Growth Through Strategic Partnerships

[NickPower]

Lately I've been doing a lot of research on forming strategic alliances with businesses who share similar customer base to me.

Does anyone here have experience in this type of thing?

I managed to set up a deal with a company in Glasgow that targets the same b2b customers I do. So far pretty quiet but I'm hopeful it will eventually bare fruit.

Would be interested to hear how this is working in your business.

 

[Pish_Pash]

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/threads/business-partner-destroying-my-life.356792/

 

[NickPower]

Thanks for spewing a link on to the page. Any thoughts to go with it?

The chap in that thread who is having a hard time merged with another company. I'm talking about Strategic Partnerships - 2 completely different things.

 

[Pish_Pash]

What's with the combatant attitude?

I'd misread your question, yes of course a strategic partnership is different to a merger, but this being a Sunday morning (& I'm still wiping sleep out of my eyes), I'd initially took your question to me growth by merging with others aligned with your genre.

 

[NickPower]

Sorry, not looking for a fight, it was just that your reply seemed quite dismissive while you also kind of missed the point of what I was saying. No offence intended

 

[Major_Grooves]

Most of the time, in my opinion, they seem like a great idea on paper but they rarely deliver as much as you might be expecting.

If it's simple co-promotion, maybe it's not too much effort to try, but it won't be a quick win.

If it's partnering with a bank, or telco, that can give you access to hundreds of thousands of clients - then maybe it is worth it.

 

[NickPower]

Most of the time, in my opinion, they seem like a great idea on paper but they rarely deliver as much as you might be expecting.

If it's simple co-promotion, maybe it's not too much effort to try, but it won't be a quick win.

If it's partnering with a bank, or telco, that can give you access to hundreds of thousands of clients - then maybe it is worth it.

Thanks for the input. What's your experience in doing these kinds of things?

Nice startup by the way, really like the website

 

[Clinton]

Strategic alliances, where they involve competing firms, have comparatively limited mileage and become problematic when the firms "collude" to "support" price or otherwise gain price advantages at the expense of their customers.

Similar partnering with companies in complementary sectors delivers more. Look for synergy rather than simplicity.

The quickest way to inorganic growth is not to form an alliance with them but to buy them out.

 

[NickPower]

Strategic alliances, where they involve competing firms, have comparatively limited mileage and become problematic when the firms "collude" to "support" price or otherwise gain price advantages at the expense of their customers.

Similar partnering with companies in complementary sectors delivers more. Look for synergy rather than simplicity.

I'm referring to partnering with companies in the same sector but with non competitive products. So the deal I mentioned above is a good example of this: me a web services biz partnering with a sign maker. We both provide a different yet complimentary product to the same audience.

The quickest way to inorganic growth is not to form an alliance with them but to buy them out.

I disagree with you on this. Setting up a JV endorsement with a company is a much quicker, much simpler, less risky way of getting access to their entire audience than attempting to buy that company, if they are even interested in selling, which most random companies won't be.

Maybe I'm missing your point.

 

[Clinton]

I'm referring to partnering with companies in the same sector but with non competitive products.

You did not make that clear in the OP.

Maybe I'm missing your point.

Acquiring businesses (which can happen even without capital outlay) is recognised the world over as the fastest route to inorganic growth.

 

[NickPower]

You did not make that clear in the OP.


Acquiring businesses (which can happen even without capital outlay) is recognised the world over as the fastest route to inorganic growth.

Interesting. I suppose Inorganic growth is a fairly unfamiliar term to me. I don't think you would even class SA's in that category. Inorganic growth is basically mergers and acquisitions from what I understand, is that right?

 

[Clinton]

It depends. Generally, no, SAs wouldn't constitute inorganic growth. However, SA with a lobby firm that campaigns for government relaxation on export controls on your product, for example, could qualify.

Inorganic is the fastest way to grow; typically it involves M&A, takeovers and potentially other equity activity including management buy-ins, acqui-hire and would include, I suppose, even agreements to control revenue generating assets owned by another entity.