Partnering & Alliance Management

Partnering or building Alliances means building common goals (left) that are mutually equitable. Equity is paramount, but does not mean that each party benefits nor participates in the same way or to the same extent. Therefore, when building alliances, benchmarks (left) must be set & measured to ensure each partners satisfaction.

Alliances are far from simple, & require a tremendous amount of mediation between the adjoining parties. Companies often lack the knowledge & skills to determine strategic fit, negotiate win-win agreements, align organizational cultures, and even interface the technologies.

NOTE: This methodology is integrally important & core requisite in any of our Business Development, or even Merger/Acquisition activities.

Methodology

Determine your "Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats" (SWOT)

This is a specific analysis exercise that brings out a companies disciplines, where they excel & where they need help. This will help determine what type (or demographic) companies are best suited to become a partner/ally. Leveraging off your marketing plan, strategic alliance plans provide a roadmap of how your company can work with strategic, R&D & channel partners.

One of the most important results of the SWOT is Alliance Readiness: or determining whether your company is ready to work with partners & understanding what changes you must make in your existing programs.

Target Partners

Identify the right partners to work with to meet your business objectives & review current partner portfolio to determine if you are getting the results your expect from your relationships (see benchmarks, left). The selection criteria for Partners are actually similar to the Mergers & Acquisitions criteria: its the investment that changes.

Partner Approach

Choose the opportune moment & circumstance to approach the target partner & propose said alliance.

Mediation

As the lines of cooperation are being drawn up, each partnering company will have to adapt their focus & workforce to participate in the alliance. Transition Management is often necessary to help "bridge the communication and comprehension gap" between the decision-makers & the technical side of the house.

Contract Governance

As your alliance(s) progress, make sure that contracts are mutually beneficial & are delivering revenue, programs and services via program metrics and dashboards. 

Interim Alliance Management

As your partner program grows or you have temporary staff shortages we can step in to provide experienced alliance management to keep your program and partner relationship on track, as well as manage SLA's.