Managing a Strategic Alliance

Managing a strategic alliance

What is the best way to manage a strategic alliance? There needs to be a fit between the culture of the two organisations and the business benefits. Both have to see a win in the arrangement. There also need to be close working arrangements at all levels, from top management down. What commonly goes wrong is that the alliance is announced in the press, there is visible top management support, but then the benefits expected from the relationship somehow do not surface. On further analysis there is either a lack of good quality relationships at working level, or the situation shifts dramatically. This might be a change in exchange rates, the development of a new technology or some corporate disaster unconnected to the alliance. Managing an alliance is likely to be easier if there is no competitive activity between the partners elsewhere and if there are experienced managers to run the relationship at operational level. The following case study demonstrates what can go wrong with alliances.

Apa cara terbaik untuk mengelola aliansi strategis? Perlu ada kesesuaian antara budaya dari dua organisasi dan manfaat bisnis. Keduanya harus melihat kemenangan dari pengaturan tersebut. Ada juga perlu pengaturan kerja yang erat di semua tingkatan, dari manajemen atas ke bawah. Apa yang biasanya beres adalah bahwa aliansi diumumkan di media, ada terlihat dukungan manajemen puncak, tapi kemudian manfaat yang diharapkan dari hubungan tersebut entah bagaimana tidak permukaan. Pada analisis lebih lanjut ada baik kurangnya kualitas hubungan yang baik di tingkat bekerja, atau situasi bergeser secara dramatis. Ini mungkin perubahan nilai tukar, pengembangan teknologi baru atau bencana perusahaan tidak berhubungan dengan aliansi. Mengelola aliansi mungkin akan lebih mudah jika tidak ada aktivitas kompetitif antara mitra di tempat lain dan jika ada yang mengalami manajer untuk menjalankan hubungan di tingkat operasional. Studi kasus berikut ini menunjukkan apa yang bisa salah dengan aliansi.

Case study: the Renault-Volvo alliance

In 1990 Volvo and Renault agreed to establish a strategic alliance. They knew each other well through 20 years of industrial co-operation. The motives for the alliance were to exploit sizable potential synergies in joint product development, purchasing and manufacturing and to create complementary firms to compete in the global marketplace. The two CEOs got on very well and all the commentators thought that it would work. The alliance worked quite well initially but then the French began to push for a full merger. The Swedes resisted and broke off the arrangement. The subsequent problems almost bankrupted Volvo and most of the senior managers involved left. Research into the failed alliance concluded that the quality of relationships did not extend far enough down the organisation, while the aspirations of the state-owned French company were never fully discussed. Real cultural differences were not addressed, while the joint decision- making structure was very poor.