Jump-Start Your Business’ or Organization’s Success With Strategic Alliances: Grow Faster With Less Effort
While I was talking to a potential client for my communications consulting business recently, an idea started forming in my brain. I started to realize that her nonprofit disability-related organization, The Divas With Disabilities Project (DWD), would be a great strategic ally for a new disability magazine I had been wanting to publish for years.
Our two entities, RESILIENCE magazine and DWD, were not competitors, and we could provide each other valuable benefits without costing either of us anything extra.
I immediately started brainstorming a plan for what I could offer DWD and what it could offer RESILIENCE magazine.
Basically, RESILIENCE would help spread the word about DWD and its activities and provide content that could be reused on DWD’s website, in its newsletter, and in its social media. This would also help DWD gain more subscribers and showcase its activities. As an older, more established entity, DWD would help RESILIENCE establish more authority in the disability community, help spread the word about it, and help it gain more subscribers. If it worked out as planned, each entity would gain value of tens of thousands of dollars in the short term and, depending on how long we worked together as allies, hundreds of thousands in the long term.
I was excited. It would be a win-win situation.
I contacted Donna Walton, the founder of DWD about my plan, and she agreed. “Deal me in,” she said.
We are now in the process of implementing that plan and hope it will bear fruit for each of our entities for years to come.
Such alliances are agreements between businesses or organizations to work together toward goals. Even if their goals aren’t necessarily the same, the actions they take may contribute to the other’s goals as well as their own. These alliances might be co-marketing efforts, licensing agreements, distribution agreements, joint ventures or other types of associations.
Here are a couple of examples of large-scale strategic alliances:
- Rotary International allied with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help defeat polio around the world. While expertise and funds are provided by the Gates Foundation, Rotary International provides volunteer workers.
- UNICEF allied with Procter & Gamble to help reach communities in need and provide them with safe drinking water. P&G supplies water-purifying products, and UNICEF gets them to those who need safe drinking water in areas it can reach.
Win-wins.
The Benefits and Drawbacks
As noted, there are many benefits to these arrangements, but there also potential cons.
Here are a few of the potential benefits first:
1. Reduced expenses for each. By distributing each other’s information, for example, they can get their information to more people without increasing their own distribution, marketing and advertising costs. This can help each of them increase their market share without breaking the bank.
2. Resource-sharing. Depending on the arrangement, they could also benefit from each other’s equipment or staff, for example.
3. Sharing the risks on efforts that might not succeed.
4. Strengthen the weak areas in their operations by using the strength of their ally in those areas.
5. Strengthen their own position and authority by being associated with their ally’s numbers, expertise or reputation. This can make each organization appear larger and more established than it really is.
Here are a few potential cons:
1. Conflicts of interest and disagreements. It is important that the missions and principles of the allies don’t conflict with each other to minimize this possibility.
2. Overdependence. If an entity is depending too heavily on a partner for any aspect of its operations, what happens if they break up?
3. Partial loss of control in decision-making.
In most cases, the pros will likely outweigh the cons as long as the terms of the agreement are carefully thought out, there is no competition between the allies, and the leaders of the entities get along well and respect each other.
As with any deal that founders decide to make, it’s important to evaluate it carefully, vet your potential allies carefully, develop open and transparent plans and communications, and agree on your expectations for each other.
A win-win in businesses and organizations may not come along often, so if you identify one, it’s probably a good idea to strive to make it happen.
Sometimes, moving your business or organization forward can feel like trying to move a stubborn donkey. Having an ally to help pull it forward while you’re pushing can be a real game-changer.
Six Signs of a Great Potential Ally
Its mission and values agree with yours—or at least don’t conflict with them.
It has resources that your entity can benefit from.
It can benefit from the alliance almost the same as you can.
If it’s a win-win for each entity, it is likely to remain strong. If one party benefits much less than the other, it might want to end the relationship because it isn’t getting enough value in return for its investment.
It has the ability to do what it agrees to do.
The entity and its leaders are compatible with yours.
Do they have a similar culture, communication style, and way of doing things, or will the two parties clash when it comes to actually working together?
It is close in proximity to yours if that would be helpful.
In many relationships today, this will not be an important consideration since technology has made geographic distance less of a concern. In many cases, it won’t matter at all.
“Allyship should be a verb because being an active supporter is not a sideline sport.” – Donna Walton
Click here to learn about EurekaVision and its services for founders.
If needed, EurekaVision can provide consulting services to help you identify and develop valuable strategic alliances for your business or organization. As noted in the article, these alliances can be worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars – or more!
For more information, contact Rick@EurekaVision1.com.