This is the first in a series of Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) playbooks intended to assist companies, higher education institutions, private philanthropies, membership associations, professional societies, government agencies, and other stakeholders seeking to understand the potential value of investing in coordinated strategic, long-term partnerships to increase the persistence of undergraduate students, particularly women and minorities, toward degree attainment and entering the 21st century workplace. BHEF has compiled a set of tools and materials that enables business and higher education to move from transactional engagement--that is, limited to low-touch, piecemeal activities such as on-campus recruiting or research related to business products and services that are often disconnected from undergraduate education--to strategic and long-term partnerships to align undergraduate education with workforce needs. From project launch through implementation, BHEF has developed metrics and processes for planning, launching, and assessing the projects, partnerships, and scaling strategies. This playbook details current regional projects underway in areas such as data science and analytics, cybersecurity, water and energy sciences, materials sciences, and engineering, and it offers best practices for creating and launching other successful collaborative projects. The following are appended: (1) Examples of Business Needs Assessments and Supply Analyses; and (2) Regional Project Summaries.