Lamb Chapter 5 Web Exercise

Business Marketing

Vignette: Fifteen air carriers have come together to offer travellers an integrated flying program with a variety of flying options. Star Alliance aims to create many benefits for business travellers and other flying customers.

Featured URL: www.star-alliance.com  

Strategic Alliances

As you read in Chapter 5, strategic alliances and partnerships are "key to the future for businesses of all sizes and in every industry worldwide." They can be as simple as sharing restaurant space (Tim Hortons and Harvey's do this) or as complex as multiple partnerships (Star Alliance being the example at hand). Critical partnerships share resources and draw on collective expertise to advance their mutual businesses. You will find it helpful to refer to the six tips for making an alliance successful, found in this chapter.

Visit the Cisco Systems Strategic Alliances Web page. Thirteen alliances are profiled:

Investigate two of these further, and give evidence for the success of these alliances. What can each of these companies bring to the partnership to forward the success of both?

• Article: "Do You Really Have an Alliance Strategy?" by Benjamin Gomes-Casseres.
• Article: "Bid Blue: eBay partners with IBM" by Bryce G. Hoffman.
• Article: "She's the Real (Internet) Deal" by Cheryl Dahle.

These Web Exercises provide an additional opportunity for exploration of Chapter 5.

Read the article "Do You Really Have an Alliance Strategy?" Based on what you read in it about the failures and successes of alliances, create a description of two companies that could make a successful merger.<What factors lead you to believe it will be a success? Are any risks involved? How can these companies avoid failure in their partnership?

Read the article "Bid Blue: eBay Partners with IBM."< Find two other articles on the Web: the first about this same alliance, and the second about yet another alliance that IBM has made. List the advantages and disadvantages of both these alliances.

Read the article "She's the Real (Internet) Deal." Based on your reading of this and your visit to Segil's Website, discuss why you think she is a successful deal maker. Can you find another deal maker on the Web?