Articles About Better Partnering
Is the Channel Ready of IoT?
Is IoT Ready for the Channel? We’ve been hearing IoT is coming; IoT is coming for some time. The fact of the matter is IoT is here. GE announced that they saw $6B inrevenue in industrial IoT this past year, 2015. Others Amazon, Google, IBM, even the US government have also announced huge investments into the technologies of IoT. [...]
Success is not an Accident
Skills, Aptitudes and Attitudes of Highly Successful Partner Managers There are key differences in skills, aptitudes and attitudes of a highly collaborative partner manager. They are skilled at adapting to an ever changing environment and operating in a world beyond the traditional organization boundaries. Their ability to collaborate is what provides them the relationship power necessary for success. These [...]
Collaborative Skills Development is Not Knowledge Transfer
Traditional learning and training paths are based purely on gaining knowledge. The assumption can be made that with knowledge our employees and partners can be more successful. And it is true. However, the missing element comes when this knowledge needs to be applied through experienced judgement. Partner managers will only be as successful as their ability to use their [...]
Why Invest in Partner Management Training? – ROI!
The ROI of Partner Manager Training Effective training is without doubt a crucial ingredient for success. The challenge for any organization is measuring and justifying the investment in training. One statistic that clearly shows the value of training comes from a 2014 IBM study. IBM found that 84% of employees in top performing companies believe they are receiving the [...]
Making Partner Managers Winners
Investment in Talent to Grow and Innovate To many organizations, alliances and strategic partnerships are “the new way businesses grow and innovate,” particularly as they experience a rising profile within the C-suite. As partnership alliances become an increasingly important source of innovation for companies, they are integral to future success. One study cites that 51% of CEO’s want to prioritize [...]
MicroAlliances for Small Businesses
Strategic Alliances are not just for the Big Guys My clientele is typically large companies, but this past month I was asked to participate in a speed mentoring event for a group of independent consultants. I was asked many times “can partnering help me in my business? How do I find the right partner? How do I partner? While [...]
Succeeding in the Internet of Things
Partnering Strategies to Accelerate Growth in the Internet of Things For some time we’ve been hearing that Internet of Things is coming. Well it’s here! There are many examples that we probably don’t think much about. Beyond our personal devices: smart phones, watches, Fitbits and all, there are a growing number of consumer appliances and industrial devices now connected [...]
Can Collaboration be Standardized?
Print Well, IMHO yes and no. I’ve been working for some years with the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP) in creating standards for collaboration. And I frequently get push back. “No two relationships are same.” “Each is special in some way.” Even the ASAP Chairman, Mike Leonetti is often quoted “If you’ve seen one alliance, you’ve [...]
Creating New Futures in the Cloud
Partners Change the Cloud Equation - Executive Roundtable On October 14, 2014, Leverage2Market Associates and Phoenix Consulting Group hosted a partner executive breakfast to explore how partners change the growth equation in a cloud-based world. The event was attended by a dozen senior partner leaders from a diverse cross section of Silicon Valley companies and featured guest speakers Jim Chow, Head [...]
Aligning the Organization
Over-performers are More Aligned to Corporate Strategy and to Operations Collaboration and in particular collaborative innovation has been widely recognized as a critical corporate competency in the current business conversation. In our best practices research we found that over-performing alliances were more consistently aligned to corporate strategy and more collaborative in involving senior leadership, stakeholders, and partners in designing [...]
Leveraging Partner ROI
Partnering Return on Investment is often quite attractive since the investment in a partnered initiative is shared. In other words half of the resources or costs are on your partner’s balance sheet. There are other organizational advantages as well which become apparent when a build/buy/partner analysis is conducted. These advantages are often related to external expertise that would require [...]
Alliances for Competitive Advantage
Creating Business Value for Customers Creating a competitive edge is crucial for all businesses and can be achieved through alliances. Alliances can also be a defensive measure in countering a competitive shortfall such as a gap in a company’s product line. In our research we found that creating competitive advantage was a major reason for partnering. Creating Business Value [...]
Creating New Revenue through Innovation
The definition for an alliance is when two (or more) organizations combine their resources to create new value that could not be (easily) achieved by either party alone. Innovation is often described as the process of combining disparate ideas to create something new and in today’s business climate often requires a collaborative approach. It is easy to see why [...]
Alliances Create Market Impact
Market Impact embraces those strategies that are aimed at growing the businesses of the allied partners. It includes strategies such as entering new markets, gaining a market share position, and generally expanding the capability to gain new customers. The top five selections of our best practices survey respondents in this category are depicted in the chart below: New Customer Wins [...]
Creating Corporate Value
The Strategy of Alliances Alliances in the technology sector are overwhelmingly evaluated based on revenue and for good reason. They deliver incremental revenue over above business as usual. However, revenue is a lagging indicator and does not provide insight into whether the alliance is achieving the strategic objectives for which it was formed. Revenue at the end of the day [...]
Danger! Cloud Crossing Ahead
Business model transformation is one of the most disruptive changes a business can face and it isn’t pretty. As often is the case in disruption, those companies with the most invested in the old model have the most to lose since making the shift will cannibalize their existing business. But if they don’t make the shift, their competition will [...]
Partnering Starts with the Customer in Mind
Collaboration between technology providers and their channel partners has never been more important. Creating a sustainable partnership begins with the customer value proposition. Without customer value, there is no reason to partner! This requires you to get inside the head of the ultimate end user of your products and services and fundamentally understand the motivation to buy. Look at customer value [...]
Why do Channels Matter to Alliance Managers?
Because more and more, channels are becoming the preferred route to market for alliances. As a recent CRN article on the VCE alliance illustrates, when alliance managers choose channels they need to understand how they work, what motivates channel partners, what are the economics, and how to deal with channel conflict. With new models of converged architectures and XaaS, [...]