Managing Strategic Partnerships and Alliances

Introduction:

This Managing Partnerships and Strategic Alliances program is designed to equip you with the essential knowledge and skills for creating and managing a diverse range of strategic alliances and partnerships, both domestically and internationally. This includes joint ventures, licensing agreements, buyer-supplier relationships, and consortia.

The course will help you identify the conditions under which partnerships may be preferred over other expansion strategies, while pinpointing the associated costs and benefits. By the end of this course, you will have the practical tools necessary to handle the challenges of alliance management effectively.

Objectives:

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Analyze when it is better to create, buy, or form an alliance.
• Develop value-adding relationships.
• Avoid common errors that could lead to alliance failures.
• Negotiate successfully before alliance agreements are signed.
• Predict important legal, financial, and operational aspects in alliances.
• Manage their organization’s complex alliance initiatives concurrently.

Training Methodology:

• Group Discussions
• Case Studies
• Interactive Workshops
• Role-Playing Exercises
• Scenario-Based Learning
• Peer Learning
• Simulation Exercises
• Feedback Sessions
• Self-Assessment Activities

Course Outline:

Unit 1: Promises and Pitfalls of Alliances

• Evaluate risks versus returns.
• Avoid failure factors for alliances.
• Increase chances of successfully managing strategic alliances.
• Manage cooperation among a large number of partners.

Unit 2: Make, Buy, or Ally

• Understand the use of alliances as a business development strategy.
• Strategically and contractually protect your company’s interests.
• Recognize if your partner has a win/lose mindset.
• Revisit the network economy and the role of affiliations in a networked economy.

Unit 3: Alliance Decisions and Capabilities

• Transform relationships from vendor to partner.
• Expand partnership management across your organization.
• Design alliances focused on learning.
• Create internal alliances.
• Develop higher strategic alliance management capacities.

Unit 4: Economic and Governance Issues

• Manage cultural variances in alliances, especially in emerging markets.
• Understand alliances between competitors.
• Utilize a comprehensive stakeholder assessment framework.

Unit 5: Analyzing and Designing Joint Ventures

• Discuss strategic and operational considerations.
• Address legal, accounting, and financial issues that may arise.
• Discover the cooperation value within joint ventures.
• Anticipate conflict and instability in multiple alliances.