The Strongest Link: Forging a Profitable and Enduring Corporate Alliance

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.