Most companies eventually have to seek out, evaluate and commit to various strategic partners, either through long-term supplier relationships or through mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Within the Decision Driven® Strategy decision pattern, I have framed the Strategic Partners decision as “Who are the strategic partners through which we will acquire core competencies?”. Of course, this decision could be focused more specifically on a set of high value technologies or process capabilities or it could be broadened to look at partners that play other roles in the business architecture/ecosystem (e.g. channels to market, software development).
Here are some criteria for the Strategic Partner decision that have been further tailored to match the needs of a fictional water filter company. Note how the Must limits and Ideal values set by this company tune the generic criteria pattern to match the specific needs of this company.
Strategic Partners: Criteria
The company has evaluated 2 alternatives using the Think It Through tool to better understand the relative merits of each potential partner.
Strategic Partners: Think it Through
The Tornado Chart can be used to highlight the advantages that make one alternative superior.
Strategic Partners: Tornado Chart
A Spider Chart presents the same information, but could be used to compare up to 5 alternatives at a time.
- Strategic Partners: Spider Chart
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Filed under: Decision Driven Strategy, Sample Decisions | Tagged: acquisitions, core competencies, criteria, criteria pattern, decision pattern, ideal value, joint ventures, mergers, must limit, partnerships, process capabilities, spider chart, technology portfolio, tornado chart
