Far from Mundane, Alliance Operations Is How Alliance Work Gets Done—and Can Make the Difference Between a Successful Alliance and One Plagued by Delays, Cost Overruns, and Other Inefficiencies
As sources of innovation and growth, strategic alliances and other collaborations can provide great value. By partnering, companies can often gain access to desired technologies, products, promising drug candidates, and other assets more cheaply than if they tried to build that capability themselves or to acquire the company that possesses it. In that way, alliances can be very effective indeed.
What alliances are not—at least not always—is very efficient in their operations. This is somewhat inherent in the nature of partnering; if a company can do something by itself, it follows its own rules, its own processes, and its own internal governance to make decisions and accomplish the objective. But when two or more companies seek to work together to achieve a common goal, they must grapple with very different organizational cultures, work processes, business models, and even calendars.
To be effective, alliances must find ways to smooth out these inherent inefficiencies. Along with maximizing value and minimizing risk, this is one of the primary roles of alliance management.
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