just back from a talk by the head of the BMW technology office in palo alto. they are in an interesting situation as their company’s liason to silicon valley–kind of like we are stanford communications’ liason to students. they listed off a number of strategies to successfully transfer this knowledge and also ways to make sure it was used:

-involve partners early
-provide ongoing support
-let the partner be part of the success; give them ownership of at least 20% of the project
-use communication BESIDES email
-confirm all verbal agreements with written followups
-remember people’s different priority levels for the project