Adventures in alliancesland # 18 – blueprint updated

I wrote most of the book whilst working in consulting, and I recall proof reading the final version of the book before sending it to print after about 6 months working for a technology business.? To my relief I hadn’t seen anything in my new role that made me want to change anything material in the blueprint.? That moment came back to me earlier this month and I took another close look.? Would I change anything after four years working for a technology company?

I’ve been doing, thinking and writing about strategic alliances for more than 20 years.? When something in the alliances space catches my attention that I can share, I will – so if ecosystems, partnerships and alliances are your gig and your passion too I hope you’ll find these scribblings useful.? If you enjoy this article please follow me, subscribe, like, comment and repost.? My book on strategic alliances is here if you’d like to read more adventures in alliances land.? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strategic-Alliances-Fieldbook-Art-Agile/dp/103212900X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=strategic+alliances+fieldbook&qid=1691319592&sr=8-1

?There are only two things I’d add more emphasis on after an extra four years experience since I wrote the blueprint.? You’ll see the mapping of key activities and assets I recommended below mapped to each stage of the lifecycle.? I’ve layered them into two swim lanes to match up with the ‘business components’ where the critical co-selling activities that need business support are on the top lane, and the internal alliances led activities are on the bottom.? ??

The two pieces I’d add more emphasis on are ‘run sales campaign’ and ‘alliances MBR’.? The sales campaign plan would of course have been written into the Joint GTM Plan that is created during the design stage.? It would have described the target accounts, the marketing approach to raise the profile, and the sales outreach approach.? Sales outreach might have included client participation in round tables and hackathons for example.? The reason I’ve added ‘run sales campaign’ to the blueprint is because experience has impressed on me again that having a plan and executing a plan are two different things, and the later is more impactful than the former!? The ‘alliances MBR’ I’ve added to emphasise the value a disciplined monthly governance has beyond the ‘pipeline management’ and ‘Executive QBR’ that was already in the blueprint. ?If the alliance is operating across multiple countries, with multiple solutions, and juggling priorities across industries then a monthly review of the scorecard and regular decision making forum for re-allocating resources as the future appears is essential.

The other minor thing Ive changed is swapping terminology of the thing the alliance wants to sell from ‘offering’ to ‘solution’ for the reasons explained in this article add link

What can you see that is missing from the blue print for strategic alliances?