Strategic alliances can help drive your business to greater success, but like all business decisions, planning is essential. There are several steps to successful strategic partnerships.
During the Action in Business radio show recently, I touched on this topic, but wanted to outline that here for both my listeners, and blog readers. (For the radio download, please click Part 1 and Part 2.)
Strategic alliances have a shared vision, shared knowledge, shared commitment, shared process and shared reward. If your business alliances are missing any of these factors, eventually hard feelings will emerge and your alliance will stop being productive for your business.
The model of strategic alliances has 12 parts: 1. Build Trust 2. Define Mission, Goals and Objectives 3. Define Offerings, Product and Services 4. Complete Individual Self-Evaluations 5. Know your Partner 6. Know Your Partner’s Key Relationships 7. Establish Relationship Boundaries 8. Determine Initial Joint Project 9. Maintain Independence 10. Nurture the Relationship 11. Clarify and Initiate the Engagement 12. Plan your Exit Strategy.
Using this model and understanding the shared concept that leads to a win-win situation for both parties will keep your strategic alliances healthy and prosperous. If you need help building strategic alliances, or want to talk about how strategic alliances can help your business, please contact me!