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Golden rule No. 1: develop a strategic
vision
Profitable alliance programmes should only be happening at a
highly strategic level. Setting up ambitious revenue objectives
and allocating relevant resources are key to the success of such
programmes. Avoid spending all your time with low-level sales
engagements at all cost. Besides, don’t believe that deals can
be replicated blindly without the necessary Marketing vision (unless
your business lines are relatively simple and your kind of business
is less bespoke). When dealing with bespoke services for MNC’s
you should know that bespoke services can seldom be replicated.
Golden rule No. 2: setting up ambitious,
smart objectives
Avoid MOU-driven partnerships
at all cost. Use benchmark-driven approaches each time it’s possible
by testing what your partners have done elsewhere, with other
companies, where no direct competition with them is involved.
Look at best practices and build upon them.
Golden rule No. 3: the right level of
management focus
Involving high-level exec sponsors too early in a partnership
project is not going to take you anywhere. Besides, it might even
cost you a lot of time and effort to put things right and … outlive
the pressure. Exec sponsors are mostly useful when they are asked
to make simple decisions based on well documented projects.
Golden rule No. 4: enforce strict governance
A multi-layered governance model is a critical success
factor for alliance projects. This is how you will ensure that you can muster your troops with sufficient backup
from Management for your projects as you go along. Failing to
ensure that management backup is available is suicidal and a major
cause of failure for all types of cross-functional project management
Golden rule No. 5: no partnership without
alliance managers
If you ensure that 2 people – on either side – are in charge
of nurturing the future alliance programme, then you are on the
right track. If no one is available at the other side, do insist
that someone be appointed.
Golden rule No. 6: enforce respect between
parties
Building alliance programmes implies that one be able to enforce
the respect between both parties. Mutual respect is key. No alliances
can develop if managers on both sides of the fence despise each
other. You will have to teach your people this behaviour (win-win
approach) but also your partner’s people.
Golden rule No. 7: cross-business is not
a taboo
Try as you might, you will never manage to make your partner
forget that you are also a client – and vice versa. I think that
when negotiations become hard, they tend to show great opportunities
too. I don’t believe in business between ‘nice people’ signing
nice little MOU’s leading nowhere.
Golden rule No. 8: involve your lawyers…
at the right time
Most alliance agreements if not all are entirely based on confidence
and the promise that either party will deliver something which
matches the other party’s expectations. If you involve too many
lawyers (or involve them too early), this is just like something
sending a strong signal to your partner that something, some time,
is bound to go wrong. I don’t believe this is a great way to begin
a relationship. Anyway, such agreements are non- binding [2] and therefore, putting
things in writing does not always mean that the expected result
will be met.
Golden rule No. 9: don’t give up!
Of course, this piece of advice would be valid for any type of
activity and/or project. Yet, building partnerships is somewhat
very hard – something that my counterparts and I are used to referring
to as ‘heavy-lifting’.
Golden rule No. 10: spot the busy bees
Forget about those old-time management books that would lead
you to think that organisation charts are everything. Spot the
busy bees, i.e. those people who actually get things done, even
though they might not be at the highest level of their hierarchy.
Golden rule No. 11: communicate, communicate,
communicate!
Internally and externally, do communicate on your partnership
projects. Share information, ensuring that you are granted the
ownership of your partnership programmes and that this ownership
is acknowledged by all.
Golden rule No. 12: programme management
& expertise is a must
Each alliance is a project. Often you will find that an alliance
project is in fact a programme (i.e. cross-organisational or even
cross-geographical) and that this programme is like an umbrella
encompassing many smaller programmes or projects. Forget about
spectacular one-offs. Partnership programmes cannot be just deal-driven,
this is a contradiction in terms. But good partnership programmes
do generate good and numerous deals of course.
Golden rule No. 13: 3-way and more alliances
aka ecosystems
Although more difficult to set up, ecosystems do bring better
and farther-reaching opportunities. But they can also make matters
a lot more complex and swamp a sub-project or two along the way
if they are introduced too early.
Golden rule No. 14: keep off intellectual
sessions
Avoid high level slideware sessions as much as possible unless
real value can be derived from them. Revenue must be the ultimate
driver for your action.
Golden rule No. 15: set up joint events
Joint events with you and your partners’ customers can help spread
the word about your programmes. They may also speed up the detection
of new prospective clients.
Golden rule No. 16: segment and certify
Distinguish between vertical and horizontal partners. Besides,
VARS and partners should not be treated the same way. Certifying
your best partners is a nice way of promoting your alliance programmes.
Note:
this list of 16 golden rules is not comprehensive and needs to
be adapted to each particular case.
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