Historically, alliance professionals have faced challenges engaging senior executives effectively. Too often, interactions center on routine updates rather than forward-looking, strategic discussions. At the 2025 ASAP Summit in Denver, Jan Twombly shared techniques to credibly communicate the contributions of alliance management in a manner that resonates with executive stakeholders. She also discussed how to create opportunities to bring value that empowers them in their alliance roles.

Use Your Superpower to Guide the Journey to Trusted Advisor

The reality is alliance professionals possess a unique and extraordinary ability to positively engage executive stakeholders in strategic, value-creating conversations.

• You are the go-to-expert about your partners and alliances, understanding the subtleties and nuances of each
• You’re the keeper of the North Star…and see both the big picture and the “weeds”
• You are the finder of possibilities
• You drive operational excellence in alliances and produce results
• You focus on cultivating relationships and building trust

These characteristics allow you to help executives make value-creating decisions in both internal and alliance governance forums and in the context of the overall portfolio of in-house and partnered assets.

Reimagining Executive Relationships

How does one become a trusted advisor to senior executives? As with all collaborative endeavors, start with what matters to the individual executive you wish to engage. It will emanate from company strategy and what the CEO cares about. Position your executive in the hierarchy (See Figure 1 – Interests Hierarchy) and think about who they ladder up to and what that senior executive cares about. For example, the chief development officer cares about development timelines, competitive landscape, and the probability of technical and regulatory success (PTRS). The chief commercial officer’s interests are around market position, market access, pricing, and lifecycle management.

Figure 1 – Interests Hierarchy

Don’t forget to consider the personal side, too. It matters where the executive is in their career. Do they aspire to become CEO or are they thinking about their exit from industry in a few years and imagining a second career? Values, ethics, risk tolerances, and communication style should be considered as you think about how to establish a relationship that will allow you to communicate in a way that resonates with the executive. That opens the door to bringing them valuable insights they can use in decision making. At the same time, they recognize the value of what you are bringing to the table.

Providing Relevant Valuable Information

With an understanding of what an executive’s interests are, you can select the relevant and valuable information to provide. Importantly, focus on data about alliances they don’t get from anyone else. For example:

• Assessment of actuals against initial deal assumptions, both financial and non-financial
• The value of cumulative milestones received/paid
• The value of cumulative cost sharing
• Summary of strategic and reputational value earned through the alliance
• Potential impact of alliance risks, including downstream implications of decisions once the dots are connected

Granted, some data may be easier to accumulate than other data. For example, it might not be possible to gain access to the initial deal assumptions on an alliance that has been underway for several years. And always combine with narrative and visualization to weave a story about the value being managed, together with potential opportunities and risks.

Imagining the Journey

As with anything trust based, it takes time and effort to achieve the influence you seek. We recommend that elevating stakeholder engagement is a team project, with team members each focusing on a single executive. While relationship building is intuitive to most alliance professionals, making it intentional and structured yields better results and is likely quicker than being opportunistic. Figure 2 – Journey to Trusted Advisor maps out the steps. Keep in mind this is an ongoing process and always come bearing gifts.

Figure 2 – Journey to Trusted Advisor

Also consider if team members need some help in building their skills in interacting with senior executives outside of formal updates. Imagine the questions an executive could ask and practice responses so that team members aren’t caught flatfooted if they don’t have the answer at the tip of their tongue. Practice storytelling by sharing an experience in a concise and engaging manner to build confidence in having a conversation not guided by slides. Reduce potential anxiety about unplanned interactions with executives by practicing speaking on a given topic for one to two minutes.

Over time, as you share relevant information and guide executive stakeholders’ interactions with partners, they will see you as a trusted advisor and go-to person regarding alliances.