Articles About Better Partnering
Social Media and Partnering: What’s working?
Findings from a Survey Conducted by Phoenix Consulting GroupOf the 20 partner managers we interviewed, most were realizing productive benefits from the use of social media. Benefits were described in terms of strengthening relationships versus the hard metrics of generating leads and revenue.Yet as many of the activities were integrated into the process of doing business, the bottom line [...]
Social Media and Partnering
Social media hype is everywhere. We are deluged with it on-line. We see it on TV. Our kids are absorbed by Facebook. The State department even requests that Twitter delays maintenance to ensure continuity in the information flow from civil unrest in Iran. Even as we are coming to grips with Social media - socially, we are becoming aware [...]
How are Partner Managers using Social Media?
Findings from a Survey Conducted by Phoenix Consulting GroupWe asked twenty partner managers What is social media? By far the most common response was Good Question! After a thoughtful pause, we heard social media were tools that enabled users to communicate, to build loyalty, to collaborate and to listen. Its an opportunity to have communities of like minds and [...]
Two new, emerging best practices in alliance management
The ASAP 2009 State of Alliance Management Report looked at thirty-six commonly recognized best practices of alliance management and benchmarked them across the community of respondents representing 431 companies. This year the researchers looked a bit deeper into innovation alliances and identified two new emerging best practices. While innovation alliances were found to be more treacherous in terms of [...]
Serving our Customers thru better Partnering: Doing More with Less
Certainly in this economy doing more with less is an imperative we all face. It is also the fundamental premise of partnering and in these times Partner Managers are pressed even harder to do even more with even less. A few weeks ago I was asked to moderate a gathering of senior alliance executives by the Association of Strategic [...]
The Power of Green Alliances
Attended an ASAP Green breakfast this morning and it was certainly eye opening even if the coffee arrived late. Hal LaFlash, Dir Emerging Clean Technology Policyfrom PG&E -that's Pacific Gas and Electric for the non-Californians - spoke on the many alliances that PG&E has been cultivating in the interest of providing sustainable energy. While one is not used to [...]
The ROI of Loyalty (Part II)
Part I discussed how demographic segmentation allowedtargeting programs, benefits, and attention to engender greater loyalty and business through their developers. Part II addresseshow segmentation by 'Loyalty' itself helps to identify andto address specific concerns of developers. While net promoter score seems to be the popularrage, we used the Apostle model to segment loyalty. The Apostle model gives much information [...]
The ROI of Loyalty (Part I)
I was approached by a client some weeks ago to present at conference some work we did on Developer Loyalty. Now there are a lot satisfaction type surveys out there, but my client presented a very specific challenge. She was new in the role as the Director of the Developer Community and needed to understand very quickly "Who are [...]
Strategic Alliance Bookshelf
Have you read a book in the past year that made an impact on you and how you manage alliances and partnerships? Could even be one you've written!! Here are some that I read this past year which I found had relevance to the field of alliance management. NOT listed in any order other than how they were stacked [...]
Alliance Strategy in Challenging Times: Rebalancing the Portfolio
Is it time to reevaluate your alliance investment? Do you have the right partners to weather the economic climate? Are you retaining the right partners to ensure you have a strategic advantage when the thaw comes? Regular portfolio rebalancing is a best practice even in good times, but especially important now.How do you know if you are wasting resources [...]
Alliances in the News
Plans for Strategic Alliances on the Rise Nearly one-third of consumer products companies plan to forge new strategic alliances in the upcoming 12 months (30 percent), up 8 points from the second quarter of 2008 according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers NEW YORK, Dec 4, 2008 GlobeNewswire Chrysler Presents Reorganization Plan to Congress "To further enhance its product portfolio, support growth, [...]
Alliance Strategy Realignment: Finding Opportunity in Economic Disruption
Have you rethought your alliance strategy in terms of what new opportunities lie ahead? Are you prepared to find the opportunity in disruption? We can assume that business as usual is not going to work in today's volatile economic climate because business has become unusual. Yet, disruptive times are times of great opportunity for those who are alert in [...]
Strategic Alliances – More now than ever
Strategic alliances are often viewed as a strategy for growth and perhaps not always a strategy for economically challenging times. But many of the reasons that make strategic alliances a good idea in good times make them an even better strategy for uncertain times. What are these reasons to partner? Create greater value for customers. With businesses and consumers [...]
Driving Growth through Win-Win Alliances
What do you think of, when you think win-win? Most business people will interpret that as "I win and my partner wins". Unfortunately quite a number will behave differently: "win-win means I win twice!" This, as you can imagine, does not produce sustainable partnerships. Smart business people will not stick with a losing proposition and the alliance collapses or [...]
Coopetition – Sleeping with the Enemy
The April meeting of the Silicon Valley/Norcal Chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals featured a panel discussion on Coopetition. It turns out to be as hard to pronounce as it is to do. The panel often struggled with every verb and noun form of it: Coopetive, co-opeting. It might have been humorous, but the topic is so [...]
Collaborative Innovation: Leveraging Partnerships
"Collaborative Innovation: Leveraging Strategic Partnerships for the Global Playing Field" Sunday, March 30, 2008 BlogTalkRadio: www.BlogTalkRadio.com/CoachforInnovation 6:00 p.m. Pacific/9:00 p.m. Collaborative innovation is rapidly becoming a key differentiator for organizations. But as enterprises rush to take advantage of global opportunities without effectively playing the strategic alliances card the risk of stifling innovation increases. Join Dee McCrorey, host of the CFI Radio [...]
Strategic Alliance Secret #4 Success Begins at the Top
A successful alliance program begins at the top with the support of the CEO. Like many other things, the CEO influences company culture, models the behavior, and sets the priorities in collaborative relationships. CEO support and that of the CXO staff fosters the environment where alliances can thrive and deliver results. When you look at the management model of [...]
Secret #2 Build, Build or Partner
Does your organization have a clear discipline in determining which strategy to pursue to achieve an objective? Build? Buy? or Partner? If you answered, NO - you are in the majority. Unfortunately. A few organizations do, however, and one Proctor & Gamble has had excellent results for exercising that discipline. In the year 2000, they made clear and conscious [...]