Peter's Blog

Strategic Alliances and Partnerships are the way to grow an organization or enter new areas in a cost effective way. Alliances may seem popular in the current economic climate, they are around already for a long time. As the Dutch "mentioned Canon and HP already have a 25 year successful alliance in place.

Looking into the Alliances announcements Today and yesterday shows an interesting palette of Alliances appear and show that Alliances are a means for growth across all sectors.
A summary of interesting Alliance announcements in the past days:

<*>Not for profit: In the Netherlands the ANWB and the Verkeersinformatiedienst announced they will team up with Rijkswaterstaat to prevent traffic jams that most likely will occur due to road works planned for 2010. Both organizations expect more partners to join in this effort.
<*>IT/PLM: IBM and Dassault Systemes announced an expansion to their multi level relationship today resulting in the creation of a stronger party in the PLM space and a global strategic alliance between the two companies.
<*>IT/e-Health: In China Perot Systems and China Telecom announced a strategic alliance to go to market with an e-health platform and IT services that support the advancement of healthcare across China.
<*>Education: The Technical University (TU) of Eindhoven signed a cooperation agreement in Japan with the renowned Keio University. The department of Industrial Design of the TU intends to exchange knowledge and people with Keio university.
<*>Mobile: 3M and Artificial Life have entered into an alliance agreement outlining the parties intent to collaborate in the coming years in projects related to the R&D of new mobile device products and technology. Next to the strategic alliance 3M also invested in a 10% equity interest in Artificial Life.
<*>Healthcare: In the USA Nutrisystem and the American Diabetes Association announced a new multi-year Strategic Alliance to promote the Importance of Weight Loss for People With Type 2 Diabetes.
<*>Trade: Port Klang Free Trade Zone in Malaysia has signed a memorandum of understanding with Marseille-Fos Port in France to boost the strategic alliance between them. The agreement aims to jointly explore and implement a coordinated marketing approach for the redistribution of halal products in Europe, Africa and Mediterannean territory.
<*>Social Media: The Telegraph quoted Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, and Owen Van Natta, MySpace's Chief Executive, on the fact that Facebook and MySpace are exploring content-sharing partnerships. Van Natta stated that Partnerships are going to be a big part of our strategy moving forward as a lot of value can be derived from them .