any. A challenge in working together will be that of the representatives, usually top executives of the small can make decisions on the spot. Unfortunately, the employees of the giant must take a proposal up the chain of command. This sometimes slows progress to a snail’s pace.

Culture clash is a frequent Partnering challenge. The failed alliance of IBM and Apple is a typical example. The heralded early 1990s announcement promising cooperation eventually spawned Taligent Technology and Kaleida Labs. Unfortunately the two could not coexist so the alliances eventually gave way to a quiet breakup about five years later.

Putting all your alliance relationship eggs in the basket of only one executive or manager is not a smart idea. The management tenure of your alliance contact can signal success or fail

Do you want to succeed in developing and maintaining your needed strategic alliance, collaboration or partnering relationship? Then you must be ready to overcome the pitfalls and roadblocks before they arise--before they kill your alliance. Three of these such pitfalls are: Goals, Facts and Procedures Based.

Goals Based Pitfalls

In situations where a customer is the driving force behind a Partnering arrangement, you can be left holding the bag. Be sure to examine each Partnering proposal in the context of your company's overall business strategy. This challenge was recently apparent to IBM and it discontinued its alliance with Somerset PowerPC and Motorola, in producing microprocessors for Apple.

When sitting down at the Partnering table a partner might find the relationship seat uncomfortable. It could be that your partner has a different level of emotional and physical comfort, or sometimes it is simply a change in corporate strategy or a restructuring which leads away from a partner's product and/or technology causing the partners distress. It is important that you know the short and long-term goals of your alliance partner.

When you try to partner with a potential or current customer and have them renege on the promise of purchasing from you, the disloyalty challenges that can occur can be wasteful. Be cautious, as there is also the possibility of your partner being unethical and attempting to capture your technology or trade secrets. This is a difficult area from which to protect yourself, but if you do your due diligence, your chances for success increase.

Facts Based Pitfalls

Relinquishing some control with the expectation of greater shared returns can be a difficult waiting game. Additionally, your resources can get pulled in too many directions based on collective alliance decisions. Be certain you can spare the resources you devote to your alliance. Otherwise you may put the success of your entire operation in harm’s way.

The lack of third-party cooperation can be a true relationship problem. All the primary members of a Partnering agreement will have to give a little for your agreement to work. Worse yet is your partner receiving unfavorable or harmful media coverage. This is because you are usually pulled into the picture and believed guilty by association. Real or perceived, image and reputation are critical to any company's success.

Be careful in global alliances. Contracts with an overseas market, for instance, often take a long time to finalize. By the time you get going, in the technology industries, your competition may have already gotten started. If you are already behind and you have developed an alliance with a partner organization that is weak and bleeding, they will only bring you down faster and harder.

Procedures Based Pitfalls

It is easy to underestimate how much time, energy and resources will be necessary to commit to your new alliance. Then not having access to your alliance partner’s employees is an important issue. The closer the planned relationship between the two companies, the greater the importance of the linkages between them. You might find yourself in a situation of a small company Partnering with a large company. A challenge in working together will be that of the representatives, usually top executives of the small can make decisions on the spot. Unfortunately, the employees of the giant must take a proposal up the chain of command. This sometimes slows progress to a snail’s pace.

Culture clash is a frequent Partnering challenge. The failed alliance of IBM and Apple is a typical example. The heralded early 1990s announcement promising cooperation eventually spawned Taligent Technology and Kaleida Labs. Unfortunately the two could not coexist so the alliances eventually gave way to a quiet breakup about five years later.

Putting all your alliance relationship eggs in the basket of only one executive or manager is not a smart idea. The management tenure of your alliance contact can signal success or failu

ortable. It could be that your partner has a different level of emotional and physical comfort, or sometimes it is simply a change in corporate strategy or a restructuring which leads away from a partner's product and/or technology causing the partners distress. It is important that you know the short and long-term goals of your alliance partner.

When you try to partner with a potential or current customer and have them renege on the promise of purchasing from you, the disloyalty challenges that can occur can be wasteful. Be cautious, as there is also the possibility of your partner being unethical and attempting to capture your technology or trade secrets. This is a difficult area from which to protect yourself, but if you do your due diligence, your chances for success increase.

Facts Based Pitfalls

Relinquishing some control with the expectation of greater shared returns can be a difficult waiting game. Additionally, your resources can get pulled in too many directions based on collective alliance decisions. Be certain you can spare the resources you devote to your alliance. Otherwise you may put the success of your entire operation in harm’s way.

The lack of third-party cooperation can be a true relationship problem. All the primary members of a Partnering agreement will have to give a little for your agreement to work. Worse yet is your partner receiving unfavorable or harmful media coverage. This is because you are usually pulled into the picture and believed guilty by association. Real or perceived, image and reputation are critical to any company's success.

Be careful in global alliances. Contracts with an overseas market, for instance, often take a long time to finalize. By the time you get going, in the technology industries, your competition may have already gotten started. If you are already behind and you have developed an alliance with a partner organization that is weak and bleeding, they will only bring you down faster and harder.

Procedures Based Pitfalls

It is easy to underestimate how much time, energy and resources will be necessary to commit to your new alliance. Then not having access to your alliance partner’s employees is an important issue. The closer the planned relationship between the two companies, the greater the importance of the linkages between them. You might find yourself in a situation of a small company Partnering with a large company. A challenge in working together will be that of the representatives, usually top executives of the small can make decisions on the spot. Unfortunately, the employees of the giant must take a proposal up the chain of command. This sometimes slows progress to a snail’s pace.

Culture clash is a frequent Partnering challenge. The failed alliance of IBM and Apple is a typical example. The heralded early 1990s announcement promising cooperation eventually spawned Taligent Technology and Kaleida Labs. Unfortunately the two could not coexist so the alliances eventually gave way to a quiet breakup about five years later.

Putting all your alliance relationship eggs in the basket of only one executive or manager is not a smart idea. The management tenure of your alliance contact can signal success or fail

falls

Relinquishing some control with the expectation of greater shared returns can be a difficult waiting game. Additionally, your resources can get pulled in too many directions based on collective alliance decisions. Be certain you can spare the resources you devote to your alliance. Otherwise you may put the success of your entire operation in harm’s way.

The lack of third-party cooperation can be a true relationship problem. All the primary members of a Partnering agreement will have to give a little for your agreement to work. Worse yet is your partner receiving unfavorable or harmful media coverage. This is because you are usually pulled into the picture and believed guilty by association. Real or perceived, image and reputation are critical to any company's success.

Be careful in global alliances. Contracts with an overseas market, for instance, often take a long time to finalize. By the time you get going, in the technology industries, your competition may have already gotten started. If you are already behind and you have developed an alliance with a partner organization that is weak and bleeding, they will only bring you down faster and harder.

Procedures Based Pitfalls

It is easy to underestimate how much time, energy and resources will be necessary to commit to your new alliance. Then not having access to your alliance partner’s employees is an important issue. The closer the planned relationship between the two companies, the greater the importance of the linkages between them. You might find yourself in a situation of a small company Partnering with a large company. A challenge in working together will be that of the representatives, usually top executives of the small can make decisions on the spot. Unfortunately, the employees of the giant must take a proposal up the chain of command. This sometimes slows progress to a snail’s pace.

Culture clash is a frequent Partnering challenge. The failed alliance of IBM and Apple is a typical example. The heralded early 1990s announcement promising cooperation eventually spawned Taligent Technology and Kaleida Labs. Unfortunately the two could not coexist so the alliances eventually gave way to a quiet breakup about five years later.

Putting all your alliance relationship eggs in the basket of only one executive or manager is not a smart idea. The management tenure of your alliance contact can signal success or fail

lobal alliances. Contracts with an overseas market, for instance, often take a long time to finalize. By the time you get going, in the technology industries, your competition may have already gotten started. If you are already behind and you have developed an alliance with a partner organization that is weak and bleeding, they will only bring you down faster and harder.

Procedures Based Pitfalls

It is easy to underestimate how much time, energy and resources will be necessary to commit to your new alliance. Then not having access to your alliance partner’s employees is an important issue. The closer the planned relationship between the two companies, the greater the importance of the linkages between them. You might find yourself in a situation of a small company Partnering with a large company. A challenge in working together will be that of the representatives, usually top executives of the small can make decisions on the spot. Unfortunately, the employees of the giant must take a proposal up the chain of command. This sometimes slows progress to a snail’s pace.

Culture clash is a frequent Partnering challenge. The failed alliance of IBM and Apple is a typical example. The heralded early 1990s announcement promising cooperation eventually spawned Taligent Technology and Kaleida Labs. Unfortunately the two could not coexist so the alliances eventually gave way to a quiet breakup about five years later.

Putting all your alliance relationship eggs in the basket of only one executive or manager is not a smart idea. The management tenure of your alliance contact can signal success or fail

any. A challenge in working together will be that of the representatives, usually top executives of the small can make decisions on the spot. Unfortunately, the employees of the giant must take a proposal up the chain of command. This sometimes slows progress to a snail’s pace.

Culture clash is a frequent Partnering challenge. The failed alliance of IBM and Apple is a typical example. The heralded early 1990s announcement promising cooperation eventually spawned Taligent Technology and Kaleida Labs. Unfortunately the two could not coexist so the alliances eventually gave way to a quiet breakup about five years later.

Putting all your alliance relationship eggs in the basket of only one executive or manager is not a smart idea. The management tenure of your alliance contact can signal success or failure. If you have a one-person relationship, what happens if they get promoted out of the area, fired or even die? You are out of luck. Build relationships with several key contacts in the organization of your alliance partner.

What if your partner’s internal or external rewards structure interferes with the success of the alliance? This could apply to employees, customers or suppliers. If you are a supply partner and your partner has traditional rewards for their buyers, the buyers will only be interested in concessions and cost reductions. On the flip side, sellers usually offer rewards for sales performance and this also can be challenging in making a relationship work.

There certainly is a difficulty in communicating across various time zones. Solving problems quickly when your Partnering factory is located halfway around the world is hard enough, but when also speak a different language, that just makes it more of a formidable task.

Inertia, not having the emotional ownership in getting started is a true pitfall. Add this to chaos, seeing too many alliance choices and ways to create an alliance, some never do get started. The two sides of the sword are, if you wait for everything to be perfect, they never will. And if you do not put enough energy into an intelligent choice, your alliance could be doomed from its inception.