From the first day that I started my business (Alliance Best Practice) this has been the question most often asked by alliance professionals. Indeed it is actually the reason I started my business in the first place!
Way back in 2002 I launched ASAP (The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals) in Europe. Well I say I launched it, it might be more appropriate to say that I and a group of fellow alliance lunatics launched it! We had no idea at the time that the association would grow to over 2,400 members worldwide and become a great rallying point for collaboration professionals in multiple disciplines.
Anyway back to 2002 and our first meeting, we gathered excitedly at Cranfield University in March (a premier UK MBA School) for a one day meeting to discuss all things: partnering, alliances and collaborations. We talked about: trust, senior executive support, collaborative mindset and negotiation. We looked at case studies that proved that people who had a process performed better; and throughout it all people kept asking me ‘How?’.
OK Mike so you say trust is crucially important in a strategic alliance relationship, so how do you create it? Quickly and efficiently? What’s a good version of a joint business plan we can use, what should we consider when writing an alliance charter or MOUP (Memorandum of Understanding and Principles).
Throughout the day the members got more and more restless as they were ‘teased’ with an identification of best practices but weren’t given any output to show them how to achieve best practice results! The next day I started my business – ABP (Alliance Best Practice) with the tag line ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants’. The phrase is borrowed (originally) from Sir Isaac Newton who originally said: “If I have seen further than other men it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”.
And that’s exactly how I felt about my alliance efforts and knowledge. I was standing on the shoulders of giants in the alliance field who helped me without reservation to develop my alliance best practice insights and knowledge. People like: Robert Porter Lynch, Ard-Pieter de Man, Peter Pekar Jnr, Neil Rackham, Yves Doz, Mark Gordon, Stu Kliman, Jeff Weiss, Jon Hughes, Jim Bamford and Ben Gomes- Casseres.
All of that thinking and all of that depth of alliance knowledge convinces me that I now have an answer to that perennial question: ‘How do you execute on alliance best practices?’
The answer is: ‘With an alliance best practice methodology’!
Wikipedia describes a Methodology thus:
Methodology may be a description of process, or may be expanded to include a philosophically coherent collection of theories, concepts or ideas as they relate to a particular discipline or field of inquiry.
And that is exactly what Alliance Best Practice has been developing for the last 9 years!
A description of the process including a philosophically coherent collection of theories, concepts or ideas as they relate to achieving success with strategic alliance relationships.
I wil be posting more information about the ABP Strategic Alliance Methodology in the near future, if you would like more information or would like to contribute to the development of the methodology please feel free to contact me at info@alliancebestpractice.com
Best wishes
Mike Nevin
