Faced with new levels of savage competition, tens of thousands of
companies, including fierce competitors, are sharing their
resources and expertise to develop new products, achieve larger
scale economies, and gain access to new technology and new markets.
These strategic alliances are justifiably hailed by many as the
competitive weapon of the 1990s. But because they are blurring and
reshaping the very structure and boundaries of corporations in
unprecedented ways, the process of designing and managing these
alliances confronts managers with the awesome task of inventing
theory and practice on a daily basis. Up to now, they have had few
places to turn for guidance.
In "Partnerships for Profit, " Jordan D. Lewis, an
internationally recognized expert on strategic alliances, now
provides the first full-scale analysis of this surging global
phenomenon. During five years of intensive field research,
including 500 interview hours with more than 100 executives from
some 40 American, European, and Asian firms, Lewis has observed
firsthand some of the most successful strategic alliances and
alliance practitioners in the world. Drawing on the experiences of
IBM, Fuji Xerox, Ford, Dow Chemical, Intel, Komatsu, Corning, Sony,
Apple Computer, Ciba-Geigy, and many other companies, Lewis
brilliantly describes in detail how managers at each of these
pioneering firms structure and manage various kinds of alliances --
from informal cooperation, minority investments, and risk-sharing
contracts to full-fledged joint ventures and strategic networks.
Through actual examples, Lewis shows for the first time how
alliance partners build trust, develop mutual understandings, and
make joint decisions, and at the same time protect core interests
and critical technology -- a major concern of direct competitors.
Lewis explains how to avoid the "Trojan horse" blunder many
American firms made when they gave their Asian manufacturing
partners key information about tailoring their products to local
preferences. Particularly important is an entire chapter devoted to
working with other cultures. The employment of strategic alliances,
Lewis concludes, requires nothing short of a revolution in the
conduct of business. Unlike arm's length relations, in which
initial commitments govern, alliances involve shared risks and
ongoing mutual adjustments. Lewis shows how alliances inevitably
shape the business strategy of an entire firm, since the decisions
to target certain markets and commit resources involve groups of
firms acting in concert. Finally, Lewis shows how the use of
alliances will affect internal management policies and practices,
especially methods to bring about an outward focus and overcome the
"not invented here" syndrome. We have entered the age of strategic
alliances.
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