About The Rhythm of Business
The Rhythm of Business is a professional services firm with core expertise in alliance management and business collaboration. For nearly 25 years, we have worked with partnering and alliance management leaders, business unit heads, and organizational development executives to understand how to make alliances successful. We take what is complex and contextual and make it relatable and actionable.
Our mission is to help people partner well. It is the only way to solve big problems and produce big results. Alliances and collaboration are conceptually simple and operationally very challenging. Successfully practicing alliance management is how to partner well.
Our Specialty
Two-thirds of the Top 20 biopharmaceutical companies and many of the leading research institutes and innovative biotechs turn to us to help make their collaborations successful.
We’re expert practitioners of collaborative ways of working. Collaboration is one of the most misunderstood and overused concepts in business today. There are many perspectives on what it is, ranging from the simplistic — working with other people to produce an outcome — to the complexity of the latest technical platform that allows data and documents to be shared. It is treated as a value, a skill, and even an event. In fact, it is a behavior — a strategic, purposeful way of working that produces mutual benefit for all concerned.
An organizational ability to collaborate has been found to be highly correlated with market performance. The key questions for leaders implementing strategies that hinge on partnerships and alliances with external parties are, “How to define collaboration as a behavior?” and “How to build it as an organizational capability…and advantage?”
The Rhythm of Business is your guide.
We’re passionate about empowering your partnering and collaboration success through our consulting, training, digitization, and assessment services. Understanding your business needs, we chart your roadmap to build the mindset, skillset, and toolset to drive customer, stakeholder, and partner value.
Thought Leadership
The Joint Steering Committee as a Beacon of Collaborative Leadership
We make what we’ve learned freely available. As leaders in the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) we’ve contributed to its handbooks and certification programs, considered by many as the “bible” of alliance management.
We’re regular contributors to Strategic Alliance Quarterly, ASAP’s journal. Jan Twombly helped start it in 2011, has provided guidance on every issue, and is currently chair of the ASAP Board’s Editorial Committee. Our articles have also appeared in numerous trade publications, academic journals, and general business publications. We also create specific publications requested by clients to communicate the intent to develop an alliance management capability and educate their organizations to partner well.
We regularly speak at ASAP’s signature conferences, frequently offering Master Classes, which are abbreviated versions of the training we deliver to companies. We advise on content development and present at the annual Strategic Alliance Management Congress. We also speak at a number of other venues, including project management, strategy events, and industry specific conferences.
Our keynote presentations are also welcomed at corporate events such as annual departmental
planning meetings, talent development events, and alliance kickoff meetings.
Short posts, white papers and other media under the banner of The Partnering Guide™ share our most recent thinking.
Leadership Team
Jan Twombly, CSAP
President
Jan Twombly is a leading expert in alliance execution effectiveness and a trusted advisor to alliance management leaders across the life sciences. As cofounder and president of The Rhythm of Business, she helps organizations realize the value of their partnerships by strengthening how decisions are made, how teams stay aligned, and how work moves forward across company lines. Her work spans all aspects of partnering—from building enterprise capability, to advancing the discipline of alliance management, to optimizing the performance of individual alliances.
Jan works closely with vice presidents of strategic alliance management, corporate development, and senior research and development and commercial leaders to strengthen alliance execution effectiveness across the enterprise. Her work includes developing enterprise capability building programs, designing and delivering immersive scenario based education for alliance professionals, governance members, and alliance operating teams. She also implements proprietary diagnostics that assess execution effectiveness, portfolio value, and partnering capability, suggesting corrective action and development paths. These diagnostics give leaders a clear picture of what’s working and what needs to change – and prioritize concise and impactful actions to resolve friction and accelerate progress.
A recognized thought leader, Jan is an author, keynote speaker, and long serving Board Director of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP). She has co authored numerous white papers and The Partnering Guide blog with The Rhythm of Business cofounder and business partner Jeff Shuman, PhD, CSAP. Their work has appeared in respected publications including Drug Discovery Today and Strategic Alliance Quarterly. She has also played a central role in shaping the profession of alliance management—developing conference programs, providing editorial guidance and contributing to standards and practices. She currently serves on ASAP’s finance committee and chairs its governance committee.
Leaders turn to Jan when they need clarity, practical solutions, and a partner who understands both the strategic intent and the day to day realities of alliance execution. Her work helps alliance management leaders build the capability, expertise, and ways of working their organizations need to ensure partnerships deliver their intended value.
Jeffrey C. Shuman CSAP, PhD
Co-Founder
Jeff is an educator and trusted advisor to executives who are building, leading, and managing alliances and partner networks. His mix of operational, consulting, research and classroom experiences allow him to blend the theoretical with the practical, providing useful, easily implementable and repeatable advice.
At The Rhythm of Business he partners with global companies in multiple industries to advance their alliance and collaboration management capability. Consulting engagements focus on driving results through enabling all functions of the business to work effectively with their partners throughout the lifecycle. He works with senior executive teams to shape partnering strategy, enable operational and organization readiness, and implement overarching governance. Partnering professionals benefit from his ability to quickly diagnose underperforming alliances, and accelerate the path to profitability. Customized education and training bring alliance and collaboration skills to all who interact with partners.
Believing that one can’t teach without experience, he’s founded or been part of the founding team of five companies across multiple industries—including a computer company that was the first to build an alliance with Microsoft to distribute Windows 3.0 through an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) environment. All of his companies have had partnering as a core strategy and organizing principle of the business.
Jeff has been a member of Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) since 2002. He was involved on the teams that developed the Certificate of Achievement – Alliance Management (CA-AM) certification and the CSAP certification and contributed to the Handbook of Alliance Management. He frequently presents at ASAP and other organizations’ conferences and events. Together with business partner Jan Twombly, he has a rich history of developing and publishing strategic and practical thinking that advances the art and science of partnering and alliance management.
Partners and Professional Associations
Allianceboard
Purpose-built software for alliance leaders to organize and grow their alliance ecosystems with their partners at the center.
Alliancesphere
Our partner specializing in last mile execution in information technology alliances drives efficient growth by helping you plan and execute winning results with your partner ecosystems.
ASAP
A nonprofit, global membership organization for partnering professionals in all industries.
Get In Touch
Call
+1 617 965 4777
Address
656 Ocean Ave Unit 726
Revere, MA 02151 USA