Business Alliance

Recent news concerning IT industry strategic alliances increasingly trumpets the
word “unique” as in ‘unique alliance’ or ‘unique partnership’. Usually these unique
arrangements bring together a marketer (either a system integrator or a service
provider) with a solid footprint in a niche market and a technology developer or
manufacturer with an innovative or proprietary capability.

This type of alliance transfers to the marketer a unique technological edge. The
marketer’s objective in many such cases is to keep competitors at bay, grow market
share or create enough performance value to justify a higher price. For the
developer partner, aligning with the marketer provides a significantly extended
market reach that simply translates into the sale of an increased number of units as
well as a branding leap into greater market visibility. Read the rest of this entry »

To succeed in today’s business environment sometimes takes human, technical or financial resources beyond the scope of your reach.

- You may be trying to access new technology.
- You may be trying to leverage your own technology or know-how.
- You may be trying to enter a new market or possibly considering going global.
- You already may be in the early stages of forming an alliance or you may have been in an alliance for years.

During the last twenty years of my career, I successfully brought to fruition a variety of licensing arrangements and joint ventures around the world. More specifically, 55 alliances in more than a dozen countries, and the one thing I’ve taken away from each of them is that there is one constant: change! Read the rest of this entry »

…More Like Serious Dating… with a Prenup

“What kind of team building can we do to get both sides of our Alliance working better together?” “How can we get them to trust us more?” “As partners, shouldn’t we be looking at the balance between risk and reward equally?”

These are just a few of the questions I’ve been asked in recent months. The answers, in my not to be popular opinion, are clear, succinct, and a wee bit blunt. Hang in there though. The recommendations that follow can make this pill easier to swallow.

This is Part 4 of a 4-part series

Step 10. Speed Up Communication

This does not suggest you should just talk faster. Laurence Haughton, author of It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small… It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow makes the case for moving faster when it comes to decision making and subsequent communication and execution.

First, when considering communication ramp-up, think about whether or not you have the right people in the right place at the right time. Often in alliances, milestones run the risk of being delayed or missed because the wrong people attend decision making meetings (See Step 6). If meetings are held, but no decision makers are present, then what’s the point?

Secondly, most folks have yet to identify a way with which to organize the vast piles of electronic documentation and information being sent to them. “What attachment? No… I didn’t get it… must be the firewall.” “Oh yeah, I think you sent something, but I didn’t know you wanted me to respond to it.” “Why didn’t you copy me in on the meeting minutes? I’ll need to look that over before I can respond to you.” Read the rest of this entry »