1.You need to develop a focused winning strategy for the strategic relationships. The strategy focuses on distinctive competencies and competitive advantages of the strategic partners in the selected target market.

2.Clear defined objectives are important to ensure that there is no conflict or goal divergence amongst the strategic partners

3.Select a partner based on your goals, objectives and winning strategies.

4.An effective structure that has a clear purpose to manage and govern the partnership.

5.Develop core competencies in collaboration and find people who have the ability to work in such an environment.

6.Tactfully handle the cultural challenges that may arise between alliance partners.

7.Communication lines should be always open and clear, as alliance is an effective use of unified knowledge and resource pools.

8.A strong level of trust should be developed in formal as well as informal contracts.

With Strategic Relationship, you can make substantial increases in revenue while simultaneously decreasing costs. It also helps in the sharing of research costs while increasing your virtual inventory and product offerings. It also increases the level of knowledge and expertise through the exchange of information. The biggest advantage offered by strategic alliance is the increased number of customers and the expansion of client base.

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Strategic Planning Steps Defined

While there are several different approaches to implementing Strategic Planning Steps , most models use the following definitions:

* Mission definition : The mission definition stage of Strategic Planning encourages an organization to develop a brief description of purpose to Inform potential stockholders, employees and customers what they can expect from the company. From the mission definition, a mission statement can be developed that serves as a company’s calling card and core focus description.

* Vision/Trend Analysis : The next facet of Strategic Planning Steps directs a company to analyze current market trends and make committed decisions about where the business is heading. Defining long term goals and visualizing the future of the organization can help to focus current activities and important financial decisions.

* Strategic Objectives : Once long term goals have been set, the strategic objectives phase consists of formulating actual business plans to achieve the visualized goals. One acronym used frequently in this stage of Strategic Planning Steps is SMART. SMART stands for the type of objectives to be developed to fully realize the company’s long term goals. These objectives include:

o S – Specific objectives

o M – Measurable objectives

o A – Achievable objectives

o R – Resource-based, realistic objectives

o T – Time-frame assessed objectives

* Critical Success Factors : Important milestones and achievements key to goal realization should be identified at the critical success factor stage of Strategic Planning. Singling out these factors provides an easy means for measuring the ongoing success of the business plan.

* Actions to be Implemented : After critical success factors have been identified, the next phase involves the development of action plans need to realize success. Specific tasks and organizations management strategies are designed to effectively implement the business plan. Task management is often defined by the core competencies required for each position in the company.

* Performance Analysis and Progress Measurement : The last of the most common steps is comprised of formulating methods by which to measure the organization’s progress. Comprehensive performance analysis tools and measurement criteria are developed to effectively monitor the success of the current system. These tools can be used to report both internally and externally on the progress and growth of the company.

  Following Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, the world’s second-largest digital camera maker?? Canon and Suning, has recently formed a strategic partnership. November 29, Canon (Asia) Co., Ltd. Hideki Ozawa, president led a delegation first visited the headquarters of Nanjing Suning Appliance and Suning Zhang Jindong, chairman, Vice President Jin Ming, Deputy Director Wang of the procurement management center and other executives were in-depth conversations on the digital market in the next few years the rapid development of prospects to reach a consensus, and the Canon digital cameras in China to promote strategic alliances. Expert analysis, with the world’s four major digital brands have formed a strategic alliance with Suning, Suning Alliance formed the intention of 2008, a large 3C began to surface.

Su Ning, the global digital giant fly

3C chain Express Statistics, Canon is the world’s leading imaging and information products manufacturing the integrated group. Since its inception in 1937, after years of unremitting efforts, Canon has their own business and expand into all areas of globalization. At present, Canon’s product line were distributed in three main areas: personal products, office equipment and industrial equipment, the main products include cameras and lenses, digital cameras, printers, copiers, fax machines, scanners, radio equipment, medical equipment and semiconductor production equipment.

Canon headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, and in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Japan with four major regional sales headquarters, with subsidiaries around the world 203. In 1997, Canon (China) Co., Ltd. established in Beijing, became responsible for Canon’s investment in China and other related businesses. In 2002, Canon will be Asia’s marketing headquarters moved from Hong Kong to Beijing, and started to exercise the right of domestic sales.

Canon started with optical technology, and to produce world-class camera as the goal, a leading global manufacturer of digital cameras. And as a country of 1.3 billion people, China’s vast market prospects of many multinational companies have been salivating for a piece of fat meat. Canon has been seeking to enter China after the Chinese digital market-leading position, after several years of development, are among the digital Canon Big Three bis, but Samsung’s strong development momentum, the status of a great catch up with Canon momentum, so how accelerate the development of China’s market position in a firm hold on the basis of the existing catch up with Sony, Canon has become the most important goal for future development.

Hideki Ozawa, president, said Canon’s business development in China not long, but the past two or three years into China, while Canon’s development process in China, Suning Appliance has been a Canon one of the most important partners in sales volume, growth performance, brand display, supporting services for the Canon tremendous support. The visit Suning Appliance Headquarters, one important objective is to study the latest Suning 3C + flagship model, while the up close and Suning Xinjiekou flagship store, the Ozawa president of emotion, said Su Ning has “moved client” side reached Canon and many other global companies ahead.

Hideki Ozawa, president also compared Road, China’s home appliance market is currently experiencing Japan has gone through a stage in the past is accounted for by the manufacturer of the leading market position, in the absence of adequate market research to launch its own after products, customers no choice, can only passively accept the product, resulting in product and consumer demand of the phenomenon. Later, the degree of increase as the market, consumers have become more rational, more and more sophisticated consumer concept, manufacturers can not meet the consumer demand will quickly die out, making the Japanese manufacturers and vendors have to work quickly The center shifted to their customers, can afford to how much to “move client”, a decisive condition for the survival and development. At present, the Chinese appliance market to market similar turning point, which in this adjustment process, Suning “all consumer-centric” 3C + shopping patterns will undoubtedly occupy the commanding heights of industry.

Hideki Ozawa, president revealed that he is the most basic of sales from the start, in the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand for over 30 years, years of overseas work experience and cooperation with a large number of dealers so that he can judge the success of an enterprise, went into the store visit can be seen slightly. Suning Appliance Xinjiekou during a visit to the shop, Hideki Ozawa on the future development of Suning is full of confidence, he believes that the success of Suning Appliance is now obvious, and through research he boldly predicted: the future of Suning Appliance will achieve greater success, such as Japan is fully capable of beyond Bigcamara, Yodobashi and other home appliances chain, into the world’s top enterprises. This is what attracted Canon and Suning the main reason to start all-round strategic partnership.

Said Zhang Jindong, chairman of Suning Appliance Suning advanced concepts and innovative absorb a lot of experience from foreign counterparts, and lessons learned, Suning and refined it by adjusting the most appropriate national conditions of China. Such as Canon, the world’s top 500 brands, Suning and its launch a strategic cooperation in the new product promotion, management innovation, scale and effectiveness of sales, marketing concepts, consumer research, gained enormous benefits. It is reported that the next strategic agreements reached, and the previous photoelectron Samsung, Panasonic, Sharp and other brands like, including consumer information sharing, product customization development, new starting right into the shop to improve the rate of large-scale introduction of printers, copiers, scanners and other OA product display area and expand the terminal and other content, sales targets were set in the years to reach 800 million by 2007, the 2008 breakthrough 1.5 billion.

Due Deligence is terminology which describes many notions involving either the performance of an investigation of business of person or the performance of an act with certain standards of care.  In simple terms it is the method through which the acquirer evaluates the potentiality of a target company for a strategic alliance in the form of an acquisition. Even in the case of a merger the transferor company may conduct a due deligence upon the transferee company before the deal is finalized. Thus it can be said that due deligence permits the potential buyer to find out each and everything about the target company before acquisition.

The due deligence sets for the certain information based on which the potential buyer is able to decide on certain factors such as withdrawal from acquisition, adjustment in the valuation of the investment and any remedy for the problems in the course of the entire transaction. Strongly, the results of a due deligence would give out information such as the analyses of the target company, additional information uncovered during the investigation and most important factor of the various risks involved. For illustration consider the pack of chips with the declaration of ingredients, nutritional facts, price, dates of manufacture & expiry. The manufacturer provides all these details in order give the buyer a brief information about the product that is about to be purchased from him. In simple words it is awareness to be created for the buyer.

A simple due deligence report would be inclusive of details such as Company Profile, Division of Shares, Employees, Financial information, Immovable Property, Assets of the Target Company, Intellectual Property, Taxation, Insurance and Liabilities and litigations pending against the company.

 From the above list of details the company acquiring the target company can obtain details about the scope of investment and the presumed results that could be obtained from the acquisition. Usually the due deligence reports are made by the experts either hired by the company or the experienced employees of the transferor company. When a law firm or agency is hired to make the due deligence reports the first step is have Indenture of Confidentiality be made by the target company and the firm. This indenture is important because all the confidential information is provided by the target company to the firm, which can not be risked to be leaked out into the market.

Due Deligence is sole root cause which can given credit for most successful strategic alliances that have been witnessed by the Global Corporate Markets. Due Deligence creates the awareness for the Buyer or Transferor Company before the alliance takes place.  In many a circumstances it was seen that alliances between corporates was not possible as there was no favorable result in the due deligence. With its wide usage and results, Corporate Due Deligence has been seen as major step towards Intensification of business through strategic alliances and the entire credit bears upon the “Notion of Caveat Emptor”.

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This type of alliance transfers to the marketer a unique technological edge. The marketer’s objective in many such cases is to keep competitors at bay, grow market share or create enough performance value to justify a higher price. For the developer partner, aligning with the marketer provides a significantly extended market reach that simply translates into the sale of an increased number of units as well as a branding leap into greater market visibility.

This deal constitutes an excellent exchange of value for both partners. But as business alliances are not forever, the true assessment of the deal’s value must be evaluated over time. In its early days Microsoft supplied DOS in a partnership with IBM’s original desktop PC. In time Microsoft’s OS took over the PC market supplying all manufacturers. IBM was forced to back up out of the PC driveway, but it learned the power of partnering brilliantly transforming its business model into the world’s most prolific and successful IT services partnership network builder.

Acquiring a Unique Value Proposition

Of the many reasons for initiating a strategic alliance, the most highly-sought after type is one that creates a “unique value proposition” (UVP) – the three golden words so enticing to venture investors throughout the world.

How do you get UVP if you don’t produce it?

A strategic alliance can transform nearly any traditional sales and distribution enterprise into a uniquely positioned provider — all you need are customers! Have your considered this? Transform your company instantly into an unstoppable juggernaut simply by formulating a strategic alliance with one or more suppliers who may add a unique piece to your package, program or end-to-end offerings. Suddenly, your company acquires a UVP. More orders, greater equity value…before you know it, investors come sniffing around.

What are they looking for?

They want to know what you’ll do for your next act.

Sure. That first alliance you just made was a successful move. It got attention. And it’s working. But, don’t get too busy with that. Save some time for developing additional alliance ideas. You need to look at your company’s future in terms of a total, long-term strategic alliances plan.

Six key questions to formulating a long-term alliance road map

Use these six Partner M questions to develop your own alliance road map:

- What are my core competencies?
- What are my customer assets?
- How bad are the performance gaps as experienced by my customer/user?
- What are the innovative upgrades desired by my customer/user?
- How well are my competitors performing in areas where we are weak?
- Where do we perform better than our competitors?

Now answer this:
Can you locate and negotiate a deal with potential suppliers who can deliver to you
a unique product or service that:
(a) your company cannot duplicate more profitably with its core competence;
(b) will be highly valued by your customers;
(c) will fix a problem or enable you to offer customers an optional upgrade;
(d) will strengthen an area where you had been weak; or,
(e) will help insure that you can continue to outperform our competitors?

If your answer is yes to any one or more of these options, then you have the basis for a strategy that would result in higher order volume, as well as a path to added value and increased brand equity.

How do you validate that assumption?

Project the pros and cons of executing your alliance plan

Calculate a scenario assuming the amount of revenue you could generate and profits you would achieve after you’ve found one such partner and have successfully negotiated an alliance.

Be sure you have identified and adjusted your projection for any possible downside and cost of implementing the partnership. Next, forecast where you’ll be in three years without this  alliance or a comparable strategy.

In addition you should assess the impact of your alliance on the competition with a sober determination of how they may react. Here is where the value of establishing a ‘unique alliance’ becomes so important. Paradoxically, your alliance’s UVP shelf life must be viewed as both temporary and continuous. Any one alliance you enter is temporary. Your strategy must be continuous.

How temporary is your alliance? If any of your competitors can match your partnership with another and duplicate the contribution of your unique ally in fairly short order, your UVP will not last long. You may need to move faster to extend the your UVP shelf life and begin to plan your next UVP partnership. Within this scenario you would need to move faster on the alliance front or find yourself having to play deep catch up if your competitor takes the initiative before you do.

Design an ongoing alliance strategy

To develop a continuous UVP plan extend your alliance road map by duplicating your forecast calculations to include all potential alliances you foresee into the future. How far can you go using this strategy? If possible, don’t stop until you’re able to imagine this process reaching a global scale or an exit strategy. Finally, your alliance plan must weigh alliance costs and risks against the benefits/costs/risks of alternative strategies.

Whether your enterprise takes the role of a marketer or a supplier, you should consider formulating a phased-in partnership plan containing a list of target partner prospects, financial validations, a timeline and undertake a marketing initiative aimed at shaping a receptive and synergistic relationship with partner executives and operational teams. Executing the plan is your next challenge. Don’t hesitate to seek help in developing your plan and making it happen.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.’s chief executive, Scott A. Livengood, ended his functions as a chairman of the company Jan. 18, during the time when company’s legal and financial troubles are at their peak. The company began experiencing trouble a while ago and the factors leading to current situation are numerous. People watching the industry, are not optimistic about future prospects of Krispy Kreme. One of the major issues facing the company today is Federal investigations concerning their accounting practices. The manner in which company performs its accounting does not correspond with current laws and GAAP standards. Krispy Kreme repurchases franchises and according to earnings quality analyst Rob Miceli of Camelback Research Alliance Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz., Krispy Kreme does not amortize, in other words reduce the value, of those bought assets on its books over time. Clearly the company is violating the industry norm. On the other hand, in case if company would follow the law, the value of its purchased franchised units would reduce the total assets carried by Krispy Kreme on its balance sheet and thus make profits look smaller, as the items being amortized are considered a spending against earnings. The federal search has to look into the company’s purchases of formerly franchised doughnut shops and figure out in what way the company accounted those operations for.

Bad signs of company’s failing health were showing during the first quarter of the current fiscal year which ended last May 2 when the company informed about its first quarterly loss since going public in 2000. Krispy Kreme booked a net deficit of .4 million for the period stated, that amount included a .3 million charge related to the company’s spending on purchase of Montana Mills bakery-cafe chain, in 2003 for million. For the vivid comparison we should look at the following figures: quarter, ended Oct. 31, Krispy Kreme reported a net loss of million, meaning- 5 cents a share, versus a profit of .5 million, or 23 cents a share, in the quarter one year ago. The revenues of 0.1 million accounted for only 1.4 percent increase compared to previous year results. Krispy Kreme said that for the eight weeks ended Dec. 26 average weekly sales fell by18 percent in all company’s operations and 25 percent at corporate factory stores, as opposed to prior-year levels. In the sight pf current events Krispy Kreme began an internal audit that led to restated financials for fiscal 2004, and as a result those amounts restated earlier in January, 2005 would reduce last full-year profits of 2004 by 6.6 percent to 8.6 percent, or between .8 million and .9 million. Also the company is likely to restate the records for the first and second quarters of fiscal 2005. All of the actions urgently taken by the company are necessary for the company’s actual survival, as they have lost the trust of both their shareholders and the government.

In the recent year company’s sales growth from their stores were as little as 0.1% and Krispy Kreme said it would slow unit growth and would only be opening 75 new stores except of 100 scheduled. This strategic move is directed on the reevaluation of company’s overall strategy and also it would save them money which they have to repay to their lenders, currently a sum of .9 million.

As already has been mentioned the stocks earnings fell considerably with the profit loses, but the prices of shares have been falling since last May as well. The company’s stock price volatility which mainly began in May was resulted by the company’s first revealed negative earnings position. At the same time Krispy Kreme blamed their weakening sales on the low-carbohydrate diet trend, rather than taking a closer look at their own operation which caused the situation. Those announcements resulting in reduced company’s control sent Krispy Kreme’s stock dropping 29 percent in one day. Moreover Krispy Kreme’s initial quarterly loss, which was followed by the discloser that it was under investigation by the SEC, sent the company’s stock as low as 66 percent below its initial price a year ago. Clearly this situation could not be disregarded by neither analytics or by shareholders who feared to lose their money, because of company’s sudden instability. In sight of these unfortunate events the company should put all its efforts and money into gaining public’s trust again, stop opening more and more new store and quit unlawful accounting practices.

The story of Krispy Kreme is like a fairy tale, it had 174 units in 2000 and 423 restaurants it owns currently. The real picture however tells us the other side of this fairy tale with huge debts outstanding, they are unable to pay and overall mismanagement. The company has been borrowing too much money too fast and could not control it too well, which caused situation we are observing now. It has built too many restaurants which do not prove to be as popular as the company forecasted. It could be the low-carbohydrate diets that the company is blaming its losses at but critics have argued that the company expanded too quickly and saturated its market. Their strategy of making their product available in many grocery stores, convenience stores and Wal-Mart Supercenters was too much and they should have revised their policy long time ago before sales started dropping.

Besides doughnuts, Krispy Kreme has been expanding into coffee business, with acquisition of Digital Java Inc., a small coffee company in 2002. This company offered a broad collection of coffee-based and non-coffee based beverages, both hot and cold. This attainment met many strategic goals for Krispy Kreme including the desire to provide an improved coffee experience for the customers and as well as company’s increased vertical integration. With this acquisition Krispy Kreme got more control over consistent sourcing of coffee to their stores. The question of much usefulness of the integration steps of the company would probably be much better seen if it didn’t have so many problems. The idea of selling high quality coffee beverages is an excellent one, if the company was consistent in its actions. There should be fewer stores with more thought put into them; Krispy Kreme would become a major Dunkin Donut’s competitor with more chances to win additional customers.

All of the factors enumerated which describe current Krispy Kreme’s situation show that the company has few ways out of this mess. Although company’s management has not talked about a turnaround strategy as a solution, it should consider undertaking some significant measures. The audit of the statements and slowing down on the stores’ opening are some of them. Reevaluating the grand strategy is vital to the company now and should be done in the nearest future to save the company’s current clientele and regain shareholders’ trust.

About the Author

Jeff Stats is an expert at Mindrelief.net. Our college essay</a > or <a href=”http://www.mindrelief.net/research_paper.html”

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There’s no doubt about it — keeping up with your marketing tasks can be overwhelming, whether you choose to market via networking, print advertising, or through a strategic set of online techniques. As I have a virtual company and can work with clients from around the globe, I don’t like to limit my marketing to local efforts. Having a viable presence online is more important to me and seems to work best for my company. Therefore, I primarily concentrate on things I can do to bring visitors to my website and demonstrate my expertise to them while they are on the site.

Recently inspired by a blog post that I had read, I decided to create a regular daily, weekly, month, and quarterly marketing to-do list. First, I brainstormed a list of ideas of marketing tasks that I perform regularly, and others that have remained on my to-do list for awhile, as I’ve never gotten around to them. Then I categorized them into either a quarterly, monthly, weekly, or daily task. On the third examination of these tasks, I went through and culled all but those to which I thought I could realistically commit on a regular basis.

Below are the tasks that comprise my online marketing action plan. Add them to your own online marketing to-do list as appropriate, or substitute other tasks that are a better fit for your business.

Quarterly Tasks

1. Send out post card campaign to targeted national media list promoting myself as an expert. Prior to mailing, have VA call contacts to update list.

2. Request testimonials from new coaching clients, membership site members, product purchasers, and speaking gig hosts and update appropriate pages on my sites.

Monthly Tasks

1. Update my blog with new reading lists, recommended resources, products, etc. 2. Update the media page on my site with links to new press coverage I’ve received, press releases I’ve submitted, and story ideas I can offer to the media.

3. Write promotional copy for free list building teleclass and have VA submit teleclass to major event promotion sites

4. Create handout for free teleclass and conduct teleclass.

5. Send out at least three feelers for potential online collaborations/strategic alliances or joint ventures with other sites, speakers, etc.

6. Create one new information product and upload it to my sites for sale.

7. Check click-through and conversions with ezine and banner ads and determine whether to renew for another month.

8. Research and find one new online advertising resource to try.

9. Write a press release based on one of my articles and submit through PRWeb.com.

Weekly Tasks

1. Check on my Google, MSN, and ClickRiver PPC ad campaigns to ensure they are still current and relevant and update any bids for any keywords on my list where I have been outbid.

2. Write an article for my email newsletter.

3. Find a great resource to recommend in my newsletter and write a personal article for email newsletter.

4. Send out the email newsletter to list.

5. Publish the article on my website.

6. Archive the ezine to my site.

7. Have VA publish the ezine content on my business blog and on my social networking blogs at MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Ning.

8. Have VA submit the main newsletter article to articles banks and distribution lists.

9. Create a podcast from my article and distribute to podcast sites.

10. Answer a reader-submitted question and post response in blog.

11. Create one additional blog post on Monday and set it up to publish on Tuesday.

12. Review my Google Alerts and find a new blog with a respectable Google Page Rank and comment on a post.

13. Do a Google search for keywords that best describe my business and see where my site shows up in organic search. As needed, conduct SEO tweaks on my sites for betting rankings

Daily Tasks

1. Read the blogs to which I subscribe and post comments as appropriate.

2. Review the emails from the discussion lists/forums to which I belong and post comments/questions as appropriate.

3. Log into my social networking profiles at Facebook, Linked In, SelfGrowth.com, Twitter, and Ning and approve friend requests.

4. Spend about 15 minutes each at Facebook and SelfGrowth making friend requests, commenting on pictures or videos, or responding to emails.

5. Send 1-2 updates to Twitter and Facebook profiles about what I’m doing at the moment.

When you have your Internet marketing action plan outlined with quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily tasks, your prospecting well never runs dry. Many online business owners are so wrapped up in working on their business that they don’t make time to work in the business, like performing regular marketing tasks. Consequently, they often experience slow times in their business because they begin to market themselves only when the prospect pool has dried up. If you create and follow an Internet marketing action plan, you’ll never be hungry for clients again!

The right strategic alliance has many benefits for your business. By building a strategic partnership you reduce your exposure to risk. This is because liabilities are shared amongst the partners in the alliance. Your combined efforts, skills and resources can help produce economies of scale and give you a competitive edge. The right strategic partnership can extend your access to new markets.

Building a strategic alliance is not easy. Many strategic partnerships fail because of a lack of strategic compatibility or imbalances within the alliance. Another pitfall is that you may have to share your unique expertise with other organisations. This may diminish your competitive advantage. The formation of successful business partnerships can also be hindered by incompatible management styles.

Developing partnerships with other organisations requires the establishment of a long term mutually beneficial business relationship. Partnerships are based on trust. Without trust the partnership will fail. All businesses in the alliance need to act within the best interests of the partnership.

When developing a partnership, it is essential to find an organisation that is a good strategic fit for your business. Conflicting interests will ruin the business relationship. The goals of the alliance must be mutually agreed upon and must benefit all parties.

When choosing the right strategic partner, businesses should analyse their external business environment to identify threats and opportunities. The business can then form partnerships with organisations that will help limit the impact of threats. Alternatively, the business can form partnerships with organisations that may help them capitalise on opportunities.

An analysis of the internal environment should be undertaken. Businesses need to look at their strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses can be counterbalanced by forming alliances with organisations with complementary strengths. To stand the test of time, your partnership must be flexible. It must be able to adapt to the changing needs of all parties in the alliance. When selecting a strategic partner it is helpful to consider other organisations who already serve your target customer.

Once you have found the right strategic partner, you need to decide on the nature of your cooperation. You need to agree on areas where you wish to collaborate. You need to identify the level of cooperation required by each party. Since business partnerships can be very intricate, it is advisable to appoint a manager to administer the partnership relationship.

Companies can work together to market complementary products. Promotional alliances can be formed where strategic partners promote each others products or services. Logistical alliances can be developed where businesses support each other in the warehousing and delivery of products. Pricing collaborations can be created. In a pricing collaboration, customers purchasing products from one strategic partner become eligible to receive a discount on products offered by another strategic partner.

Many different types of partnerships exist. An organisation can build a vertical alliance. This is an alliance with an organisation in the supply chain. This helps you control the costs of components and gives you more control over the quality of your end product.

A business can create a horizontal alliance. This is an alliance with other competitors. In a horizontal alliance, weaker businesses can form a competitive bloc against a stronger player in the marketplace.

A business can develop a diagonal alliance. This is an alliance with companies from different industries. If both companies share the same target market, this can help broaden the offering to the customer.

Developing best value purchasing at Lehman BrothersWith an annual spend of more than US0 million it was vital for global investment bank Lehman Brothers to run its purchasing activity effectively during a recruitment period to find a permanent purchasing director.

The need for an expert in strategic procurementThe bank took the decision to appoint an interim manager. PA recommended Robert Wesley, a senior executive with over 20 years’experience in purchasing with BTR pic, Inchcape Pacific and Alliance & Leicester.

Improved leadershipRobert was appointed on a three-month contract initially, which was extended for a further three months, whilst the permanent recruitment was underway. The benefit of his appointment came from improved leadership of major contract negotiations covering all Lehman Brothers’ business areas in Europe, direction and guidance to the four-person central team buying desktop technology and stationery supplies and improved supply chain management.

Negotiating new contractsA number of major suppliers were reviewed and a group-wide contract data base was established to help control the negotiation of new contracts and to promote a move towards the use of a smaller number of preferred suppliers offering best value.This included appraisals and reviews of the current suppliers and the introduction of service-level agreements including competition and termination clauses which meant that if the prices from one supplier moved out of line with competitors, Lehman Brothers had the right to switch suppliers, without penalty.”At the completion of the six-month assignment the purchasing team was in good shape and there was heightened awareness around the group of the benefits that can be derived from professional purchasing. I was then able to hand over to the permanent purchasing director when he came on board.”

Robert WesleyInterim Manager

Previously published on the Impact Executives website – read the original strategic procurement strategy article.

About the Author

I am currently a Director of Impact Executives which is a Global Interim Management provider (part of the Harvey Nash Group) and in this role I am at the frontline of dealing with senior clients and candidates across a wide range of change, HR and resourcing issues.

Empiric studies’ findings indicate at a correlation between strategic planning and performance. Nevertheless, the findings are mixed. A survey of twenty-six experimental studies enabled Miller and Cardinal (1994) to identify a significant positive connection between strategic planning and small business performance. Robinson (1982) found a significantly high level of profitability as well as an increase in sales and returns on sales and the number of full time employees in a group of small businesses that employed external consultants for the purpose of strategic planning. Compared with other businesses, Bracker and Pearson (1986) discovered a significant increase in income and remuneration per entrepreneur in businesses that prepared strategic plans (the highest of four designated levels of strategic planning). No significant increase was detected in the measure salary expenditure divided on the sum total of sales. A significant differentiation in the rate of sales increase was found by Rue and Ibrahim (1998) in small businesses that incorporated written planning (basic or sophisticated), as opposed to other businesses. Perry (2001) detected a significant differentiation in the degree to which planning was conducted in small businesses that did not applied for bankruptcy as opposed to those that did. Wijewardena et al. (2004) define three levels of planning: no written planning; basic planning; and detailed planning. The findings indicate that the level of planning stands in direct proportion to the level of increase in sales. Yusuf and Saffu (2005) classify three levels of planning: low; moderate; and high. A connection was found between increase in sales and the low level of planning. No correlation was found between strategic planning and increases in market share or in profitability.