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* Establish a healthy network of contacts. These people can lead you to still other contacts, and eventually to the one you need. Industry analysts, executive recruiters, public relation agencies, business reporters, and even the government can provide important leads.
*Identify and contact individuals within a firm who are likely to return your call. “Dialing high” (calling contacts at the vice-presidential level or higher) works in small or other mid-level employees to get a response.)
*Do your homework, and you will win points just for being prepared. You should you be able to clearly outline the partner’s potential financial benefits from the alliance. If possible, show that your firm can deliver value to the alliance across several fronts.
*Learn to speak and understand the “language” of your partner. You will not pick up to on subtle messages in conversations with partners unless you know how they communicate, and this can eventually make or break the alliance.
*Make sure any alliance offer is clearly a win-win opportunity. It’s easy to push for terms that are good for you own business and forget that only those agreements that benefit all participating parties will endure.
*Continue to monitor the progress of the alliance to ensure that goals and expectation are being met, and make changes as they become necessary. And you can be sure that adjustments will be needed, sooner or later.
The goal is form strategic alliances that are beneficial to all partners and to manage these alliances effectively. In their book Everyone Is a Customer, Jeffrey Shuman, Janice Twombly, and David Rottenberg point out that a key to successful strategic alliances is understanding the true nature of the relationship: “Relationships are advertised as being a very important distinction. Cultivating relationships is essential to business success in general, and these can be promoted through an effective board of directors or advisory council.
MAKING THE MOST OF A BOARD OF DIRECTORS
In entrepreneurial firms, the board of directors tends to be small (usually five or fewer members) and severs as the governing body for corporate activity. In concept, the stockholders elect the board, which in turn firm’s officers, who manage the enterprise. The directors also set or approve management policies, consider report on operating results from the officers, and declare any dividends.
All too often, the majority stockholder in a small corporation (usually the entrepreneur) appoints a board of directors only to fulfill a legal requirement (since corporations are required by law to have a board of directors) or as mere window dressing for investors. Such owners make little or no use of directors in managing their companies. In fact, the entrepreneur may actively resist the efforts of these directors to provide managerial assistance. When appointing a board of directors, such an entrepreneur often will select personal friends, relatives, or businesspersons who are too busy to analyze the firm’s circumstances and are not inclined to argue. Entrepreneurs who take a more constructive approach find an active board to be both practical and beneficial, especially when the members are informed, skeptical, and independent.