New alliances are start-ups. Start-ups require investors. Investors demand a clear pathway to achieving an acceptable rate of return: How much, when and with what risks. Before committing resources in a new business venture an investor requires a compelling, credible and thorough business case. Partner to Profit, LLC teamed up with Phoenix Consulting Group, LLC to explore the role of business case development in alliances. One theme stood out: “We know how to create an alliance; now we need to run an alliance like a business.”

“Plans are worthless…but planning is everything.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower isn’t saying “don’t bother to plan.” He is saying that the process of planning is more important than simply creating a document. The planning process: Challenges problem solving techniques, tolerance for conflict, willingness to take charge or tendency to sit back and observe. Tests the partners’ trust in the “alliance first” creed by modeling “what if” failures and note how each partner chooses to act. Pays dividends, before things go wrong, as a result of witnessing each partner’s inclinations and benhaviors. Price Waterhouse Coopers’ 2017 report on strategic alliances stresses the importance of alliance joint planning.

A shared vision driven by expensive talent that operate in a highly collaborative and trusting environment means nothing…without results. So, the first order of a new alliance business, as with any start-up operation, is to close key accounts with urgency. This is an “all hands on deck” pursuit led by the “A” sales team with unconditional support from key executives.

As with any other business, an alliance is subject to the same categories of risk: Internal and External, but with the additional category of “Partnership". Joint business-case planning exposes alliance vulnerabilities alongside new opportunities. New alliances require frequent and compulsory joint operational reviews and vigilant executive oversight from both partners.

An ARM (Alliance Relationship Management) system is purpose built for alliances and enables fact-based decision making to better manage alliance-partnerships. Key business capabilities: Provide insight into alliance ROI and breakeven of investment decisions. Forecast and track resource requirements. Predict and track revenue and profitability of alliance initiatives Attempts to use features/functions of CRM and PRM systems to manage alliance-partnerships continue to fall far short of what an ARM system requires. There is no magic potion to creating a successful alliance. But a disciplined approach using the right tool is the closest thing to a silver bullet.