In today’s fast-moving landscape, organisations increasingly recognise that forging strategic alliances is more than a side line, it is a core business lever. Yet research continue to show that alliance success is far from assured. Research comparing organisations with dedicated alliance management functions found success rates of about 70 per cent versus circa 40 per cent for firms without such a capability.
At the same time, alliances are gaining heightened attention at the board and C-suite level. A 2024 survey of alliance professionals found that alliances have driven about one-third of company revenue over the past five years, and more than half of respondents expect significant growth from partnerships.
What does this mean in practice for an organisation seeking to become a “partner of choice”? The key message is this: success with alliances is not an accident. It is not enough to hope that the deal team and a few enthusiastic sponsors will “make it happen”. Rather, a systematic organisational capability must be built: processes, competencies, governance, mindset and leadership all aligned across the enterprise.
Building alliance capability means establishing the discipline of alliance management: recognising that alliances must be treated like business units in their own right, with clear metrics, defined roles, governance routines and continuous learning.
Investing in alliance capability is a strategic investment. When an organisation equips itself with the capability to select the right partners, design fit-for-purpose governance, align internal stakeholders and sustain the alliance lifecycle, it unlocks value. That means the entire company must engage, from board and executive leadership, business units, legal and finance, programme management, partnership operations, through to functional teams. It cannot be left solely to alliance professionals.
Building this capability is not a one-off either. You might begin with foundational education (for example via an Alliance Masterclass) to develop common understanding across your organisation of how alliances work, then follow with ongoing coaching, mentoring, on-the-job reinforcement, peer learning and periodic capability reviews. This continuous journey converts isolated successes into a repeatable competence. When you succeed, you build an organisational muscle that enables you to stand out in the ecosystem, you become the partner everyone wants to collaborate with.
In short, if you aim to elevate your enterprise to become a partner of choice, you must build your alliance management capability, embed it across your organisation, treat it as a strategic investment and sustain it over time.
If you’d like to explore how your organisation can build or strengthen its alliance capability: let’s start a conversation!
RT @PeterSimoons: Money spent on training is not an expense – it’s an investment http://t.co/cbVtiGdq #alliances