The Strongest Link: Forging a Profitable and Enduring Corporate Alliance [Hardcover]

Gene Slowinski (Author), Matthew W. Sagal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2003

"What does it take to build a successful corporate alliance? The dramatically high failure rate -- estimated at 60 to 75% -- suggests that alliance managers often lack the knowledge and skills to determine strategic fit, negotiate win-win agreements, align organizational cultures, and -- perhaps most important of all -- get people to work together productively. This book provides the practical guidance needed to make alliances work. In The Strongest Link, strategic alliance experts Slowinski and Sagal draw on over 40 years of experience working with companies to form strong, profitable collaborations, including AT&T, NEC, Battelle, Eli Lilly, and Procter & Gamble. Packed with stories of these and other companies, the book features exclusive, proven methodologies for planning, structuring, and negotiating an alliance, as well as strategies for training participants in collaborative management. The Strongest Link is a true field guide, a down-in-the-trenches look at how to avoid the troubles that plague so many alliance efforts and how to forge a collaborative link that adds value to all participants."

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (June 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814407439
• ISBN-13: 978-0814407431
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #726,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful book, September 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Strongest Link: Forging a Profitable and Enduring Corporate Alliance (Hardcover)

Most books on alliances give broad advice or a 50,000 foot view of the topic. This book is different. It provides practical tools. My team now uses the Alliance Framework and Alliance Implementation Program to create and manage our deals.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on this subject, September 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Strongest Link: Forging a Profitable and Enduring Corporate Alliance (Hardcover)

I have read most of the books on strategic alliances. The Strongest Link is the first book I have found that provides practical, insightful, and detailed help on just what I should do to plan, negotiate, and implement these relationships. It will be immediately useful to anyone from a CEO or other corporate executives to managers who have specific alliance responsibilities. Give a copy to everyone in your company who deals with alliances.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very comprehensive. A real advance in alliance management, June 8, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Strongest Link: Forging a Profitable and Enduring Corporate Alliance (Hardcover)

The Strongest Link, a treatise on the management of corporate alliances by George Slowinski and Matt Sagal, has come towards the end of my career. This is too bad, since it is an excellent and comprehensive book on this topic, building on the twenty years of experience that the authors bring to the topic.

Based on this extensive experience gained from working on dozens of alliances, they have developed an "Alliance Framework" that covers the topic - from deal conception to the termination clauses. This systematic structure, using a six-step process, covers the process from end to end, and the text is full of useful advice on almost every aspect of success and potential failure. Given the extensive experience of the authors, they have seen just about everything that could and does happen, and developed scenarios to both exploit opportunities and counter challenges.

The authors admit that "creating and managing strategic alliances is an art" - but to help the "struggling artist" they have crafted an excellent how-to book. Despite their protestations that their Alliance Framework is "not a step by step check list", any alliance manager could do much worse than follow its advice to the letter.

The book is not an easy read. It is not to be skimmed on a flight to Tokyo. Rather the serious alliance manager will lock themselves in their office with pen and pad, and pour over the book page by page, to get the full benefit of the wealth of experience that the authors bring to the subject.

The book could benefit from more detail on individual deals. While the authors have distilled the essence of their multiple experiences, the readers could better learn from individual and practical examples. Although confidentiality is always as issue, whatever can be done describe real examples beyond the Battelle alliance, would significantly enhance the value of the book.