Smaller companies can compete with industry giants by pooling resources with carefully chosen partners.

Only a few companies — giants such as Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Dell, and Toyota — are in the enviable position of being able to leverage their size into operational scale that consistently drives down per-unit costs and increases efficiency, creating sustainable competitive advantages. And as these companies enhance their lead, the rest of the pack faces a disturbing prospect: Lacking a dominant market position or funds to acquire other businesses, smaller companies are finding that achieving the level of scale required to catch up to industry behemoths is fast becoming a futile pursuit. To make matters worse, “predators” are coming from all sides — that is, predators are now not just traditional competitors in the same industry, but also customers and suppliers, who are dead set on taking a bigger bite out of the margins earned by manufacturers.

The Profit Power of Partnerships

For many top companies, revenue from alliances is growing more than 20 percent annually. What goes into a successful alliance? From Harvard Management Update.

by Loren Gary

Making a corporate marriage work

By Stefan Stern

The deal has been signed, the analysts have been charmed and the press conference is over. But before placing an extra order for tomorrow's newspapers, the wise chief executive will remember that the hardest part of a merger or acquisition is just about to start. 

Not by M&A alone

Sometimes alliances make more sense than mergers or acquisitions.

By David Ernst and Tammy Halevy

As high-tech companies wrestle with the coming wave of restructuring, executives should consider the full range of deal options: not just mergers and acquisitions but also alliances and joint ventures. In some cases—when companies are unwilling to sell or acquisition premiums are too high—alliances are the next best thing to a merger. In other cases, they are actually preferable to M&A. Experience from a range of sectors shows that high-tech CEOs and CFOs should consider several types of transformational alliances.

Business as usual

The European Union has missed another opportunity to make its economy more competitive

ONLY four years ago at a summit meeting in Lisbon, the leaders of the European Union unveiled with all the flourish they could muster the grand goal of becoming the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by the end of this decade. Their declaration was supposed to herald wide-ranging reforms, whose centrepiece was supposed to be improving the rules that govern business. The idea was not just to create a deeper single market, but also to boost the EU's sluggish growth and cut its high unemployment. Last week, one of the most important reforms was finally agreed to by the EU's 25 member countries—a directive setting out a single set of rules for mergers of companies across national borders. This initiative has finally come to fruition after fully 20 years of discussion and debate (see article). Despite that investment of time and effort, and despite the ambitious goals set at Lisbon, the resulting directive is a hopeless failure.

Happy Together

Many business partnerships end in disaster.
Yours doesn't have to.

By: Dimitra Kessenides

Marty Ambuehl and Neil Clark truly enjoy being business partners. They appreciate each other's relaxed and playful attitude toward what they do, and like the way each partner challenges the other to do better, more creative work. "We push each other," Ambuehl says. "We balance each other very well."

Alliantievertrouwen, een beetje inzicht doet wonderen!

Door drs.ing. Andres Jansen

Vertrouwen (trust) is een vereiste om uw alliantie uitmuntend te maken. Vertrouwen binnen een alliantie in Nederland blijkt zich volgens een vast patroon te ontwikkelen. Dat is niet alleen het geval bij grote allianties als tussen Cisco en KPN, maar ook bij een Joint Venture als Public Transport Systems te Eindhoven. Als we weten hoe het vertrouwenproces verloopt, dan hebben we handvatten om te sturen en te agenderen.

Allianties als nieuwe marketinghype?

1. Na Senseo de thuistap
2. Allianties: successen en debacles
3. Allianties om verzadigde markten open te breken
4. Analyse van deze trend, ook B2B

The Most Common Partnering Mistakes (6 t/m 11)

Partnering Mistake 6 - Misplaced Haste

It is far easier to get into trouble than to get out of it.

The Most Common Partnering Mistakes (1 t/m 5)

Partnering Mistake 1 - Cutting Yourself Too Good of a Deal

If you are dealing with a long term relationship, it's dangerous to cut yourself too good of a deal. Even short-lived partnerings are
likely to last several years. You are negotiating a relationship, not a transaction.