Our Blog – Collaboration Strategy

Cracking the Code on Alliance Performance

Posted Friday, November 12, 2010 at 03:00 AM by Norma Watenpaugh

Alliance Management Practices: Performers and Underperformers

All business managers, not just those managing alliances, have been challenged with navigating a stormy economy. We had to make decisions on where to cut back, how to to make the best of diminished resources, and still achieve targeted business outcomes.  2010 may show some glimmers of recovery but the outlook is still far from smooth sailing. PhoenixCG was chartered to do some research early this year to survey strategic alliance managers in the technology sector to learn what management practices were in place. And to learn what alliance managers were doing differently in the current economic climate.  What was working? What wasn't?  What course corrections should alliance managers implement to manage performance?

We segmented the respondents based on whether they met or fell short of their performance goals.  What we found was that in 2008, a year that ended poorly, 73% of the alliances surveyed actually met or exceeded their performance goals. ‘Exceeded goals’ was defined as having achieved 110-130% of their goal.

In 2009, a tough year all around, only 50% of the alliance reporting meeting or exceeding their goals. But a few actually expected to exceed their goals by over 130%.

We found that the performers in 2009 (those who met or exceeded their goals) were not hunkering down to weather the storm. Performers were taking a longer view, making bets, thinking more strategically. They were more heavily investing in joint solutions and offers. They were aligning their offers to government stimulus spending.  They were also measuring more strategic outcomes: market share gain and technology adoption.

Optimism prevailed in the projections of performanance in 2010. 87% of the respondents anticipated meeting or exceeding thier goals. It will be interesting to note if the optimism is justified.

Download the full report on “Cracking the Code" to learn how high performing alliances responded and thrived in a challenging economy.

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Culture of Collaboration

Posted Monday, August 23, 2010 at 09:00 AM by Norma Watenpaugh

Is your company partner friendly? Or is every attempt at collaboration an uphill battle? I heard one partner manager describe her partnership with one company as “hand-to-hand combat.” Another partner manager described his partner as “infested with partnering antibodies,” --...

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Collaboration Philosophy

Posted Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 11:00 AM by Norma Watenpaugh

Launching new website turned out to be much more of an involved exercise than I imagined. In this day and age, the website is the face of the company and so a new website caused us to rethink the business, the practice areas, and the positioning of PhoenixCG for the future.  Since the founding...

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Creating Value from Innovation and the Role of Alliances

Posted Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 11:52 AM by Norma Watenpaugh

Innovation takes many forms.  We often focus on innovation as technological breakthroughs and indeed those are important to fuel corporate growth.  But there are other forms of innovation which can be just as powerful and just as disruptive to the status quo in creating strategic competitive...

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Tags: alliance, Collaborative innovation, competitive strategy, innovation, partnering, partnerships, value creation

Collaborative Capability

Posted Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 05:52 PM by Norma Watenpaugh

Certification assures Collaborative Capability: Taking Partnering to the Next Level

I was fortunate to be featured in an interview for the Marketing Thought Leadership series with Linda Popky, Marketing Master and recently named one of Silicon Valley's Top 100 Women of Influence...

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Tags: alliances, collaboration, collaborative capability, partnering

Social Media at Your Service

Posted Monday, October 12, 2009 at 02:50 PM by Norma Watenpaugh

One area in which social media is gaining traction is support services.When you combine partners in an interactive forum they become a self-help community.When you add customers to the mix, your partners become very competitive in demonstrating their expertise to the customer base.The result...

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Tags: Social Media, self service communities

Is Social Media Crossing the Chasm in Partner Management?

Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 04:38 PM by Norma Watenpaugh

Findings from a Survey Conducted by Phoenix Consulting Group, June 2009Well, arguably yes and no. Some technologies that might be labeled early Web 2.0 were in pretty widespread usage. Others such as Twitter are caught up in the tornado. Some, such as MySpace, already seem...

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Tags: social media, partner marketing, ecosystem management, partner ecosystems

Strategic Alliances - More now than ever

Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh

Strategic alliances are often viewed as a strategy for growth and perhaps not always a strategy for economically challenging times. But many of the reasons that make strategic alliances a good idea in good times make them an even better strategy for uncertain times. What are these reasons to partner...

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Tags: strategic alliances, importance

Coopetition - Sleeping with the Enemy

Posted Friday, April 25, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh

The April meeting of the Silicon Valley/Norcal Chapter of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals featured a panel discussion on Coopetition. It turns out to be as hard to pronounce as it is to do. The panel often...

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Tags: alliances, cooperation, competition

Collaborative Innovation: Leveraging Partnerships

Posted Friday, March 28, 2008 at 11:17 PM by Norma Watenpaugh

"Collaborative Innovation: Leveraging Strategic Partnerships for the Global Playing Field" Sunday, March 30, 2008BlogTalkRadio: www.BlogTalkRadio.com/CoachforInnovation...

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Tags: partnering, innovation