George Tyler //July 16, 2012//
In a recent press release, Hallmark, the world’s leading greeting card brand, announced a strategic alliance with Shutterfly Inc., a leading Internet-based digital photo site. The goal is to have “exclusive Hallmark-designed customizable cards featured on Shutterfly’s new personalized greeting card site, Treat.com.”
According to Investopedia.com, a strategic alliance is…
…an arrangement between two companies that have decided to share resources to undertake a specific, mutually beneficial project.
Different from joint ventures – which generally involve pooling resources to create an entirely new business entity – strategic alliances allow companies to maintain their autonomy while engaging in an entirely new business opportunity for mutual gain.
To do it right, an Inc. Magazine article, “How to Build Business Alliances,” provides some suggestions on managing strategic alliances. We’ve gathered the information into 9 steps (plus one of our own).
Making strategic alliances work requires you to:
For this last one, we did a little research and found the Leadership Post article, “Successful Strategic Alliances: How to create a mutually agreeable measure of success.” Specifically, writers Andrew Brown and Phill Hogg recommend establishing strategic, revolving, relationship and customer measures jointly.
Ultimately, strategic alliances offer opportunities for growth and market expansion that one company cannot secure alone.