Strategic Alliances: A Great Way to Leverage your Expertise or Product Offerings
A Strategic Alliance is a joint venture between two companies or two people in the co-relational industries.
As a small company in the industrial packaging industry, for 16 years I have used strategic alliances at Edge Packaging Systems, www.edgepackaging.com, to leverage and maximize my offerings to clients.
How I have accomplished this is to partner with companies who have expertise in areas that I have either cursory knowledge or they can provide me with a look of a much larger organization than I am thus being able to provide my clients with just about anything they need.
Some examples of how you can create a business partnership include:
Competitors – yes seek out those who have a mutual interest to help you.
Expertise: If they have a particular expertise that you lack, consider how you can use them as consultants for a project.
Product Offerings: If you have a need for your client but cannot provide from your current sources, look at the possibility to partner with a competitor.
When you partner with a competitor, obviously you must lay down some ground rules that will make it mutually beneficial to both of you.
Vendors – are a great resource for helping finance business ventures.
Financial: Many vendors will give extended terms to emerging companies to help them jump start their businesses. Sometimes it is a matter of asking for the assistance.
Utilizing the expertise of a competitor or obtaining the financial assistance from a vendor is just two great means to leverage your company and product offerings. Usually it is just a matter of asking for the help. It could be your EDGE over Your Competition!
Peggy P. Edge (c) 2014
