When is Alliance the way to go?

Why do it?

What are the ingredients?

What do we do?

Alliance Magic

Strategy comes in many flavours. Extending the reach of your operation through alliance is hard but ultimately intensely rewarding. It is like the genie out of the bottle, it holds the potential to growth without dollar investment. The investment is made is on another front but few understand how to go about it or what it takes. By all means, go on that path if it is the right one for you. But take a guide!

When is Alliance the way to go?

When Presidents think of growth strategies, acquisition and internally generated growth come first to mind. Nowadays, alliance should be right there, probably in preference to those old standbys. Alliance is a way for two or more organizations to gain strength without sacrificing the core of either. Of course, it isn’t just any old combination that will work. Careful attention must be paid to the complementarity of the business drivers mandating the relationship. Cultures of the respective firms must be mature enough to withstand and make the most of the rigours of the formation and blended life of an alliance. Measurable and dramatic outcomes must be expected from a merging of work processes - different in kind from what went before.

Why do it?

Many organizations don’t have the entire package needed to dominate their sector. They may have a great business idea but insufficient capital. They may have no prospect of geographical coverage to the extent their expertise might allow. Or they may offer access to a market that other businesses would love to have but can’t afford or don’t understand. A combination of business strengths, say one in software development, another in particular industry expertise result in a whole new offering that could outstrip the original founders.

What are the ingredients?

Here’s where we come in. Distilling clarity of purpose, your exact strengths and weaknesses, looking again at those you have formerly cast as competitors. Building your internal culture to allow for the give and take and give again that is the backbone of alliance. Standing back and mapping out your business process so that the intersection of collaboration can take place. And doing all this without giving away the farm, by really knowing what your farm is (and isn’t!).

What do we do?

Our work is to help you identify and maximize the proposed venture’s effectiveness and reach through providing a clear guide, a step by step process, to the formation of the new resulting business entity. Sure hands help you to see through the distance to a profitable outcome. We know what success looks and feels like, what it takes and how it’s done.

Collaborative work arrangements, alliances, should be in everybody’s present or future!

Doug Bouey is a professional mentor and counselor to Chief Executive Officers and their organizations. He speaks from and embodies a deep connection to the enduring threads that constitute accomplishment. His clientele constitute some of Southern Alberta’s best and brightest rising C E Os.

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