Partner managers need many skills to orchestrate collaboration between partnering organizations. Based on the requirements outlined by the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals[1], the successful partner manager must have developed skills that are not only specific to collaboration but also to broad business and industry knowledge along with an in depth understanding of their own organization. [...]
Skills, Aptitudes and Attitudes of Highly Successful Partner Managers There are key differences in skills, aptitudes and attitudes of a highly collaborative partner manager. They are skilled at adapting to an ever changing environment and operating in a world beyond the traditional organization boundaries. Their ability to collaborate is what provides them the relationship power [...]
Investment in Talent to Grow and Innovate To many organizations, alliances and strategic partnerships are “the new way businesses grow and innovate,” particularly as they experience a rising profile within the C-suite. As partnership alliances become an increasingly important source of innovation for companies, they are integral to future success. One study cites that 51% of [...]
One of the challenges of professional development is retaining the knowledge and incorporating the new learning into the day to day business practice. Most of us intuitively understand the limitations of classroom training. While most well-crafted training includes discussion and practice exercises, it is through immediate use that learning is best retained and the business results are realized. Reinforcement and motivation [...]
Success Begins at the Top It is hard to overstate the importance of a champion at the senior levels of the organization. Many alliances fail or falter when they lose the executive champion and the role is not back filled with a strong leader. The role of the champion is many fold. They represent the [...]
No one graduates from school with a degree in Alliance Management and most of us have found ourselves in the profession quite by accident. I’ve asked people how they have come into the profession and there is quite a spectrum. Many come from technical or scientific disciplines when products are created through a collaboration of [...]
“Collaboration is the number-one trait CEOs are seeking in their employees, with 75 percent of CEOs calling it critical” in IBM’s most recent 2012 study surveying 1700 CEO’s. But this skill is in short supply. Collaboration has fallen into the skills gap. It should be a time ripe for opportunity for partner managers as experienced collaboration managers. [...]
Aligning team members and stakeholders to support the work of an alliance or any business relationship can be surprisingly treacherous. One would think that if the strategic intent and return on investment on an alliance is clear the rest falls into place. Well, guess again. At PhoenixCG we look at team alignment in two dimensions: [...]
I did a study three years ago of partner health across 14 strategic alliances and about ~400 respondents and found something very interesting about the nature of trust in alliances. We did a correlation of heath attributes against overall partner health. We found that when 'trust' was present it did not score very high in [...]
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. In this podcast interview, I was asked to speak about the growing recognition [...]