Table of Contents

Contents: Foreword; Preface: how it all began. Part I Emerging Alliance Best Practice: Alliance success factors; Common challenges. Part II Alliance Analysis: Benchmarking alliance relationships; Organisational alliance maturity; Alliance optimisation; Creating a new strategic alliance. Part III Common Success Factors: The commercial dimension; The technical dimension; The strategic dimension; The cultural dimension; The operational dimension. Part IV Special Strategic Alliances: Co-opetition: sleeping with the enemy; Insource/outsource/smartsource. Part V Developing Alliance Capability: Partnering with SMEs; Developing alliance programmes; Alliance standards and schemes; The strategic alliance professional; Collaboration: the future. Appendices; Index.

About the Author

Mike Nevin is the founder and first chairman of ASAP Europe, The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals. He now runs his own consultancy firm, Alliance Best Practice Ltd (www.alliancebestpractice.com). This is a research and benchmarking consultancy specialising in collaborative business-to-business relationships (alliances and partnerships). The consultancy uses proven methodologies and tools (alliance best practices) to help clients initiate and manage alliances. It also maintains a database of over 200,000 observations of alliance best practice in action. The company has worked with over 300 alliance leading companies including; IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Capgemini, Accenture, Logica, Tieto, BT, O2, Rolls Royce, GSK, AstraZeneca, DuPont and BASF.

Reviews

'The methodology that the author describes in this book matches exactly the processes that an experienced alliance manager would recognise as best practice. By identifying this with his 52 common success factors, the author has described a template that can be used by any alliance manager to build a successful alliance and to diagnose where there are weaknesses in the relationship.' Jim Whitehurst, Alliance VP, SAP and former UK President of Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals 'At last, the one book which accelerates an Alliance program between companies using a common methodology. Creates an aurora between Alliance partners where each has the desire to work together delivering exceptional joint propositions. This book will be utilised by Canon worldwide.' Frank Steggall, Striata 'This book takes a comprehensive and critical view of alliance best practices and presents a structured and practical system for both analysis and intervention. Importantly, it has been thoroughly road-tested through Mike Nevin's vast experience of assisting companies to improve their partnering capabilities. A key strength is its applicability across different industry sectors. A must for any serious partnership professional!' Peter Thurlby, Principal Consultant, Phase7 'In this book, Mike Nevin, a strategic alliance practitioner with over 25 years' experience brings together a comprehensive model of common success factors which can be identified as being best practice for strategic alliances. ... The comprehensive explanation of the 52 success factors and their relevance is supported throughout the book via 34 case studies. These case studies demonstrate both best practice in alliance partnerships and provide insightful lessons to be learnt in the development and implementation of a strategic alliance.' Jeremy Noad, Corporate Strategy and Performance Transformation, The Linde Group 'The 'Strategic Alliance Handbook' is the most comprehensive examination of the 'Art' and the 'Science' of strategic alliances that I have seen. It includes both the higher level theoretical/strategic perspective with the practicality of real world examples and case studies. It is an extremely useful tool that can be used by alliance leadership and practitioners to support execution in the marketplace. John Sweeny, Alliance Program Director Deloitte 'You cannot build a successful alliance by rote - it is as much an art as a science - and this book expertly covers both aspects equally well. The Common Success Factors guide the reader through the science - a comprehensive discussion of what to consider. The Case Studies and examples from Mike's own experience give a guide to the artistic aspects. Working through the various strategic and tactical decisions that must at least be considered, the book offers value to everyone involved in Alliances.' Clive South, EMEA Alliance Manager at Hewlett-Packard