Every week many new alliances are being announced. As mentioned before not every announcement is crystal clear on what the parties have in mind. Most often the element what the announcement brings to the customer seems to be forgotten. The parties forget to transform the power an announcement can bring into commercial opportunities by leaving the customer benefit out.
Still every week there are some alliance announcements that jump out of the pact. Each of them for different reasons. Let’s have a look at four announcements of this week:
Healthcare
On the healthcare side in Tacoma, WA Highline Medical Center and the Franciscan Health System announced to explore a strategic alliance. The announcement is an interesting one. Two parties active in the medical area being part of a larger nationwide development in healthcare. This development is driving them together, combined with a financial driver of Highline facing financial issues. In business alliances one might question if this is a good ground to cooperate. In healthcare however drivers are different. The term customer is not easily defined here: is the customer the patient or the payer? Healthcare alliances are in my view in general more complex than business to business alliances.
India
In India VIA Media health announced a strategic alliance with PSB. VIA Media Health is India’s largest healthcare communications service provider, while Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) is a global research based communications strategy and reputation management advisory. “Ensuring a bang for their buck” seems to be the value proposition that the alliance is offering their customers.
Telecom in Malaysia
Through an alliance Inteliquent, a leading provider of global interconnection and interoperability solutions, is entering Malaysia and at the same time offering Telekom Malaysia to extend its global ethernet reach. Both partners indicate to establish the alliance to better meet customer expectation.
Education in China
In China announced Neologic Animation, an educational software company, an alliance with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS) Institute of Psychology. This Alliance is designed for CAS to assist Neologic in creating its groundbreaking software by better understanding the mind, behavior, and psyche of early childhood development. The alliance is focussed on better learning for children in Chinese schools through interactive educational games.
Your challenge:
Think about these alliance announcements; what can you learn from them that will inspire ideas for your alliances or for your alliance announcements?