Strategic Alliances - Review, Grow or Close

Last time I talked about forming strategic partnerships and alliances and that took us through to a question that what next when I am done creating a partnership. If not difficult, it is not easier at all to maintain and grow the valuable partnerships and do away with the alliances that have become liabilities for you. Let me try to list down few points that will help us to maintain our alliances and we keep on getting benefits out of it:

• Keep trying to know your partner changing needs
• Be clear about what you want from the alliance relationship and what you are willing to give to it
• Commitment towards alliance is essential - Always show your confidence and passion towards the relationship
• Exceeding expectations should be the rule of the game for you - Promise less deliver more
• All issues, conflicts need to be looked into immediately and top leadership should take ownership of resolving them as soon as possible.

If both the partners are following the above rules, it becomes lot smoother to grow an alliance. As I said in my earlier article, all alliances does not end up giving benefits to both parties so it is imperative that we keep on reviewing them from time to time. We need to have some criteria of periodical evaluation that will measure how well the plans have been implemented or whether the planned benefits are in line with the actual benefits. Evaluate alliance changes, alliance value updates, alliance business plan and rewards for success. A formal mechanism for both the partners to identify goals, milestones and turning points will be crucial to act as the benchmarks for the periodical review. In fact I have developed a detailed framework as part of my hobby that helps identification of alliances, operationalising them, periodical review and keeping them healthy and growing - I will be happy to share the framework if somebody feels interested.