Alliance Brand: Fulfilling the Promise of Partnering / Edition 1

by Mark Darby

Overview

As pressure continues to build on organisations to achieve more with less, partnering offers tremendous promise as a strategic solution. However, up to 70% of such initiatives fail to meet their objectives. In this book, alliance expert Mark Darby argues that, in the age of the extended enterprise, firms must display a positive reputation and hard results from their alliances in order to attract the best partners and stand out from the growing crowd of potential allies. Building on this, he introduces the Alliance Brand concept, explores its critical success factors, and shows in detail how to apply it in your organisation.


Darby's straightforward advice and comprehensive maps and tools will guide you on the journey to fulfilling the promise of partnering. The results are higher revenues and reduced alliance failure rates, along with lower costs and fewer risks. Alliance brands also have more satisfied staff and partners, and a transparent, audit-friendly process to satisfy increasing governance concerns. This leads to sustainable alliance success, and ultimately 'partner of choice' status in your chosen industries and markets.


That's a compelling return on investment. That's an Alliance Brand.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470032183
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/21/2006
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.07(h) x 1.04(d)

About the Author

Mark Darby is Founder & Principal of ALLIANTIST. ALLIANTIST is an alliance solutions provider that enables organisations to get measurable benefits from their partnering and alliance activity. ALLIANTIST helps clients generate a positive reputation and results from their alliance activity, creating real value from the way they work with internal colleagues, alliance partners, suppliers, distributors, customers, and even competitors. Prior to ALLIANTIST Mark led the UK extended enterprise consulting activity for Deloitte, and before that designed and built Reuters first UK and then global alliance programme. He was also instrumental at The Rank Group over eight years with its alliances, strategic sourcing and supplier relationship management activity. Having operated for nearly twenty years across the value chain as advisor, supplier, customer and partner in working with global and international organisations like HP, Deloitte, Reuters, Cisco, IBM, Siebel, Fujitsu, The Rank Group, BT, the UK Public Sector and many small and medium size enterprises, Mark is well placed to share his experience and make a real difference quickly. 

Mark also has an MBA from the University of Reading where he carried out extensive research on alliances. He is a Member of the Institute of Directors, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply as well as a Member of Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) and ex Board Director of the European branch of ASAP. Mark is also a regular speaker on alliances and has been published in a number of business journals.

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Table of Contents

FOREWORD BY JEFF ALEXANDER, SEEDA xiii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xv

PREFACE xix

PART I USING ALLIANCES TO CREATE VALUE 1

1 HOW VALUE AND ADVANTAGE AFFECT FIRM ACTIVITIES 3

What is value 3

Understanding competitive advantage 6

2 UNDERSTANDING ALLIANCES 13

Alliance ambiguity 13

Defining alliances 14

What alliances are not 16

Assets are what you access 17

Alliances pervade the value chain 18

Alliances have differing values and importance 21

Partners come from various sources 24

Complex relationships 26

3 FORCES DRIVING FOR ALLIANCES 29

Customer demands and industry standards 30

Increasing pace of change with growth and cost pressures 31

Regulation and governance 33

Increasing M&A challenges 35

Capital, size, learning and competitive threat 36

4 WHAT WINNING ALLIANCES LOOK LIKE 39

Alliance spirit 39

Building trust 40

What an organisation that wins with alliances does for success 47

5 FORCES CHALLENGING ALLIANCE SUCCESS 53

Alliance failure rates 53

Other forces challenging success 60

6 ALLIANCE BRAND 67

Reputation in context 67

Brand in context 70

Alliance brand; a timely initiative 72

Examples of alliance brands 76

Getting results, reputation and alliance brand status 80

Does your organisation need an alliance brand? 82

PART I SUMMARY 85

PART II HAVING A CAPABILITY TO PARTNER 87

7 CLARITY ON STRATEGY AND DIRECTION 91

The importance of clarity on strategy and direction 92

Pitfalls to avoid 96

Achieving clarity on strategy and direction 98

How to ensure the strategy and direction create value 100

8 CLARITY ON CORE COMPETENCES 105

The importance of clarity on core competences 106

Defining core competences 107

Effective internal analysis 110

The challenges of internal analysis 121

What happens next 122

9 ABILITY TO MAKE EFFECTIVE STRATEGIC CHOICES 125

Alliances are only one option 125

Strengths and weaknesses of other options 126

Bringing it together in a coherent framework 129

10 ATTRACTIVENESS OF ASSETS 135

Using assets effectively 135

Leveraging assets 140

Identifying assets 140

Assessing values 142

Conducting asset risk assessments 144

Setting the framework for use and monitoring its effectiveness 146

11 ABILITY TO COLLABORATE INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY 149

Collaborative cultures 149

Factors affecting collaboration 152

12 ABILITY TO GOVERN EFFECTIVELY AND MANAGE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS 177

View increasing legislation as opportunity not threat 178

Dealing effectively with complex relationships 183

Managing reciprocity 191

13 EFFECTIVENESS OF ALLIANCE INFRASTRUCTURE 193

Ability to segment, measure and manage overall portfolio performance 194

Programme fit and importance within the firm 204

Resources focused on alliance activity 208

Ease of doing and not doing business with other parties 223

Proposition attractiveness 227

Ability to select the right partners and relationships 232

Ability to deliver on alliance commitments 234

Ability to develop, protect and share knowledge 239

PART II SUMMARY 243

PART III WINNING WITH ALLIANCES 245

14 PHASE 1: PRE-ALLIANCE 249

Context 249

Phase 1 aims 250

Output A: forces pushing for the alliance 250

Output B: alliance as the right choice 252

Output C: headline benefits 253

Output D: headline risks 253

Output E: sponsor identified and stakeholders on board 254

Output F: support resources and costs 257

Progress to Phase 2 257

Pitfalls to avoid 258

Summary of tools needed for Phase 1 258

15 PHASE 2: PRE-PARTNER 261

Context 261

Phase 2 aims 262

Output A: alliance team alignment 262

Output B: attractive value proposition for the participants 266

Output C: organisation readiness 275

Output D: ideal partner characteristics 278

Output E: engagement plan and partner selection 283

Output F: stakeholder and risk management 288

Progress to Phase 3 288

Pitfalls to avoid 288

Summary of tools needed for Phase 2 290

16 PHASE 3: WITH-PARTNER PLANNING 293

Context 293

Phase 3 aims 294

Output A: compelling value proposition and targets aligned 294

Output B: complete mutual due diligence 299

Output C: effective relationship architecture designed 300

Progress to Phase 4 314

Pitfalls to avoid 314

Summary of tools needed for Phase 3 316

17 PHASE 4: ALLIANCE LAUNCH 317

Context 317

Phase 4 aims 318

Output A: project and change management 319

Output B: announcing the alliance 321

Progress to Phase 5 322

Pitfalls to avoid 322

Summary of tools needed for Phase 4 323

18 PHASE 5: WITH-PARTNER DELIVERY 325

Context 325

Phase 5 aims 326

Outputs A and B: results and relationships 326

Progress to Phase 6 332

Pitfalls to avoid 332

Summary of tools needed for Phase 5 333

19 PHASE 6: ALLIANCE REVIEWS 335

Context 335

Phase 6 aims 336

Output A: objective assessment 336

Output B: actions and next steps 341

Progress 342

Pitfalls to avoid 343

Summary of tools needed for Phase 6 343

20 THE JOURNEY TO ALLIANCE BRAND AND WINNING ALLIANCES 345

Getting started 346

Standing out from the crowd 349

ALLIANTIST services 350

Concluding remarks 351

APPENDIX ALLIANCE BRAND QUICK TEST 353

REFERENCES 357

INDEX 363

Editorial Reviews

"Clarity of design is matched by the words." (CPO Agenda, December 2006)

“In summary, a very good and thought-provoking read.” (Supply Management, March 2007)

"An excellent book providing a 'toolkit' of useful models substantiated with real world experience that will support any organisation" (General Manager, Partnering and SI Strategic Development, BT Global Services, Sep 2006)

From the Publisher