Section Twoestablishing the network. Project management experience
across functional areas may help develop the kinds of skills
needed. Additionally, the internal entrepreneurship approaches
of firms such as Texas Instruments may also develop the
entrepreneurial skills needed to establish networks. Further,
because the establishment and operation of networks require
contracting skills, managers of construction engineering and
negotiators may prove to be good sources of network
operators. As these skills indicate, while network lead
companies and brokers have fewer permanent employees than
more conventional companies, they will have to invest heavily
in the training of their permanent core of very highly skilled
employees.^88
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING
As noted earlier, one of the problems of international alliances
is that one partner may learn more and benefit more from the
alliance than its partner. Companies sometimes become
deskilled as a result of the alliance. This has been a problem for
U.S. companies, particularly in alliances with Japanese and
Korean companies. The problem is especially important
because competitive advantage is increasingly being obtained
from the invisible assets of organizational knowledge and infor-
mation.^89 This knowledge or know-how is also referred to as