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jects or products. Internal operations that provide you with a unique information source or market assessment do not necessarily have to be brought into the alliance, unless they are specific to the project or product in question. Either partner can keep parts of their business operations to themselves and/or only provide an output or service to the alliance. In this way, some corporate attributes or secrets can still remain confidential. |
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Overall, it is important to address these issues. Many of them will not become obvious until the project is moving along and the partners are working closely together. It does help, however, to generally understand what you feel are the family jewels worth protecting and what can be shared with a partner throughout an alliance. |
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There is a possibility, through this close level of cooperation, that either partner may start to consider itself or be considered an integral part of the other. Also, either party may feel that its identity is now defined as the alliance/partnership not as independent organizations cooperating on a project. |
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In such a case, either partner may become a core element in the other's overall business strategy and an integral part of the other's business. This may be bad or good. It is good, if this is realized, accepted, and endorsed by both parties. It could be bad because one of the partners may realize this and the other does not, or, as time passes, one acquires the other. In such a case, the one partner simply ceases to exist and is totally incorporated into the other partner. This often happens when one partner is significantly larger, such as when a large pharmaceutical company forms an alliance with a small biotechnology or biomedical company. In the beginning, the larger company has a need that is fulfilled by the smaller company. If the larger company determines over time that this technology or service is vital to its future operations or competitive ability, it may simply acquire the smaller company. This, in fact, is a common long-term strategy of many smaller biotechnology/biomedical companies (i.e., to be acquired). |
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This is not necessarily bad, especially if the smaller company fully supports and agrees to the acquisition. It could be detrimental if the opposite is true. In such a case, the ability, technology, or service that the larger company wanted or needed, may become only part of the larger company on paper. The intellectual capacity to perform (i.e., the people with the expertise, knowledge and ability), may simply leave the organization. If this occurs, then, the larger company acquired a hollow shell and will probably never fully realize the outcome they hoped to gain through the acquisition. |
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