How can strategic alliances help you access new technologies?

1 What are strategic alliances?

Strategic alliances are cooperative agreements between two or more organizations that share resources, knowledge, and expertise to achieve a common objective. Strategic alliances can take different forms, such as joint ventures, licensing, franchising, outsourcing, or equity partnerships. The main idea is that each partner contributes something valuable to the alliance, such as technology, market access, distribution channels, or skills, and receives something in return, such as revenue, innovation, or competitive advantage.

2 Why form strategic alliances for technology access?

Technology access is one of the main reasons why organizations form strategic alliances. Gaining access to cutting-edge, specialized, complementary, or disruptive technologies can help you enhance your products or services, improve your processes or operations, or create new solutions or markets. By forming strategic alliances, you can access technologies that are not widely available or affordable yet, not within your core competencies or domain, can enhance your existing offerings, or challenge your competitors.

3 How to choose the right partners for technology access?

When selecting the right partners for technology access, it’s important to consider their technology fit, strategic fit, and cultural fit. Technology fit refers to the relevance, reliability, scalability, and integration of the technology that your partner can offer. Strategic fit looks at the partner’s objectives, vision, mission, understanding of your industry and customers, and their level of innovation and collaboration. Cultural fit looks at how compatible their values, norms, and practices are with yours. Additionally, you should consider how well they communicate and cooperate with you as well as how much they trust and respect you. Finding the right partner is essential for the success of your strategic alliances.

4 How to manage the risks of technology access?

Technology access can also bring some risks and challenges to your strategic alliances, so it's important to be aware of these risks and manage them effectively. Common risks include technology uncertainty, technology transfer, and technology dependence. Technology uncertainty refers to the stability, security, and adaptability of the technology offered by your partner. Technology transfer relates to the ease of sharing, transferring, or protecting the technology, as well as issues like intellectual property rights, confidentiality, or quality control. Technology dependence is how dependent you are on your partner's technology and how much control or influence you have over it. Careful consideration is needed to balance the benefits and costs of the technology.

5 How to measure the outcomes of technology access?

Technology access can bring various outcomes to your strategic alliances, both positive and negative. You need to measure these outcomes and evaluate the performance and impact of your alliances, such as technology learning, leverage, and spillover. Technology learning involves understanding the partner's technology and applying or adapting it to your own context. Technology leverage involves creating value for customers, stakeholders, or society by enhancing or differentiating products, services, or solutions. Finally, technology spillover involves influencing or affecting the partner's technology, sharing or exchanging it with others, and creating or expanding new opportunities or markets.