The last decade has been a decade of change in how companies manage their resources, obtain funding, and do business. This change has been fueled by: the Internet, innovation, competition, available human resources, market conditions and the capital required to build a business. Strategic alliances have become the vehicle of choice for supporting this change.

Today’s businesses are wholeheartedly embracing strategic alliances. Indeed, 80% of businesses surveyed viewed alliances as a means to:

• Rapidly gain new strategic capabilities and advantages in the marketplace.
• Reduce the investment cash and ongoing operating expenses normally required to increase revenue and profits.
• Create less dilution and debt, thus more owner value.

Larger corporations are adding alliance specialists to their staff as a key organizational function. An Internet business grows it’s revenue faster when joint ventures are formed. These two trends give credibility to the strategic alliance as a superior business strategy. Read the rest of this entry »

Strategic marketing partnerships are some of the most powerful ways to build profit windfalls into any business while insulating your company against long-term business risks like market changes, value chain disruptions, disruptive technologies and business model erosion.

Below I have listed 7 important questions you should ask about a potential strategic marketing partner before you approach them.

1. How large is the size of their client database?

Depending on what your company has to offer, a partner company with a large client database that needs your product or service could act as a powerful lead generation engine for your business. Read the rest of this entry »