Network Advantage: How to Unlock Value From Your Alliances and Partnerships

by Henrich Greve, Tim Rowley, Andrew Shipilov

Companies made more than 42,000 alliances over the past decade worldwide, many of which failed to deliver strong results.  This book explains why and how you can seize the benefits from your business’s network of alliances with customers, suppliers and competitors. 

This network can provide three key

·         superior information

·         better cooperation

·         increased power 

Network Advantage shows how awareness of these three advantages can help align your portfolio of alliances with your corporate strategy to maximize advantages from existing networks and to position your business as an industry leader.

This book is written by three leading authorities in the field of organizational management who work with many international corporate clients. Based on groundbreaking research and illustrative cases, it provides practical tools to help you think strategically about reconfiguring your alliances and partnerships. For business executives, consultants, and executive MBAs who want to get the most advantage from the combined power of their alliance portfolios, Network Advantage offers in-depth, practical guidance. Make it your first strategic connection to gaining competitive advantage!

Companies’ connections to other firms—their network of alliances—matter for economic success.  In this practical, jargon-free, evidence-based book, three experienced scholar/educators provide practical tools to understand your company’s network positioning and what to do to build webs of relationships that provide competitive advantage and economic value. —Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University and co-author of The Knowing-Doing Gap.

The book, Network Advantage, presents compelling ideas and is a must-read. It articulates three different perspectives to think about a firm’s network advantage and shows how a firm can maximize the value of its alliance network. The book is filled with theoretical and practical insights on the topic and offers captivating case studies to illustrate its key points. It is fun to read. I highly recommend this book. —W. Chan Kim, The BCG Chair Professor of INSEAD and the Co-director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute

In this eminently researched book, the authors show how executives and entrepreneurs alike can unlock the value of alliances. And the book comes with some "secrets" to success that most managers overlook. Every CEO, executive and entrepreneur who are collaborating with other firms ought to read this book. —Morten T. Hansen, Professor at University of California at Berkeley, author of Collaboration and co-author of Great by Choice.

Don’t compete alone! “Network Advantage” provides a fresh perspective on how all firms can benefit from their alliances and partnerships.  The authors seamlessly integrate academic research and real life examples into a practical step by step guide for unleashing the power, information and cooperation advantages available in networks. A must read for thoughtful executives and entrepreneurs alike. —Stein Ove Fenne, President, Tupperware U.S. & Canada

Having the "right" business network is everything for a company's success in Asia and worldwide.

Genres: Business

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 22, 2013

Reviews

[Dmitry · Rating 5 out of 5]

(The English review is placed beneath the Russian one)

Эта книга является великолепный примером того, что бриллианты в бизнес литературе не могут иметь высокий рейтинг. Да, есть классика бизнес литературы как, например книги Котлера, Портера, Траута и пр., но вот среди современной бизнес литературы такое случается крайне редко или даже возможно, что никогда. Вот задумаемся, какие бизнес книги являются бестселлерами? Такие книги как «Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future», « Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action», «The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It», « Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't», « Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike». Вот список книг, которые входят в TOP-20 списка Business Books сайта goodreads. Что примечательно в этих книгах? Эти книги написаны для самой широкой аудитории, а не для специалистов. Другими словами это книги не для обучения, а для развлечения людей далёких от какого-либо бизнеса.

Так вот, книга «Network Advantage: How to Unlock Value From Your Alliances and Partnerships» является образовательной, а не развлекательной. Чем-то эта книга похожа даже на университетский учебник типа MBA. Я не могу сказать, что книгу было так уж увлекательно читать, однако информация, которая содержится в книге, является не только редко встречающейся и не только ориентированной на бизнес-практику, но и совершено новой. Я прочитал несколько сот книг по бизнесу, но только в этой книге я встретил подробное описание того, как с помощью бизнес альянсов можно построить конкурентоспособный бизнес или конкурентно успешную бизнес модель. И как во всех моих любимых книгах по бизнесу, авторы не предлагают общую информацию, т.е. информацию которую можно найти во множестве подобных книг. Авторы фокусируются только на одной теме и анализируют её максимально подробно. Это один из главных признаков хорошей качественной бизнес-литературы направленной на профильную аудиторию, а не на массовый читательский рынок.

Итак, что же предлагают авторы? Как можно понять из названия книги, в центре внимания авторов находится создание бизнес альянсов. Так, по мнению авторов, существуют открытые звездообразные портфели альянсов и закрытые паутинообразные портфели альянсов. Плюс, гибрид. В качестве примера авторы рассматривают портфели альянсов компании Sony и Samsung. Как пишут авторы, довольно значительным является визуальное отображение всего портфеля альянса и в книге содержится довольно много рисунков изображающие то, как всё это выглядит. Но почему это так важно? Дело в том, что ещё в книге «Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge» автор пишет следующее, « Southwest, Lincoln, Electric и McDonald’s используют тесные связи с поставщиками и другими партнерами в дополнение к уникальным системам операционной деятельности, чтобы создать модели, не поддающиеся копированию». Видите? Создание уникальной системы альянсов делает копирование успешного товара или услуги в разы сложнее. Создание альянсов создаёт довольно сильное конкурентное преимущество, что означает, что конкуренты будут с вами конкурировать, скорее всего, только на ценовом уровне, что мы и видим на примере китайских фирм/брендов, чьим единственным конкурентным преимуществом является низкая цена. Это очень и очень важное замечание. В США, Европе и некоторых странах Азии, крупные компании создают уникальные альянсы, которые фактически превращают эти самые компании в неприступные для конкурентов крепости. Если одну компанию, какой бы огромной она не была, можно изобразить в виде одинокого дома, то описываемая авторами идея сети альянсов превращает этот дом в небоскрёб посреди огромного мегаполиса.

Но смотрим, что ещё более важное пишут авторы: «Вы используете эти альянсы для формирования своей репутации, которая затем превращается в сетевой статус, привлекающий новых партнёров. Те, которые появились позже, смотрят на общую ценность портфеля альянсов и не так строго судят о вашей фирме, как это делали первые, потому что оценивают не только её, а весь портфель». А это вообще революционная идея. Получается, что даже слабая фирма, с помощью грамотно построенного альянса может превратиться в очень сильную структуру. Конечно, существует множество «если», но факт остаётся фактом, что создание альянсов, это главная или одна из главных идей/возможностей бизнеса в XXI века. Да, пока мы видим такие крупные и успешно работающие альянсы среди крупных фирм. Однако идея альянсов подразумевает и наличие лишь нескольких, местных фирм. Что означает, что мы стоим на пороге нового способа мышления в бизнесе. А возможно даже, на пороге революционного преобразования всего бизнеса в мире как такового. Разумеется, создание подобных бизнес-альянсов началось не в XXI веке, но я имею в виду, что создание уникальной сети альянсов станет обычным делом для средних и малых предприятий, а не для таких гигантов как GM или вышеприведённые Sony и Samsung. Авторы пишут так же о разных уровнях сети альянсов, но это уже детали.

This book is a great example of how diamonds in business literature cannot have a high rating. Yes, there are classics of business literature, such as books by Kotler, Porter, Trout, etc., but among modern business literature, this happens very rarely, if ever. Think about it, what are the bestselling business books? Books like Zero to One: Notes on Startups, How to Build the Future, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't," "Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike." Here's a list of books that are on the Goodreads site's TOP-20 Business Books list. What is remarkable about these books? These books are written for the general public, not specialists. In other words, they are books not for teaching but for entertaining people far removed from any business.

Well, the book "Network Advantage: How to Unlock Value From Your Alliances and Partnerships" is educational, not entertaining. In some ways, this book even resembles a university textbook like an MBA. I can't say that the book was all that exciting to read, but the information contained in the book is not only rare and not only focused on business practice but also completely new. I have read several hundred books on business, but only in this book have I encountered a detailed description of how business alliances can be used to build a competitive business or a competitively successful business model. And like all of my favorite business books, the authors do not offer general information, i.e., information that can be found in many similar books. The authors focus only on one topic and analyze it in as much detail as possible. This is one of the main signs of good quality business literature aimed at a specialized audience rather than at the mass reading market.

So what do the authors suggest? As you can understand from the title of the book, the authors focus on the creation of business alliances. So, according to the authors, there are open star-shaped alliance portfolios and closed star-shaped alliance portfolios. Plus, a hybrid. As an example, the authors look at the alliance portfolios of Sony and Samsung. As the authors write, the visual representation of the entire alliance portfolio is quite significant, and the book contains quite a few drawings depicting what it all looks like. But why is it so important? The thing is, back in Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge, the author writes this, "Southwest, Lincoln, Electric and McDonald's use close ties with suppliers and other partners in addition to unique operating systems to create models that defy copying." See. Creating a unique system of alliances makes copying a successful product or service many times more difficult. Creating alliances creates a fairly strong competitive advantage, which means that your competitors are likely to compete with you only on the price level, as we see in the example of Chinese firms/brands whose only competitive advantage is low price. This is a very, very important point. In the U.S., Europe, and some Asian countries, large companies create unique alliances that turn these same companies into fortresses impregnable to competitors. If one company, no matter how large, can be portrayed as a lonely house, then the idea of an alliance network described by the authors turns that house into a skyscraper in the middle of a huge metropolis.

But look at what the authors write even more importantly: "You use these alliances to build your reputation, which then turns into a network status that attracts new partners. Those that come in later look at the overall value of the portfolio of alliances and don't judge your firm as harshly as the first ones did because they're evaluating not just it, but the entire portfolio." And this is a revolutionary idea altogether. It turns out that even a weak firm, with the help of a well-built alliance, can turn into a very strong structure. Of course, there are many "ifs", but the fact remains that alliance building is the main or one of the main ideas/opportunities of business in the XXI century. Yes, so far, we have seen such large and successful alliances among big firms. But the idea of alliances also implies that there are only a few, local firms, which means that we are on the cusp of a new way of thinking about business. And perhaps even on the cusp of a revolutionary transformation of all business in the world as such. Of course, the creation of such business alliances did not begin in the 21st century, but what I mean is that the creation of a unique network of alliances will become commonplace for medium and small enterprises, not for such giants as GM or the above-mentioned Sony and Samsung. The authors also write about the different levels of the alliance network, but these are the details.

[Romana Pintea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is really nicely explained and very clear. It gives you a good overview about the alliance network structures and how you can use them to maximize your company's benefits. The toolbox connects it to the real life, so it is a book written for executives and people within a company, not for other researchers. It is just that sometimes I felt the concepts were kind of difficult to measure and adapt to companies. But it is a really good and hands on book.

[GColucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Read together with an introduction to social and economic network analytics... it’s an eye opener to anyone who is into alliances snd partnerships.

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the book is interesting and written pretty well, most examples are based on a database that is far from complete. While the database might be fine for analyses on macro level, it definitely isn't for comparisons on company level. A prominent example in the book is that of Samsung vs. Sony. The authors attribute the companies' success and failure mainly to their network configuration, while overlooking that Japanese firms such as Sony are much more frequently represented in the database than Korean ones. This completely distorts the authors' theories: It is not that Sony's alliance partners are more interconnected than Samsung's, but their ties are simply more likely to appear in the database due to the geographical bias. Therefore, in my opinion pretty useless