A diagnostic assessment to prepare for partner development

Do you still simply 'kick of' the relationship with a phone call, confirming that the partner is 'official' as of that day? And "Call me if you need me"?.

A well planned onboarding process is essential to the long term success of any partnering relationship, whether bilaterial or multilateral. If your company has concluded partnership negotiations, it is time to execute the onboarding process. Laying the foundation for collaboration now, effectively and efficiently while addressing all major potential risk factors, pays off in several ways:

• Reduced resource needs to 'bring the partner up to speed' in the first 18 months
• Greater actual participation/teaming, delivering the financial results all parties are anticipating

But: How do you organize this process to be effective and worthwhile for all involved?

If you have deployed the Alliance CAS you understand the potential risk areas based on the current capability diferences between you and the new partner companies. If not, I recommend starting the onboarding with deployment of the Alliance CAS, integrating your existing results with those of the new partners. Once the 'partnering readiness scores' are available, you and the partner(s) can focus on the main aspects to align yourselves on. 

How?

Objective

1. Gap analysis to identify differences in current partnering competency between organizations.
2. Establishment of practices in strategic, economic, governance and other critical competencies to 'get right'.
3. Align capability with corporate, alliance and partner goals needs.

Scope

Between 10 and 50 employees per partner at all levels for standard assessment.

Scenario

Your team is finalizing a number of new partnerships that will be coming online in the next months. Some of your new partners are based in Europe or Asia. This will be posing a new challenge for your own team members. You may want to attract additional team members to add diversity, language ability, etc. You realize that without doing this, you could be undermining the long term success potential of the new relationships.

You have planned an onboarding conference to get all (new) partners in tune with the practices, processes, roles and responsibilities that promote smooth operation between the organizations.

Who are you going to invite to this onboarding process?

What topics are you going to focus on?

What is your approach to getting commitment to address the key risk areas on all sides?

The difference between Alliance CAS and other diagnostic approaches is powerful:

• All online, globally accessible 24x7
• Gap Analysis across 5 dimensions of practices identified as crucial for success
• BI style drill down ability to develop valuable insights
• Ultra short turn around times position you to leverage the outcome within days

Outcomes

• Identifies areas that should be enhanced to position all parties in the relationship for successful long term viability
• Provides you with reference base for discussing potential risk factors to the collaboration arrangement
• Provides you and your partners with n actionable plan to address variations in competency and align those that are critical for success.

Next Steps

You now have the insight to develop an effective onboarding campaign that:

• Puts focus on the critical areas to achieve success as a 'we' collaboration model
• Formulate activities that take into account all partner's abilities and interests
• Assign those resources that move the partnership forward at the right time and with the right mindset.

Need help getting started? The Alliance Assessment includes upfront time to formulate scope and configuration.

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