practice in Yorkshire in the UK involving nearly 400 small businesses.

I recently presented "Virtual Enterprise Networks - A proven network partnering model for SMEs" at the 14th National Quality Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Heres the full presentation.

Harvard Professor Marco Iansiti predicts that the future business competition will not be between companies or even supply chains but between networks.

All collaborative business networks are not equal: some are solid networks, some are genuinely trying to get there and some are mere networks of convenience.