There are a number of solutions available to support collaborative efforts, both inside organizations as well as between organizations. Rglobe.com, Lotus Connections, Zoho Project, Huddle Workspaces, are a few examples. Do you use such a solution and what is your experience when it comes to supporting your partnerships?
The term strategic alliances covers a wide area of partnerships between organizations, ranging from a joint venture on one end of the spectrum to collaborative supplier relations on the other hand. Next to that alliances may cover areas like product development, go to market (like resellers) and potential other elements. Regardless of it’s form or shape an alliance needs to be managed. However when the spectrum of alliances can be as broad as mentioned the spectrum for the alliance management profession will be equally wide.
Last week I had a great conversation with an alliance professional about this topic, specifically zooming in on the difference between alliance managers managing channel (or reseller) alliance relationships versus alliance managers managing other alliance relationships. Our point of conversation was on the elements where these two types of management differ and hence where different skill sets are required.
I would argue that for an alliance where two companies are creating something new, something innovative, a synergetic alliance, the alliance management skill would require more an entrepreneurial skill set. Maybe even a rare set of skills where an entrepreneurial skill set is to be combined with a diplomatic skill set. On the other hand the alliance manager who is managing channel relationships will be closer to a sales role, requiring a more process oriented sales skill set.
What would your view on this, how would the required skill sets be different, does your organization recognize these different needs?
I’ve done a few posts on the topic of trust because it is so critical in cementing a successful partnership. Trust takes time to build, but it can be destroyed in an instant. We all know how powerful trust is, but what can we do as alliance managers to lay a foundation for trust?
Everything we need to know about building trust we learned in kindergarten:
Lying is bad.
It would seem to go without saying, but being honest with our partners goes a long way in building trust. Sometimes when we have bad news, the tendency we have is to avoid the truth, or worse, shade the truth. The partner wants to focus on the retail sector and your retail sales director wants to work with another partner. Or the partner wants me to kick in $2M to a matching market development fund and my finance guy says we can only do $1M. Or, or or… pick your bad news. I tell the partner the bad news early. I worked with an exec who used to use the phrase “go ugly early” – meaning if you’ve got bad news, get it out of the way early. Nothing builds trust faster than being honest about bad news.
If you bully people, they won’t like you.
Have you ever had to partner with a company that was much larger than yours? Or that had a dominant market position? Did they let you know it? When you throw your weight around without any sensitivity for the needs and concerns of your partner, they’ll feel taken advantage of.
Say you’re sorry when you make a mistake.
Sometimes despite our best efforts, we make a mistake. We forget to engage a key stakeholder. We neglect to inform the partner about an important change in policy or personnel. Or maybe we didn’t actually make a mistake, but our partner feels aggrieved. In either case, a genuine, heartfelt apology will go a long way to restoring or building trust.
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
This is a bit of a corollary to the first rule, but being clear in your communications with the partner is critical. I can recall many a kerfluffle that I unnecessarily caused by being loose with an email or phone conversation.
Some more tactical/practical thoughts on building trust in the next blog post…
Today I ran into this announcement:
Patient Access Solutions, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: PASO), a leading provider of information technology solutions for the healthcare industry announced today a partnership with iMedicor (VMCI 0.03, 0.00, 0.00%) . The partnership will provide a complementary synergy of combined products and services that will enable enhanced information exchange capabilities by integrating the iMedicor portal with Patient Access Solution’s digital pen technology for the home healthcare industry and robust HIPAA transaction processing and reporting platform.
The really nice part of the announcement of the partnership between Patient Access Solutions and iMedicor is the fact that at the time of announcement they are able to announce their first opportunity too. With that showing the need for the alliance and connecting an announcement to the possible success of an alliance.
via Patient Access Solutions, Inc. and iMedicor Form Strategic Alliance – MarketWatch.
Sometimes it looks as if most of the alliances we see being announced are within the ICT or Healthcare & Pharma industries. That is one of the aspects that makes it interesting to highlight this announcement as it is an announcement in a completely different industry: the Oil & Gas industry.
Safekick Americas LLC and Siemens Industry, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a Strategic Alliance Agreement for the supply of ultrasonic flow meters and other instrumentation to be used in an automated oil/gas well control system.
via Safekick and Siemens announce strategic alliance agreement.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — SinoPac Securities yesterday signed a strategic alliance agreement with ICBC International Holdings, a subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. The deal was the first between a Taiwan securities firm and an investment bank with a Chinese background. According to SinoPac, the two firms will collaborate on a wide range of topics including merger and acquisition, underwriting, fundraising, investment advising, and information exchange.
via SinoPac Securities, ICBC form strategic alliance – The China Post.
Strategic alliances provide a means to enter new markets and new channels and they are a vehicle for innovation and R&D. And, by sharing risk and costs with a partner, organizations can explore more opportunities outside their core business. As the global economy stabilizes and begins to recover, the environment is ripe to explore and develop alliances. The Strategic Alliances Conference will give senior alliance and partnership executives the latest insights on challenges and opportunities in managing alliances. Specifically, the conference will focus on:
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