Synopses & Reviews
While globalization and cutting-edge new technologies can offer spectacular business opportunities, they also pose strategic and logistical obstacles, driving many firms -- even traditional rivals -- to turn to alliances for help. Yet for all their growing importance, alliances still receive the most attention at the time they are created, with very little analysis or evaluation dedicated to the ongoing relationship. With "Alliance Advantage", strategy experts and bestselling authors Yves Doz and Gary Hamel shift the focus away from deal making and turn to the frequently overlooked internal processes that play a crucial role in shaping outcomes.
A fundamentally new approach to the value created through alliances, "Alliance Advantage" challenges the assumption that the economics of an alliance are the same as those of a joint venture. By exploring the underlying reasons why companies enter alliances and the unique opportunities for creating value that these strategic unions provide, the authors help bridge the gap between expectations and outcome.
Illustrated with examples from Xerox, Boeing, Honda, and Corning, "Alliance Advantage" presents an enlightening new opportunity to study, understand, and increase the effectiveness of strategic alliances.
Synopsis
Partnerships between companies receive a great deal of attention from top managers and researchers at the time of their formation. This attention results largely from the common perception that the initial structuring of partnerships and establishment of common goals determines partnership outcomes and success. In Alliance Advantage, Doz and Hamel shift the focus away from deal making to the internal processes within the partnership and the unfolding interactions among partners that play an important and relatively unexplored role in shaping outcomes. Focusing on the underlying reasons why companies enter alliances and the processes by which they continually learn from their interactions and re-evaluate commonand individualgoals, the authors paint a sophisticated picture of alliance dynamics over time. The authors challenge organizations to define their objectives for alliance formulation and consider whether their own corporate culture provides an "alliance ready" atmosphere.
About the Author
Yves L. Doz is the Timken Professor of Strategy and Management at INSEAD, France. Gary Hamel is the coauthor, with C.K. Prahalad, of Competing for the Future (HBS Press), an international bestseller with more than 300,000 copies sold.