Articles on Strategic Alliances Flashcards
(22 cards)
What are the five principles of making alliances work?
- Focus less on defining the business plan and more on how you’ll work together
- Develop metrics pegged not only to alliance goals but also to alliance progress
- Instead of trying to eliminate differences, leverage them create value
- Go beyond formal governance structure to encourage collaborative behaviour
- Spend as much time on managing internal stakeholders as on managing the relationship with your partner
Why should firms in alliances focus on how partners will work together?
- Focus on interaction between companies
- Successful alliances depend on ability of individuals on both sides to work together as if they worked for the same company
Spend time up front to jointly define relationship both companies want
Why should there be alliance progress metrics?
- Often financial metrics such as revenue and profit are chosen, but alliances often take significant time and investment before they pay-off. By using only metrics for alliance goals, trust, confidence and commitment erode fast.
Develop alliance progress metrics such as information sharing, development of new ideas, speed of decision making. Increases corporate commitment when things are not going as planned.
How can alliance partners leverage differences to create value?
Systematically document difference between companies, discuss how they are perceived and review whether they might benefit alliance if not ignored or suppressed.
How can alliance partners encourage collaborative behavior?
Follow a dispassionate analysis of how both parties contributed to problems and what each can do to improve
It is vital that both parties work together in an efficient environment
Why should internal stakeholders of the alliance partners be managed?
Both firms in alliance are dependent on other units within their organization for the success of the alliance. Focus on managing these stakeholders too.
Make sure that in the negotiated alliance, executives of all divisions buy-in, not just some of them.
What are the two driving forces of the shift to ecosystems?
- Digitalization allows reconfiguration of activities like never before
- (de)regulation means that boundaries between previously well-delineated activities have dissolved. This has opened up the realm of competition.
What are ecosystems?
fluid networks of organizations combining to deliver bundles of products and services in new and unfamiliar ways.
What are the steps in the seven-step framework for building an ecosystem?
A1. Potential scope of play & target choice
A2. Competitive landscape & anchor analysis
Is a multi-actor ecosystem needed? Yes–>
B1. Role of firm & strategic approach
B2. Ecosystem value proposition
B3. Partner strategy
B4. Governance and engagement
B5. Metrics of success / KPIs and next steps
What do firms do in step A1 from the ecosystem building framework?
Narrow down where firm should be active within ecosystem
What do firms do in step A2 from the ecosystem building framework?
analyze what is the multi-product ecosystem’s competitive landscape and what are your anchors which could be used in multi-product bundles?
What do firms in step B1 form the ecosystem building framework do?
What role should firm play and what would be strategic approach
What are the distinct roles in ecosystem building?
- Orchestrator
- Partner
- Complementor
What are the objectives of the partner in an ecosystem?
Fulfill specific end-user needs from core business
Clearly differentiates products, services and brands
Secures own end-user points
What are the objectives of the orchastrator of an ecosystem?
Fulfill end-user’s central need
Provide core products and services
Arrange provision of further products and services from participants, sets rules of participation and governance
What do complementors do in an ecosystem?
Contributes to fulfillment of specific end-user need related to core business with a component
Designs products and services for different ecosystems, products easily integrated by different orchestrators and partners
What do firms do in step B2 from the ecosystem building framework?
Analyze what potential value can the firm offer to end customers and partners.
What do firms do in step B3 of the ecosystem building framework?
Asking and answering the question whom could the firm partner with and how could it attract partners?
What happens in step B4 of the ecosystem building framework?
How should firm run and govern / participate in ecosystem
What is the consideration in step B5 of the ecosystem building framework?
what benefits should firm expect and how should it be measured?
What is a multi-product ecosystems?
deliver new forms of integrated or bundled products or service offering solutions for customers
What are multi-actor ecosystems?
ecosystems denoting a different organizational form.
