- Create a common vision for the partnership
- Learn how the creation of a charter sets expectations and builds trust
- Define the elements of a team charter
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This is the high level summary of a collaboration encompassing all the most important agreements as to how a partnership will succeed. -
Do you have Snipers or Hostages in your alliance? Would your rather have Cheerleaders and Champions? Identifying who is aligned, who is not, and why is key. Clarifying the interests of stakeholders and addressing how alliance performance reinforces or detracts from stakeholder accountability helps you to form strategies to encourage alignment.- Identify key stakeholder motivations/incentives
- Strategies for hostages and cheerleaders
- Gain stakeholder buy-in to alliance objectives
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Finding the right partner is critical to the success of a partnering strategy. Often companies want to partner with biggest name in their industry or whoever is hot right now in the market. And sometimes that makes sense, and it will certainly impress some people, but picking a partner like it was a beauty pageant may not result in the business outcomes you are seeking.- Qualify partners for strategic value and ability to execute
- Quantify anticipated partnering value
- Perform due diligence
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Operationalizing value creation in partnerships is dependent upon having a clear plan of action that translates value propositions to reality; how the promise of benefit becomes value created and delivered.- Defining value in solution value, financial value, and market value.
- Develop clear plans for execution to create and deliver value
- Establish metrics for optimize value creation and delivery
- Implement a system of governance to keep on track
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Measuring performance is a key to realizing value from a collaboration. As the adage “You Manage what you can Measure” implies, the things you direct the most attention to are often the things you can actually measure. But this can be an empty exercise if you are not measuring the things that really matter. So is even more important measure what you value, so that the effort and attention is applied toward the outcomes you care about.- Start with why you are partnering in the first place
- Measure value created by partnering in multiple dimensions
- Leverage the balanced scorecard
- Track leading indicator metrics to optimize performance
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The Introduction to Alliance Fundamentals Course includes all 10 individual lessons. -
Alliances are a natural incubator for collaborative innovation. The very premise of partnering is to create new value that could not be achieved independently. We explore innovation across a spectrum of possibilities: product innovation, operations innovation, and business model innovation- Explore examples of how diversity sparks innovation
- Leveraging collaborative innovation to create partner value
- Identify sources of innovation to create value
- Define joint solutions that create differentiated/strategic value
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Compelling value propositions are the foundation of any sustainable alliance and are derived from the strategic objectives of the partners and customers. Partner value propositions are based on partner math where 1 + 1 must be greater than 3 to make sense. Joint customer value is paramount. Smart partners also address how each partner gains value from the partnership – not just “what’s in it for me”.- Creating differentiation and strategic advantage through partnering
- Best practices in value creation
- Utilize a thinking tool to develop compelling value propositions
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Strong executive sponsorship can be critically important to an alliance or collaboration…a make or break for success. Typically, an executive sponsor is a very senior, leader within an organization (usually someone in the C-suite, or leading a business unit or function) who is responsible for the success of a strategic partnership, alliance or collaborative business relationship.- Recruit effective Executive Sponsors
- Set expectations for participation
- Keep Executive Sponsors informed and engaged
- Escalating effectively
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Businesses are challenged to grow their businesses faster and more creatively. Businesses meet these challenges through fundamentally three ways: Build Buy or Partner. Knowing when to partner and how to achieve results through the right partnering model is key.- When to Partner? Profile benefits and trade offs in build, buy, partner decisions
- Choose the appropriate partner business model: alliance, channel, OEM?
- Achieving strategic results through partnering
- Finding the Fit: Gaining strategic alignment with partner capabilities
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Successful collaborations need to be aligned with organizational goals and priorities.- Achieving alignment to corporate strategy and objectives
- Tools to facilitate alignment of stakeholders and promote better governance
- Understanding core values and operating principles
- Using partner health checks to uncover relationship dynamics