If you are already managing a portfolio of partners, then you will fully understand the importance of agility – not only in the way you work but also in the way you report on and represent the values associated with a partnership.
According to McKinsey’s Aaron De Smet, “Agility is the ability of an organization to renew itself, adapt, change quickly, and succeed in a rapidly changing, ambiguous, turbulent environment.” It’s the type of environment that many alliance managers find themselves working in.
This article looks at 3 areas where organizational agility supports strategic alliance management.
1) Governance
Traditional alliance governance is mainly hierarchical with strict lines of seniority and communication. When working in industries that place high emphasis on good governance, it’s important that you and your partners have access to real-time information to enable fast, effective decision-making. Challenges and opportunities can be approached and managed more efficiently when the right people are easily accessible outside and within traditional alliance governance hierarchy.
allianceboard allows secure collaboration between partners in real-time for greater alignment, trust, and agility – no matter what formal governance processes and hierarchies are in place.
2) Processes and workflows
Clear processes and workflows are fundamental for alliance management that is both effective and efficient.
For maximum effectiveness, it is important that processes are designed to be dynamic when they are established or introduced. This allows for the flexibility to remain agile. For efficiency, best practice requires that processes and workflows which are used day-to-day are automated wherever possible.
By automating repeat workflows (e.g. setting up a new initiative with a partner, gathering information for a monthly partner report, involving others to update a risk mitigation plan), alliance managers save time that can better be used identifying new initiatives and maximising the value of their portfolio. (Read this blog post about what proportion of alliance managers spend time on mundane tasks.)
3) Results
Everyone is looking to maximise results and create value for all partners involved.
The results your alliance tries to achieve will mean different things to different people within your organisation and within your partner’s organization, so it is equally important that reporting remains agile also. By remaining agile, you remain flexible to react to sudden changes, barriers and opportunities that may otherwise be missed.
allianceboard reporting allows you to set up report templates that are tailored to specific users, then automate their distribution with the knowledge that the content will always be up to date using real-time data.
allianceboard is an intuitive platform built for alliance management, supporting transparent communication and governance management that can react with speed – because only if your alliance management remains agile can your organization achieve intended alliance outcomes and benefit from new opportunities.
Interested in a no obligation chat about your current practices and how allianceboard could make for better alliance management in your team?