Book Description

The rapid emergence of strategic collaborations as alternatives to the usual go-it-alone entrepreneurial ventures is evident everywvhere - from the growing collaborative efforts of such muultinationals as IBM, AT&T and Siemens, to Japan's continuing use of alliances to help maintain their enviable economic dominance. Equally evident is the failure of many companies to make these collaborations work, and the fear that such alliances suggest corporate weakness and lead to an ultimate lack of control. In his remarkably detailed and lucid account of this major development, Robert Porter Lynch dispels the myths and fears surrounding alliances and provides you with time-tested, practical techniques and tips that enable you to create powerful linkages which secure long-term strategic goals. Offering his own counsel plus ideas from many of the world's best strategic thinkers, including Peter Drucker, Kenichi Ohmae and Harvard's Michael Porter, along with dozens of expert managers who contributed their best advice in strategizing, negotiating, and structuring alliances, Business Alliances Guide reveals the unique quality of collaborations - why they operate by a different set of rules, what advantages and drawbacks they bring, what goes into their success, what can cause them to self-destruct - and how you can ultimately benefit from them. Recognizing that alliances are built systematically - not hastily thrown together - the Business Alliances Guide provides an architectural model of an effective collaboration - the Alliance Development Pyramid - which, when followed, will help you avoid costly pitfalls and maximize the chances of successful implementation. Moreover, Business Alliances Guidealerts you to the "six deadly sins" that have destroyed at least 80% of all failed alliances. It tips you off to the seven early warning signs when an alliance is going awry and what you can do to set things right. And it illustrates, by highlighting the unfortunate plight of companies whose alliance efforts failed, the strategies you can employ to avoid the same fate. Enhanced by numerous graphs, models, charts, checklists, and point-by-point summaries, as well as boxed-off tips and warnings that underscore especially important advice, the Business Alliances Guide gives you a new and exciting foothold in today's global economy, helping you fully tap the speed, synergy, agility, and relative safety of strategic collaborations.