Building Powerful Strategic Alliances:

Transcription

1 A Special Report for Senior Executives Building Powerful Strategic Alliances: How Companies of All Sizes Can Increase Their ROI Insights from a Study on Senior Executive Expectations Research Partner:

2 Table of Contents Executive Summary... 3 How We Conducted Our Study... 6 Key Findings and Trends... 9 Insights and Recommendations: Closing the Strategic Alliance Success Gap About the authors / Contact Information: About the companies: Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 2 of 25

3 Executive Summary Why we launched this study What are senior executives experiences and expectations about strategic alliances in today s business environment? Where are the emerging trends in strategic partnering? How can companies of all sizes across every industry create more agile, innovative, and powerful strategic alliance relationships that can dramatically accelerate business growth and profitability? These are the questions we set out to answer with this study. Through our own observations and experiences addressing the issues of strategic alliances over 20+ years of advising executives on issues related to accelerating company growth and profitability, we ve seen that external relationships have become increasingly woven into the fabric of businesses of every size, from giant corporations to entrepreneurs. However, along with opening new opportunities, strategic alliances still carry challenges that can interfere with getting full value from these relationships. A persistent paradox Since the 1990s numerous organizations have conducted surveys about strategic alliances, many of them primarily concentrating on corporate development executives and the professionals who manage these relationships. This fueled an abundance of best practices for creating and managing alliances. Yet despite the existence and widespread sharing of these best practices, these studies report a persistent finding that 40% to 60% of strategic alliances do not meet senior executives expectations. Finding clues To gain new insights into why this success gap exists, and what can be done about it, we decided to primarily concentrate on the perspective of senior executives who set the expectations and ultimately judge the success of these relationships. Over the past few years we ve spoken with senior executives of companies of all sizes, across a variety of industries, regarding their experiences and expectations of strategic alliances. For a broader range of insights, we formed a research alliance with Persuadable Research Corporation which included a survey of senior executives on this subject. We also partnered with five trade and executive associations that invited their members and associate members to participate in the survey. We specified that the senior executives who participated in our survey be ultimately accountable for the strategic direction and P&L of [their] companies or business units. We provide additional details on our survey population in the How We Conducted Our Survey section at the end of this executive summary. Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 3 of 25

4 Two key findings may explain the success gap: Strategic Alliance defies consistent definition One of our survey findings that most surprised us was the substantial range of opinion regarding how to define a strategic alliance. Many senior executives use the term to refer to a wide variety of external relationships including outsourcing, supply chain integration, licensing, joint product and service creation, and joint ventures. There is a substantial risk that prospective partners are developing and managing the same relationship with dramatically different expectations about governance and return on investment. The question of how to define a strategic alliance goes beyond semantics, since there are fundamental differences in the strategic intent and structure of each of these external relationships. It also leads us to believe that using the term strategic alliance to describe many types of external relationships may be at least partly responsible for mismatched expectations that contribute to clashes between partners and reduced success. With differences of opinion split as much as 50/50 about whether an external relationship fits the definition of a strategic alliance, there is a substantial risk that prospective partners are developing and managing the same relationship (e.g., outsourcing) with dramatically different expectations about governance and return on investment. This could explain our own finding that on average, nearly 40% of strategic alliances across companies of all sizes did not meet expectations. High success associated with perception of reciprocity We found that senior executives reporting more alliance success perceived greater evidence of reciprocity and shared importance in the relationship. As the senior executive of a small company stated,.if the initiative is important, crank up the discipline and transparency and resources to get it done if it s just a hobby it won t succeed. In a similar vein, the senior executive of another small company emphasized that, the value and positive impacts associated with greater transparency of strategy, intellectual property, and operations exceeds the value of other considerations combined. The challenge is that 63% of senior executives of companies of all sizes do not perceive this transparency in their strategic alliances, which may contribute to the success gap. Why the above findings matter: Strategic alliances are growing in number and impact Addressing issues of alignment and reciprocity in strategic alliances is increasingly critical, as these relationships are becoming more common and economically significant than ever. More than half of our survey respondents indicated that the number of their strategic alliances is up by more than 50% from three years ago, and they predicted continued growth in the future. A senior executive of a large company stated, with complexity and diversity increasing, only alliances will allow us to build relevant solutions for our customers. Another large company senior executive noted, in a global Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 4 of 25

5 company, alliances rarely remain limited to one country. The trend is to expand their scope, particularly geographical, to get a payback from all the efforts invested. Alliances seen as increasingly critical to future success Strikingly, 75% of all senior executives who responded to our survey stated that strategic alliances were very or extremely important to their company s future success. As a senior executive of a large company noted, strategic alliances are vital to stay agile and at the top of the innovation game. We ve developed three foundational recommendations that can enable you to achieve even higher levels of success and realized value from these relationships. One of the trends to watch is how effectively even the smallest companies may use the increased power and agility strategic alliances provide to increase their competitive position in their industries. This comes in part from the increasing ability of companies of all sizes to use new technologies to create strategic alliances with less regard for geographic boundaries, increasing their scope and capability with less capital outlay. As the senior executive of a small company told us, the impact, number, and scope of alliances will be driven more by proliferating new digital technologies than by anything else. This optimism is also reflected in our finding that 65% of small company senior executives and 48% of large company senior executives agree that strategic alliances will change the face of [their] industry in the future. How to Close the Alliance Success Gap The clear trends indicating that strategic alliances will play an increasingly important role in driving growth, profitability and competitiveness point to the critical importance of getting the absolute most possible value from these relationships. Our findings about the potential mismatch of views and expectations of alliance partners, and the link between perceived reciprocity and alliance success provide new insights to cracking the code on making these relationships more successful. To this end, we ve developed three foundational recommendations that can enable you to achieve even higher levels of success and realized value from your current and future strategic alliances, which we discuss further in the Insights and Recommendations section of this report. 1. Distinguish strategic alliances from other relationships 2. Align within and across organizations 3. Develop relationships of reciprocity Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 5 of 25

6 How We Conducted Our Study Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 6 of 25

7 Survey Process We formed a research alliance with Persuadable Research Corporation to conduct a survey of senior executive experiences and expectations with strategic alliances. The survey was available online to invited participants from March 2012 through May We recruited respondents in collaboration with five trade and executive associations that invited their members to participate in our survey. Respondent Profile We specified that the senior executives who participated in our survey be ultimately accountable for the strategic direction and P&L of [their] companies or business units. We obtained responses from 89 senior executives; of these, 31% were CEOs, 19% were Presidents, 15% were CFOs or other C-level executives, 6% were General Managers, and 8% were Vice Presidents (Figure 1). Figure 1. Distribution of Executive job titles participating in survey Because we ve seen that companies of all sizes are increasingly forming strategic alliances, and large company-small company alliances are increasing, we included companies of all sizes in our study. Since company governance and organizational structure often begins to significantly change as a company grows beyond $100 million in revenue, for the purposes of this study we segmented companies into two size classes: under $100 million ( small ) and from $100 million to over $1 billion+ ( large ). Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 7 of 25

8 Fifty five percent of respondents were from small companies, and 37% were from large companies (Figure 2). The remaining 8% of respondents chose not to disclose company revenues. Figure 2. Distribution of company sizes represented in survey Over 15 industry sectors were represented, representing a variety of manufacturing and service industries (Figure 3). Figure 3. Distribution of industry sectors represented in survey Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 8 of 25

9 Key Findings and Trends Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 9 of 25

10 Key Finding #1: Strategic alliance defies consistent definition In numerous conversations with senior executives over the years, when the topic of strategic alliances arose, they frequently asked "what do you mean by strategic alliance? We therefore asked survey respondents about the extent to which they believed five types of common external business relationships met their definition of "strategic alliance." These included outsourced business functions and supply chain integration, which we viewed as more client-centered, as well as joint ventures, licensing agreements, and joint product and service development, which we viewed as more typical of strategic alliances. Unexpectedly, the survey results revealed considerably more diversity of opinion in what is and is not a "strategic alliance" than we had anticipated (figure 4). Many senior executives use the term to refer to a wide variety of external relationships including outsourcing, supply chain integration, licensing, joint product and service creation, and joint ventures. For example, one senior executive from a large company stated, To me a strategic alliance is one where we are combining and leveraging both brand strength and expertise. On the other hand, a senior executive from a small company said, the depth of the relationship determines if it is strategic, or not, suggesting a more situational outlook. Figure 4: There is no consistent agreement on what is / is not a strategic alliance Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 10 of 25

11 Inconsistent definition of alliance increases risk of failure There is a substantial risk that prospective partners are developing and managing the same relationship with dramatically different expectations about governance and return on investment. Overall, 70% of respondents indicated that they considered joint ventures, joint product or service development, and licensing arrangements as fitting very or extremely well with their definition of strategic alliance. While this is a substantial portion, it was still not as high as we had initially expected. Conversely, 50 to 45% of all respondents rated outsource business functions and supply chain integration as a very or extremely well the definition of strategic alliance, considerably higher than we had expected for these relationships. The question of how to define a strategic alliance goes beyond semantics, since there are fundamental differences in the strategic intent and structure of each of these external relationships. This raises the question of whether the widespread use of the term strategic alliance may itself be at least partly responsible for mismatched expectations that contribute to clashes and reduced success. If alliance partners have different, but unexpressed, ideas of what the alliance means to them, there is a substantial risk that they may be developing and managing the relationship with dramatically different expectations about governance and return on investment. Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 11 of 25

12 Disconnects may underlie persistent success gap With differences of opinion split as much as 50/50 about whether an external relationship fits the definition of a strategic alliance, there is a substantial risk that prospective partners are developing and managing the same relationship (e.g., outsourcing) with dramatically different expectations about governance and return on investment. This could explain our own finding that on average, nearly 40% of strategic alliances across companies of all sizes did not meet expectations. Eighty senior executives answered the question, "considering the past three years, what percentage of your strategic alliances met or exceeded expectations?" The overall average of strategic alliances that "met or exceeded expectations was 61% (Figure 5). It is particularly notable that the proportion of alliance success was virtually identical for of both small and large companies, indicating that the company size was not a contributing factor to the level of strategic alliance success. This result, indicating that approximately 40% of alliances did not meet senior executives expectations, is within the range of 40%-60% dissatisfaction with strategic alliance results reported in previous strategic alliance surveys ranging back over almost 20 years. The fact that such a substantial gap between expectations and outcomes has endured for decades led us to ask "why?" and "what can we do about it?" In addition to the potential mismatch in expectations suggested by the disconnect in how strategic alliance is interpreted, other observations from our survey suggest additional answers for the persistent success gap. Figure 5. A substantial strategic alliance success gap persists Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 12 of 25

13 Partner representatives may have mismatched levels of strategic orientation and accountability Our survey shows that over 60% of senior executives in large companies and over 30% in small companies delegated substantially or all decision strategic alliance making decisions (Figure 6). This raises the possibility that the individuals who develop and manage opposite sides of the partnering relationship may approach the process with different levels of strategic orientation and accountability. While we ve seen that this happens frequently in relationships between small and large companies, it also happens in companies of the same size. While delegation can accelerate progress, it can also lead to challenges if one partner is primarily focused on tactical matters (e.g. contract terms and timelines) while the other partner is primarily focused on strategic issues (e.g. how to increase competitiveness). In fact, when we asked what they wished other companies would do differently or better to make alliances even more successful, over half of senior executives from all sizes of companies expressed "adopt a more strategic versus tactical orientation" as a "strong" or "very strong" wish. To achieve an alliance s full potential, it s critical that both partners ensure that everyone accountable for making decisions about the alliance is well versed in how it fits with the company s high-level strategic priorities, and has the authority, knowledge, skills and abilities to effectively lead and manage it. Figure 6: Delegation of strategic alliances decisions is widespread Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 13 of 25

14 Key Finding #2: High success associated with perception of reciprocity Seeking to find additional clues about potential causes and remedies for the persistent success gap for strategic alliances, we evaluated survey findings that were associated with different levels of strategic alliance success. We grouped respondents into two groups: "less successful" (those who reported that 50% or fewer of their alliances met expectations), and "more successful" (those who reported that more than 50% of their alliances met or exceeded expectations). One particularly striking difference between the two groups emerged; the more successful group was approximately half as likely as the less successful group to perceive that their external business relationships were often more important to one company over another" (figure 7). This difference in perceived reciprocity was evident across outsourced business functions, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and joint product/service development relationships. This notable trend strongly suggests that greater reciprocity in external business relationships and higher levels of strategic alliance success go hand-in hand. Figure 7. More successful relationships are perceived as reciprocally important to both partners Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 14 of 25

15 Transparency and mutual respect critical to alliance success Several aspects of our survey results indicate that when both partners act in ways that demonstrate reciprocity and the importance they attach to the relationship, they are far more likely to have the alliances meet or exceed their expectations (Figure 8). This is regardless of differences in company size or financial impact of the relationship. When asked the question, "In your opinion, what you wish other companies would do differently or better to make alliances more successful," Senior executives reporting lower alliance success rates trended toward stronger wishes for greater transparency, mutual respect of standards and requirements, adopting a more strategic orientation, and access to the partners executive leadership. These trends are consistent with the greater perception of relationship reciprocity expressed by more successful companies. Notably, regardless of their level of reported success, over 70% of respondents overall expressed strong/very strong wishes that other companies "establish regular, ongoing communication between partners," and "have systems, processes, and data in place." Collectively, these findings and trends all emphasize the fundamental importance of perceived reciprocity as a success factor for strategic alliances and all external business relationships. One of our respondents, the CEO of a mid-size high tech company, summed it up very succinctly: These questions all challenge the level of leadership, resources, and execution processes around the initiative. Great people, process, & technology are required. If it's just a hobby... it won't succeed. Figure 8. More successful alliances have fewer gaps in perceived reciprocity Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 15 of 25

16 Why these findings matter The key findings discussed above carry significant strategic and financial implications, as they may considerably account for the stubbornly persistent issues that such a substantial portion of strategic alliances to underperform senior executives expectations. As discussed below, our survey clearly shows that these relationships are becoming more common and economically significant than ever. As companies increasingly rely on strategic alliances to drive growth and profitability, efforts to increase their productivity and value take on ever greater importance. Strategic alliances are growing in number and impact Of the 89 respondents who completed our survey, 90% of both large and small company senior executives reported that their companies were currently engaged at least one strategic alliance (figure 9). Although the majority of both large and small companies were engaged in between one and five alliances, over 15% of companies were engaged in five or more strategic alliances, even companies with revenues under $100 million. Strikingly, even the smallest companies are turning to alliances to increase scale and revenues as well as streamline operations. It is notable that of the 10 respondents reporting company size of under $1 million, only 3 stated that they were not currently engaged in strategic alliances. Of the remaining 39 small companies reporting revenues under $100 million, only one was not engaged in at least one strategic alliance. Fifty five percent of all respondents reported that they were more engaged in strategic alliances than three years ago, and only 5% overall reported a decrease in strategic alliance activity over the past three years. Figure 9. 90% of respondents currently participate in strategic alliances, up >50% from 3 years ago Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 16 of 25

17 > 67% of Sr. Executives project more alliances in 3 years Looking forward, over 67% of all respondents expressed that they expected to increase the number of strategic alliances in their companies over the next three years (Figure 10). In our study, senior executives of small companies trended toward expecting even more alliance growth (71%) than executives from large companies (64%). Interestingly, 9% of large company executives projected fewer alliances in the near future, while none of the small company executives expected to decrease alliance activity. This three-year estimate for strategic alliance growth is well in line with, although somewhat higher than the estimate of 54% overall growth in alliances (61% in companies under $250 million) in the next two years reported in a Delloitte study of Corporate Development, 2012 released in June Question: How do you envision the future of strategic alliances in your company over the next three years? Figure 10. Executives project continued increase in strategic alliances in the next 3 years Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 17 of 25

18 Alliances seen as increasingly critical to future success A likely contributor to the growth trend projected for strategic alliances is the perception by over 75% of executives of both small and large companies that strategic alliances are either "very" or "extremely" important to their company s future success (Figure 11). One of the trends to watch is how effectively even the smallest companies may use the increased power and agility strategic alliances provide to increase their competitive position in their industries. This comes in part from the increasing ability of companies of all sizes to use new technologies to create strategic alliances with less regard for geographic boundaries, increasing their scope and capability with less capital outlay. As the senior executive of a small company told us, the impact, number, and scope of alliances will be driven more by proliferating new digital technologies than by anything else. Figure 11: Alliances are seen as crucial to future success, of companies of all sizes Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 18 of 25

19 Alliances will have a massive impact on our industry Senior executives also expressed that there would be an even larger impact of strategic alliances overall on business in the future when they were asked about the the future of strategic alliances in your industry (Figure 12). Over 80% of all respondents agreed or strongly agreed that in the future, their industry would see more alliances, and that these would have a greater impact on revenue and profitability than at present. Seventy percent of executives overall aout greed or strongly agreed that alliances in their industries would become more global in scope. In four of six questions, senior executives of small companies trended toward an even stronger view of the future impact of alliances in their industry than their counterparts in large companies. Given the statement "alliances will change the face of our industry," 65% of small-company senior executives and 48% of large company senior executives agreed or strongly agreed. This foreshadows that, especially for small companies, strategic alliances hold the promise of enabling new business models and unprecedented increases in scope, which will have potentially game-changing economic impacts in businesses of all kinds. Figure 12. Senior executives see a powerful impact of strategic alliances in their future - - more so for small companies Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 19 of 25

20 Insights and Recommendations: Closing the Strategic Alliance Success Gap Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 20 of 25

21 How to Close the Alliance Success Gap The clear trends indicating that strategic alliances will play an increasingly important role in driving growth, profitability and competitiveness point to the critical importance of getting the absolute most possible value from these relationships. Our findings about the potential mismatch of views and expectations, and the link between perceived reciprocity and alliance success can help crack the code on increasing the success of your alliances. We ve developed three foundational recommendations that can enable you to achieve even higher levels of success and realized value from these relationships. Since expectations shape how strategic alliances are established and conduced, it s essential to identify and address assumptions about the intent, structure and conduct of the relationships you re considering even before you begin to seek partners or respond to an approach from a prospective partner. To this end, we ve developed three foundational recommendations that can enable you to achieve even higher levels of success and realized value from your current and future strategic alliances: 1. Distinguish strategic alliances from other relationships The first foundational step for building truly powerful strategic alliances is determining whether a specific external relationship is in fact both strategic and an alliance. In our experience, successful strategic alliances are formed around an objective that is critical to each company s vision, mission and strategy. They include elements of mutual consideration; joint decision-making; shared resources, risks, and rewards, and outcomes that neither could produce alone. Many other types of external relationships, while very powerful, do not share all of these characteristics. This is important to consider, as how you define your relationships shapes how you approach them and work with your partners. To prevent clashes from mismatched expectations, it s essential to reach internal clarity on how you think about and refer to your external relationships, even before reaching out to prospective partners. This will allow you to focus your time and resources and create a more powerful portfolio of external relationships of all kinds. A few questions for you and your management team to consider before you seek a partner or before responding to an invitation to partner include: How will the external relationship support our vision, mission, and strategy? To what extent are we willing to share control, governance, resources, revenues and other benefits? What level of risk are we willing to share? Your answers to these types of questions will determine whether a strategic alliance is the best route to accomplish your objectives or whether a different type of external relationship would be more appropriate under the circumstances. Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 21 of 25

22 2. Align within and across organizations Our results show a large diversity in the degree to which senior executives of all sizes of companies delegate decision making about strategic alliances. This makes it very possible that the individuals who develop and manage opposite sides of the partnering relationship may approach the process with different levels of strategic orientation and accountability. While we ve seen that this happens frequently in relationships between small and large companies, it also happens in companies of the same size. For example, the top executive of a company with over $1 billion in revenues noted that for joint product/service development I delegate much of the decision making, have strong influence on decisions but no final sign off. While the top executive of another company with over $1 billion in revenues noted that joint product/service development is an important decision CEO should have the final say. This mix of strategic orientation and accountability can decrease the effectiveness of the relationship if one partner is primarily focused on transactional or tactical matters while the other partner is primarily focused on strategic issues. In fact, when we asked what they wished other companies would do differently or better to make alliances even more successful, over half of senior executives from all sizes of companies expressed "adopt a more strategic versus tactical orientation" as a "strong" or "very strong" wish. To achieve an alliance s full potential, it s critical that both partners ensure that everyone accountable for making decisions about the alliance is well versed in how it fits with the company s high-level strategic priorities, and has the authority, knowledge, skills and abilities to effectively lead and manage it. A few questions to consider in the early stages of shaping an alliance relationship: To what extent is everyone involved in leading and managing the relationship in sync with our own and our partner s strategic objectives? What knowledge, skills and abilities do people need in order to effectively lead and manage the strategic alliance? How must we modify our policies and procedures to increase the effectiveness of our strategic partnership? How will we respond if our partner s representatives are more transactional or tactical than we need them to be? Answering these and related questions will ensure that decisions support big picture outcomes and will increase the chance that both partners will get the most out of the relationship. Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 22 of 25

23 3. Develop relationships of reciprocity Several aspects of our survey results indicate that when both partners act in ways that demonstrate the importance they attach to the relationship, they are far more likely to have the alliances meet or exceed their expectations. This is regardless of differences in company size or financial impact of the relationship. This observation, along with our experience with clients, indicate that companies that approach strategic alliances as mutually important relationships regardless of differences in company size or financial impact of the relationship are far more likely to have the alliances meet or exceed their expectations. In addition, senior executives reporting greater success with their strategic alliances expressed less desire for greater levels of transparency, mutual respect of standards and requirements, adopting a more strategic orientation, and access to the partners executive leadership. These trends are consistent with a greater perception of relationship reciprocity expressed by more successful companies. Especially when strategic alliance relationships are developed and managed by company representatives with different levels of strategic accountability, ensure that both partners are committed to developing a relationship that goes beyond establishing roles, responsibilities and contracts to build a foundation for increasing trust and mutual value. Some of the questions to ask at all stages of the strategic alliance relationship include: How can we increase mutuality in the leadership and governance of our relationship? What aspects of our culture and of our partner s culture may need to be adjusted to promote mutuality? What circumstances would trigger the need for senior executives to be accessible to each other? How can we effectively communicate on an on-going basis and around milestones so we can adjust the relationship when needed? While it s important to ask these questions, it s even more important to jointly take action on the answers. This tangibly demonstrates that the alliance is truly important to both organizations. Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 23 of 25

24 Increasing the ROI of your strategic alliances No matter how involved senior executives are in their company s strategic alliances, their perceptions and assumptions strongly impact whether a strategic alliance is truly powerful and capable of reaching its full potential. This is because decisions about strategic direction, culture, resourcing and focus that affect how strategic alliances are formed, governed and executed are profoundly affected by assumptions and expectations at the top. Uncovering assumptions about your external business relationships provides a starting point for building and developing the relationship so that it s set up to meet the expectations of both partners. These include determining whether the external business relationship you re entering into really is a strategic alliance with all of its implications, how aligned you and your partner really are, and the actual level of reciprocity in the relationship. Building these often underestimated considerations into your alliance process from the earliest stages on will enable you to create more agile, innovative and truly powerful strategic alliances to dramatically increase top and bottom line growth. Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 24 of 25

25 About the authors / Contact Information: Pamela S. Harper is the Founding Partner and CEO of Business Advancement Inc. (BAI), based in Glen Rock, NJ. She is an internationally known business performance expert, author, and professional speaker with over 20 years experience in internal and external consulting to entrepreneurial, middle market, and Fortune 500 companies in a wide range of industries. Pam is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Preventing Strategic Gridlock : Leading Over, Under & Around Organizational Jams to Achieve High Performance Results. She has published and/or been quoted in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Investor s Business Daily, Entrepreneur, and other major media. pharper@businessadvance.com D. Scott Harper, Ph.D. is a Sr. Partner at BAI. He is a globally recognized expert in innovation processes and systems with a unique ability to translate technical insights into desired business results. His background includes 20+ years of leadership experience in the consumer healthcare products industry, including extensive involvement in a wide range of strategic alliances and other external business relationships, at companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Warner-Lambert. Scott is a highly regarded speaker who has presented at associations around the world, and has been quoted in prominent media outlets including Chief Executive Magazine. dsharper@businessadvance.com About the companies: Business Advancement Inc: ( Since 1991, Business Advancement Inc. (BAI) has enabled companies of all sizes to unlock their hidden growth potential and accelerate sustainable growth and profitability. We advise and collaborate with senior executives and boards to provide fresh perspectives and processes that address their top priorities, including clarifying strategy, increasing leadership effectiveness, and enhancing organizational capability to achieve unparalleled business results. Persuadable Research Corporation: ( Persuadable Research was founded in 1995 to provide online surveys and market research that everyone could afford. Driven by innovative technology, and fueled by a great staff, Persuadable Research quickly earned a loyal following, especially among agencies, PR firms, and consultants who recognized the importance of research to maintain current customers and win new business. Today, Persuadable Research Corporation partners with clients in virtually every industry. Building Powerful Strategic Alliances Copyright All Rights Reserved. Page 25 of 25