Building strategic alliances

Are you asked to provide new member benefits but are short of people or expertise?

One option to consider is to invest in developing strategic alliances with partner organisations that can bring in specialist resources.

The benefits of developing alliances are that you can develop new services faster and they give you access to experts and specialists with skills or knowledge that you do not have, for example in IT, manufacturing or technology. Also new partners may be prepared to carry the financial risk of a new project or bring you instant credibility in an area where you do not yet have any presence or credibility.

I have worked with several associations in the UK that have formed alliances to publish their member magazine, organise exhibitions, run award schemes, organise events and training. Other areas where associations have been successful include raising sponsorship, undertaking research projects, setting up international operations, marketing, PR, developing on-line bookstore and setting up electronic ordering.

However before you look for partners you need to consider:

• Which type of organisations will make good partners?

• What are the critical aspects of the relationship? For example, reciprocation is one of the five key elements for the arrangement to be a ‘win-win’ scenario so what do you have to offer the partnership?

• How should you structure the arrangement?

• What guidelines do you need to draw up?

• Is an internal marketing or communications plan required first? Will anyone in the association need to be convinced that this is a smart way forward?

• What are the important stages in the process of building a successful alliance?

• What is the best way to manage and maintain the relationship?

• What are the key pitfalls to watch out for? Which associations have formed successful alliances? What happened and what can you learn from their experiences?

 Here are seven tips:

1. No matter how beneficial the alliance looks in theory and on paper, unless it sits well in people’s minds and is warmly received by the press and public then you will be heading for trouble. So what will be the ‘perception’ of this arrangement by the members and also the public? A valuable exercise to work through is ‘worst case’ headline scenario’s if things went wrong.

2. The ability of the partners to work together is probably one of the biggest unknowns, so it might be useful to ‘test’ the relationship and commitment first by working on a smaller project.

3. Trust is the most accurate predictor of success and must come voluntarily and cannot be forced.  This takes time, so this is another reason to phase in the relationship while you get to know each other and better assess the quality of your communication, the chemistry, the personalities involved and their values, the existence of mutual respect and to find out the true culture of the organisation.

4. Clarify the details. What does ‘urgent’ mean?

5. Set out an ‘exit clause’ that allows partners to walk away with a clean break if the partnership does not workout.

6. Provide for contingencies. If emergencies arise how will they be handled? This will help you ease the fears of board members that you have thought through the full implications of the arrangement.

7. Develop a checklist of criteria to help you decide if an alliance is worth pursuing. This is because occasionally you will be approached to form an alliance and this helps you save time to decide if it is a worthwhile venture. Below you will find a template that you can use for this task.

8. Finally interesting that when you look closely at the definition of alliance, the word association is suggested as an alternative. Forming alliances should therefore come naturally for associations involved in building communities of like-minded people or organisations with common interests and you may already have many of the core competences required for building effective strategic alliances.

So next time you are asked to do the impossible, ask yourself could an alliance be a smart way forward? Alliances can help you extend your association’s reach and influence.

 This article was published in Association Manager in March 2005

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