Mastering Alliance Strategy

Mastering Alliance Strategy is by far the most practical and comprehensive book ever written on building and managing alliances. It will be equally useful to CEOs, line managers, and specialists in any company that has or plans to have alliances. --Sumantra Ghoshal, professor, London Business School; coauthor, Managing Across BordersSuccessful business alliances today are critical to the competitive advantage of many companies. Mastering Alliance Strategy presents state-of-the-art thinking and practices for using partnerships effectively. This essential resource will help you understand and use alliances better, whether you are a new or seasoned alliance professional, a business-development specialist, a line manager, or a top executive. The authors argue that the secrets to success lie not solely in the intricacies of a deal but also in the strategy and organization behind the deal. They draw ideas and tools from years of research and reporting on four elements that are key to an effective alliance strategy:* Designing the alliance and crafting the agreement* Managing the alliance after it is launched* Leveraging a constellation of alliances* Building an internal alliance capabilityWritten in an accessible style and filled with advice and useful ideas, this book describes models used by dozens of companies and contains work from over fifteen contributors from business, academia, and consulting. Executives at all levels will gain new insights on the fundamentals of planning, negotiating, and governing an alliance, as well as learn how to develop powerful networks of partners and build world-class alliance capabilities.