Alliance strategic success through the identification of predictable pitfalls

Pars warning partners of attention! The collaboration, as with any business, has its challenges and unexpected pitfalls. In fact, this is probably more than in traditional relationships opponents. In relationships opponents must always watch your back. In relationships based on trust or what is perceived as trust, you can be lulled into a false sense of security. While it is necessary to protect themselves from these dangerous situations, you do not want to create their presentation of a wrong attitude.

To maintain the healthy alliances, the conflict must be treated immediately. This is your best opportunity to move forward in any relationship. But, improperly challenged, conflict can be a death sentence for an alliance.

Alliance conflict emanates from five key areas:

1. Values

2. Objectives

3. Facts

4. Procedures

5. Disinformation

Conflict should not be a roadblock to covenant happened if you and your partnership alliance members are willing to resolve the conflict at the core, in a timely manner. In fact, resolved the conflict can lead to a stronger relationship through better communication. Unfortunately, the conflict is left unresolved lead to fatal flaws that undermine the relationship.

Some of the most common areas of conflict in relations of alliance are accessibility, cultural clashes, hidden agendas, possession management, poor communication and unrealistic expectations. Many lawyers and consultants for alliances believe that the mortality rate covenant is about 50 percent.

If you wait to build collaborative relationships until all the potential pitfalls are discovered, they pass in your industry. Others, who could be considered as possible members of strategic alliances, could be aligned with the competition. Be realistic, however, as with a spouse, partner alliance members do not change with time. They do not become who and what, you want to be. But rather, evolve to who and what they want. If you suspect underlying problems are probably accurate in your assessment and the possibility of an alliance of success is greatly diminished. The partnership, like marriage, do not change people. What it does do, is to remove the facades and exposes the good and evil.

Trust in others and the belief that partnering alliance begins at the top are crucial to your success. These two arguments are frequent causes of failed partnerships when they are not followed. Moreover, in alliance agreements, be wary of things not seen now, but may occur later. Little things like the small print in a contract covenant detailed. Do not let your enthusiasm blur your judgment.

Just because you're working with a company of integrity, does not mean it will for you. Even in a partnership, you are still responsible for your success and wealth. Make sure that the bottom-line expectations reflect the fact that maintenance of the cooperation agreement is no need for additional resources. Be sure all of the objectives of the alliance partnership. Here are some examples of potential pitfalls of partnerships. Be aware of them before entering into an agreement. Your chances of success will increase.

A Timex:

Timex, for example, learned the hard way. They forfeited $ 60 million loss of income and learned about the challenges of partnerships abroad. One might say that took a licking and kept on ticking. After 18 months of frustration, Timex wanted out of the partnership was created in India. It all started about ten years ago when it was illegal to export watches in India. Timex wanted in the market and proceeded to select a local watchmaker as its partners. Unfortunately Timex had to spend more time on due diligence and asked around a bit 'more to be a partner. Timex thought it could dominate the relationship and have the Indian manufacturer to carry out its production needs at the right time.

Timex was surprised? The head of the joint venture in India Timex, Robert Werner was quoted in an article in the Los Angeles Times, stating: "Until its Indian joint venture venture, Timex was accustomed to owning businesses outright, and its problems in India was a learning experience for many to Timex. " Timex said it took six months of negotiations and a confidential settlement before the company could get rid of partners.

Today, Timex has successfully collaborated with Indian watchmaker Titan Industries, which is a subsidiary of Tata Group, one of the largest corporations in India. The Timex-Tata joint venture went to market in late 1992 and in its first year it sold 400,000 watches. Two years later, annual sales jumped to 1.9 million watches. Have been enjoying the success of the partnership for over a decade.

At Donnelly Corporation:

Founded in 1905, Donnelly Corporation started as a manufacturer and supplier of glass mirror for the turn-of-the-century (1900) the furniture industry. Today, through joint ventures and strategic alliances, have operations in 12 countries and successful partnerships around the world.

Dwane Baumgardner, Donnelly chairman and CEO feels strongly about what it takes to work for your cooperation. When we visited them in Holland, MI headquarters said, "If you have management that is not operating on the basis of believing that you must start at the top, those beliefs must be held and permeate throughout the organization. For. Example with employees, if you must believe your people you can trust, who want to work together in solidarity and cooperative The same should be true with another company, you have to believe when you form a strategic alliance that will work with the same reason that it works. If you do not have these beliefs, I think you're going to run into problems. "

Values ​​Based Traps

Looking at the question of values, often among the alliance partners have core values ​​that are in conflict. This is especially a problem with issues like trust and integrity. Corporate culture clashes, turf protection of workers and the resistance of some employees to new ideas can wreak havoc on your efforts to maintain an alliance prospers.

When one of the alliance partners do not fully embrace the principles of partnership, you experience great challenges. This may include high level executives or employees, including supervisory and functional departments, divisions or regions within a partnership organization. For example, DuPont believes that if a contractor is seeking only to maximize his profits, on a single job, then that contractor is a partnership with DuPont, because they know that there will be problems in the relationship.

Because the dynamics of covenant relationships are constantly evolving, stiffness of the alliance partners can kill quickly. Each member must be willing to give a little ', especially in times of change for a partnership to work. Equally devastating is a partner in a partnership effort, and have a hidden agenda that would be destructive to the alliance. It is not so bad is a partner decide that they want to follow through, or one that has the capacity to fulfill their commitment.

Relationships with suppliers can be difficult, especially when the business is great. Suppliers can make the error ratio conveniently forgotten the loyalty of small customers in the long term, and snubbing them for larger orders. These short-term profitability and long-term disaster. When these large firms to exit the market or sold are consolidated, the supplier could be left without customers.

Willingness of one partner is an insidious relationship-killer. Continually ask your questions alliance partners in a way that encourages them to relate to performance problems and deficiencies. Ask: "What we have done lately?" And ask: "What you really need from us?"

Dependence on your partner alliance can bring your business to a similar risk. If you become the weak link in the alliance and your alliance relationship does not provide a value to their partners, more than not, will break the partnership.

If you or your partner alliance relationship is not oriented small problems can easily escalate. Then comes the anger and blame others for your current situation. The not invented here mentality often exhibited by management is the result of low ratio tolerance. The lack of commitment to the alliance or innovations developed by the alliance partners can easily kill your relationship.

There is a situation where you could lose control of a practical or rather a technology alliance partners, which then becomes a competitor. Some time ago, Staples and Office Depot were going to merge, but it did not work. One problem is that Office Depot Staples learned of a case of Office Depot's best during the negotiations for a merger. Office Depot was delivering COD to small businesses in the north-east and get most of the business. After the merger failed, stapled duplicate the practice of Office Depot and took away the competitive advantage of Office Depot in the area.

Objectives Based Traps

In situations where a customer is the driving force of a partnership agreement, you may be left holding the bag. Be sure to review any proposal for partnership in the context of overall business strategy of your company. This challenge was evident recently discontinued IBM and its alliance with Somerset PowerPC and Motorola, manufacturer of microprocessors for Apple.

When you sit at the table Collaborating partner may find the seat uncomfortable relationship. It could be that your partner has a different level of physical and emotional well-being, or sometimes simply a change in business strategy or a restructuring that leads away from a product partner and / or technology partner that causes discomfort. It 's important to know the short and long term goals of your alliance partners.

When you try to work with a potential or current customer and have them deny the promise of buying from you, challenges the unfairness that can occur can be wasteful. Be cautious, as there is also an opportunity to be your partner and unethical attempt to capture your technology or trade secrets. This is a difficult area from which to protect himself, but if you do your due diligence, your chances of success increase.

Facts Based pitfalls

Leave some control with the expectation of higher returns can be a difficult game shared expectation. In addition, resources can be pulled in too many directions based on collective decisions of the alliance. Be sure you can spare the resources you devote to your alliance. Otherwise you can put the success of your entire operation in jeopardy.

The lack of cooperation of third parties can be a real problem report. All core members of a partnership agreement should give a little 'to the employment contract. Even worse, your partner receives adverse or harmful media coverage. This is because they are usually pulled into the scene and believed guilty by association. Real or perceived image and reputation are critical to the success of any business.

Pay attention in global alliances. Contracts with a foreign market, for example, often take a long time to finalize. By the time you go on, in the industries of technology, competition could be obtained already begun. If you are already behind and has developed an alliance with a partner organization that is weak and bleeding, will only bring you down faster and harder.

Procedures Based Pitfalls

It 'easy to underestimate how much time, energy and resources will need to commit to the new covenant. Then you do not have access to employees of the alliance partners is an important issue. The more the ratio provided between the two companies, the greater the importance of the links between them. You may find yourself in a situation of a small business partnership with a large company. A challenge to work together will be that of the representatives, managers usually smaller than the right to make decisions on the spot. Unfortunately, employees must make a proposal of the giant chain of command. This sometimes slows the progress at snail's pace.

Clash of cultures is a challenge Partnering frequently. The alliance failed to IBM and Apple is a typical example. The ad announced promising cooperation eventually spawned Taligent Technology and Kaleida Labs. Unfortunately, the two could not coexist, so that alliances eventually gave way to a quiet break within five years.

Put all your eggs in the basket covenant relationship of a single officer or manager is not a smart idea. The mandate of managing the alliance contact can signal success or failure. If you have one person report, what happens if they are promoted out of the area, fired or even die? You're out of luck. Building relationships with several key contacts in the organization of your alliance partners.

What happens if the structure of your internal or external partners interferes with the rewards of success? This could apply to employees, customers or suppliers. If you are a partner in power and your partner has traditional rewards for buyers, buyers are only interested in the concessions and reduced costs. On the flip side, sellers usually offer rewards for sales performance and even this may be difficult in making a relationship work.

There is certainly a difficulty to communicate across different time zones. Solve problems quickly when the factory Partnering is across the world is difficult enough, but when they also speak a different language, that just makes it a difficult task.

Inertia, not having the emotional properties to start is a real trap. Add this chaos, seen too many choices of alliance and ways to create an alliance, some do not ever get started. The two sides of the sword is, if you expect everything to be perfect, they will not. And if you do not put enough energy in a smart choice, your ally might be doomed from the start.

Pitfalls misinformation Based

You could easily be guilty of underestimating the complexity of coordinating and integrating the company's resources, and overestimating the ability of your partner to achieve the final result. Self-doubt and not believe you have the skills and tools to create an alliance can crop here.

In the end, success depends on Partnering management, capacity, commitment, aspirations and passions of assembling the pieces of the puzzle. When the dependency ratio occurs unevenly, the partner with less dependence may be less inclined to compromise and put energy into the relationship.

Meanings assigned to words of different cultures can cause serious problems. In a culture of prompt delivery could mean a day and in another it could mean a month. This opens a Pandora's box of unrealistic expectations often defined as the ability of a partner. Common areas include technology, research, production skills, power marketing, and financial support.

We also have unforeseen inefficiencies and poor management practices of a partner who may be the disappearance of a well-laid plan of alliance. Even at the risk is the area of ​​development of an alliance with multiple partners, which later become rivals between them. This puts a strain on the remaining integrity of the alliance.

Now that you've had a vision of partnership from the bottom, do not let these obstacles stop you. Be clear about what is not alliance partnerships. It is not instant gratification, nor a quick fix. There is a flavor of Management Strategy month. Strategic alliances are separate entities that have come together to solve their problems in a way that serves the whole story. And 'the sharing of core competencies that overlap and create synergies. The struggle is a necessary part of every relationship is precious and lasting.

To reduce the effects of partnership pitfalls, David Elliott, senior vice president and managing director at Technicolor in Hollywood, CA shared his thoughts with me. "If a partner fails to meet their responsibilities, a clear agenda is necessary for both parties to operate when the agendas are different or in conflict -. This is a problem." He went on to say: "We have partnerships with horror stories, because it includes an exit strategy before entering into a relationship."

Elliott advice for others to enter into partnerships is to do your homework, know the agenda of all partners in the relationship and measure against it. If after doing the tasks you are still not completely sold on partnering with a company, start small. Start your alliance by partnering with another promotion or for a simple small and get your feet wet. If you do stumble, so having the ability to regenerate after a fall is crucial, especially if you or a partner simply make a mistake.

Having the knowledge of the unknown stop you from alliance should become immobilized and pending opportunities that could easily pass you by. Sure, there are some risks, but to reduce the effects, do your homework, know the agenda of all partners and the relationship measures against it. If after doing the tasks you are not yet sold out in a covenant relationship with a company, start small. Start your alliance by partnering with another promotion or for a simple small and get your feet wet.

If you do stumble, having the ability to regenerate after a fall is crucial, especially if you or a partner simply makes a mistake. Be careful when events and circumstances are not what you hoped or planned. You could go to a place of apathy. If you remain in a toxic mind, you will have to wait and wait for things to themselves before they take action. The problem is that things rarely improve until they push you into a state of activity.

To be successful, partners need to commit to work at a higher level. A level that will allow you to stretch your comfort zone and then agree to move into action. Without these two issues in concert, you may not start or restart when necessary.

Once back in action, you can go after the small victories to restore confidence to take risks in search of an even bigger prize. The key is to not wait for everyone to be perfect before you start. Is it okay to endorse the idea of: ready, fire, aim. Are you even take the time to adjust your aim after you begin. Being a commercial airline pilot and regular course correct. Keep your focus on the future of travel partnership. Keep improving it. Be decisive and show the qualities of a leader in your industry. You will be rewarded.

To access additional information useful Ed Rigsbee at no charge, visit www.rigsbee.com / downloadaccess.htm ....