Customer Reviews

Intelligent Business Alliances: How to Profit Using Today's Most Important Strategic Tool

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am responsible for my company's strategic development activity. As such, I recognize that prudent strategic alliances serve as the lifeblood of a successful organization. Looking for advice, I called my colleagues at the Harvard Business School. They recommended Ms. Segil's book on strategic alliances. Her book, Intelligent Business Alliances, became our proverbial "how-to" guide for our strategic development endeavors. I am happy to report the completion of a number of beneficial and synergistic relationships. Ms. Segil's work helped craft, hone and execute my company's strategic vision.

In today's highly competitive global economy, the ability to create and manage effective valuable alliances is critical to success. Larraine Segil's unique insights into company personality types and alliance relationships are very thought provoking, especially her research into partner compatibility and cross-cultural communication. Her Mindshift approach as explored in "Intelligent Business Alliances," is a must-read for anyone seriously considering alliances.

So much of business development in this fast-paced Internet world is opportunistic. All too often corporate officers lose track of what's really important in the deals they structure -- the timing of a deal, the customers that a deal brings, and the internal demands of implementation -- all because they forget about the basic rules for business development. In this book, Segil lays out some valuable lessons for thinking about strategic alliances, but she does it with examples that bridge the online and offline worlds. This is a must-have for any business development group in a company, on-line or off-line, as well as for the senior executives who must manage companies.

This is a clean-cut no-nonsense approach to forming business alliances that may save you millions. Lorraine Segil is the creator of the Mindshift method of business alliances. 1000 companies went through her training on alliance management at Caltech. A third of these adopted the program and from this real-life sampling came this data. How alliances succeeded and how they failed were analyzed.

She discusses the nine different categories of alliances, their levels of risk and their levels of commitment. In forming an alliance one must be aware of where one's business is on its business cycle, the corporation's management style, and the purpose and goals for establishing an alliance. Once this is done, one uses her method for finding potential alliances and how to weed out the mismatches based on the above criteria. An organization and management team will be found to have a certain mindset that can be characterized.

Also, are you a global corporation or just an exporter? Answers and understandings are here.

Five Stars

This is one of the most useful books I have read on this subject. Outstanding. Companies could not do newest alliances without it. It is practical and obviously written by someone who has actually created and services such alliances.

This book is a must read for anyone who uses alliances. Segil's methodology is straigtforward and her keen insights are right on the mark. I am eagerly waiting for the release of her new book, "FastAlliances: Power Your E-Business" which is to hit the stories in January, 2001. I know this book will have a great impact on the way we do business in the new economy.

In-depth. Informative. A must-read, especially in light of today's e-economy. She's the expert!

People who give this book a poor review must be "politician' managers - or just missed the whole point. As an internet CEO where alliances are critical to success, Segil's book is our 'bible'. Without it we could not have developed the relationships we have with larger companies - often full of politician managers. Her Mindshift approach saved us time and money.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The methodology presented by Ms. Segil is extraordinary..... I cannot wait to use this information to make my alliances more successful.

This is a must-read for anyone involved in strategic alliances --- both internal and external. Segil's keen insights are right on the mark.