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Interview Patty

How to Build Business Alliances

Forging partnerships that last

1. Selecting a Partner
Any company that has something you need - clients, technology, capabilities - is a potential partner, provided you have something it needs as well.

(For an alliance to succeed, both companies must benefit from it.) But recognize that alliances rarely come without costs. At the very least, they require an investment of time that you or your key people could be spending on profitable endeavors. So it pays to be very selective about whom you team up with.

Investigate reputation. Yes, this is a business relationship, but it's the people behind the business who will make the arrangement work or not. "In alliances, as in marriages, there is no recovery from selecting the wrong spouse," Slowinski warns. "You can bring your company to its knees using alliances." Research whether the prospective partner deals honestly with associates, employees, and customers. Your counterpart should do the same: A prospective partner ought to be as careful as you are, or you should wonder about its commitment to the relationship.

2. Cutting a Deal
In many respects, the most important moment of the alliance dance is the first, when you and an executive from your prospective partner (usually the head of the company or key business unit) sit down to discuss the opportunity at hand. This is your chance both to lay the foundation for a productive relationship and to uncover potential hazards. "The goal is to establish early on whether this is worth your time," says Matthew Sagal, also a partner at Alliance Management Group. "You're trying to avoid a long, drawn-out process that ends in failure."

3. Making It Work
New allies often find it difficult to actually work together, not least because of the differences in corporate cultures. The key conflict usually revolves around how decisions are made, says Slowinski, especially with companies of different sizes.

Plan the decision-making process. As early as possible, you and your counterpart should discuss the first major decisions on the horizon and how each company would normally make them the key people, the reporting lines and committees that will have to sign off and how long the process should take. Determine if each side can live with the decision structures in place. If not, Slowinski suggests, make recommendations to senior management about how to adapt them to allow the alliance to move along efficiently.

Source: Inc

Patty Block, President and Founder of The Block Group, established her company to advocate for women-owned businesses, helping them position their companies for strategic growth. Charting the course for impactful, sustainable, profitable businesses, the beacon is control: of your strategic direction, your money, your time, your staffing, and your ability to bring in business. The Block Group brings together the people, resources and ideas that build results.

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