Read about Dell's partnership with Microsoft.
What is special about Dell? To answer this question, consider the power of ‘partnerships’ and why a company like COMPAQ had to eventually merge with HP. Compaq could never convince ‘retailers’ that selling over the Internet was viable because these retailers were worried about a loss in their market share. Hence Compaq was mired in the morass of ‘sticky’ unproductive relationships that proved disastrous.
Another example is the HP and Mac alliance.
While there is general recognition about the power of strategic partnerships, relatively little guidance is available to mangers on the appropriate mechanisms that can be used to set-up, nurture, and grow these partnerships. Over the past two decades, Dr. Mishra has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies around the world and developed actionable models that provide guidance to managers on how to best manage such relationships.
All this and more will be covered in Dr. Mishra's Executive Series program, Managing Strategic Partnerships, starting 2nd March.
All this and more will be covered in Dr. Mishra's Executive Series program, Managing Strategic Partnerships, starting 2nd March.
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| Debi Mishra |
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ReplyDeleteHello Debi,
ReplyDeleteStrategic partnership are present everywhere in modern day business. Sometimes their results are great, but however there is still many going wrong. The complexity of these partnerships is immense and it requires a lot of specific knowlegde to be able to become a good network orchestrator.
A great example, I find, of a company that exists solely by its strategic relationships is "We Beat The Mountain" (or WBTM; www.webeatthemountain.com). From the start of this company, or maybe "movement" is a better description, it was designed to build strategic partnerships for every aspect of its business. The vision of WBTM is to reduce trash mountains worldwide by the principle of recycling. They do this by creating, producing and selling functional products of 100% recycled and re-used materials in a global market (from WBTM website).
Although being a very good purpose, it is not really necessary to have many strategic relationships. That is, if you want to take the time to design a product, set up production and design a supply chain to sell your product. In current days basicly everything you need in order set up such a company is out there. It is better developed then you could ever do it yourself. That is what WBTM inspired to link companies to their company, to each other and to their clients and friends (over 35.000 on Facebook in less then a year)!
A good example of the way WBTM works is the Flex Baby Bag, they developed in collaboration with their product development partner. Typically the first step in their new product development proces is to find customers for it. Strange enough for many companies this is the last step. Bags like this could are items that you can save up for with a rewards card in the supermarket, or which you get as a christmas present from your employer. It is good to know who you are selling it to and what their requirements are. Once a certain base of customers is reached, WBTM then starts to look out for companies that have the knowlegde about the materials that make it a high quality bag and are made from recycled trash. Once production partners and distribution partners have been found the product is deliverd to its final customers. The step that remains is paying the product development partner for the share it had in the product.
It is amazing to see what impact this company is able to make just with a handfull of people. This company only has two core activities: 1. act as a network orchestrator and being good at it and 2. maintain the core values of the brand “We Beat The Mountain”. The rest can and should be done by partners is what they will probably tell you.
So what does your company that could be done better by another company that has specialised in that field? What are your core activities? And what do you see as critical networking , orchestrating and collaborative skills?
Thanks for your comment Martijn.
ReplyDeleteDebi is currently out of the country, but we have alerted him of your comment and hope to hear from him shortly. He is the expert, so we will leave it to him.
Thanks again, Executive Series Team
Your observations are spot on. Also, to clarify, firms should not pursue strategic alliances to the detriment of developing their own competencies. As you know, the entire outsourcing model fell apart because companies did not protect things they did well themselves. Apple is a good example of a company that relies on in-house expertise for design and on external partnerships for manufacturing and supply chain needs. In fact it is more of this hybrid model that is gaining currency. On this note, a company executive recently mentioned to me "If you have too many friend then you really don't have any friend". The key idea is for firms to choose partnerships carefully and manage them in deliberate ways to create value. In fact, how you select, maintain, and enhance relationships, and general relationship design aspects are a significant component of this course. Thanks again for your wonderful comments.
ReplyDeleteDebi Mishra