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This point is easy to define, if you have done a thorough internal assessment, but hard to do, even harder to do well, and often almost impossible to do effectively, in a very subjective and often ill-defined, hidden or guarded environment. |
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D.
Try to Understand Their Goals, Objectives, and Motivation |
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If you have done a thorough internal assessment, your own goals, objectives and motivations for pursuing an alliance partner have been well defined. It is a challenge to try to put yourself in your potential partner's shoes to understand why they are looking for a partner. It may be helpful to try conducting a parallel evaluation using your own criteria but forming your potential partner's perspectives of themselves. In some cases, reasons for or against a partnership will be very clear. In others, it will not. The key is to try, at least, to list what you feel are their reasons for wanting an alliance with you and then, to determine if any of those reasons could be counter-productive to your own. |
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For example, if you are looking to learn a new technology to incorporate, eventually, into your own organization and your potential partner is looking for ways to build their own ability and expertise using their technology for potential growth as a service provider, then, they may not be willing to share their technology with you. Therefore, both company's goals and expectations are different. If an alliance is formed under such conditions, there is a good chance that problems will be encountered down the road. |
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In another case, perhaps you have discovered a new drug that is outside of your core therapeutic areas but would like to grow this area internally. You find a potential partner who is an expert in this area to help you develop your new drug. The partner may have other reasons to partner with you, such as filling a hole in their pipeline or the need to pay for internal capacity. In this case, the motivations are different but not necessarily detrimental to either party and, in fact, may be mutually beneficial. |
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The key is to know, up-front, the reasons both parties want to form an alliance and be willing to accept each other's goals and expectations, even if they are different from yours but not detrimental, obtrusive, or obstructive. Both parties, however, need to be specific and avoid generalities. Without clarity and detail, it is possible that both parties walk away with different interpretations of the agreed upon goals. If this is the case, then, the opportunities for future problems grow exponentially. |
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