“Presidential Advisory Councils” Offer CEOs Support, Counsel and New Ideas
by Ken Lizotte CMC and Michael Brown
Does the common perception of today’s CEO match the reality? Are today’s top corporate executives truly burdened with the weight of the world, engaged in a round-the-clock game of cut-throat ploys and tactics, surrounded by sycophants, never able to relax or confide in like-minded people? Is it really that lonely at the top?

Are Strategic Alliances “Black-Holes” or Lightening-Rods for Business Innovation?
by Adrian C. Ott and Ann E. Trampas
Are you getting the most out of your strategic alliances group? This article describes five key indicators that signal whether you are getting the most ROI.  Best practices from leading-edge companies describe how they are transforming this discipline from a narrow and specialized function into a strategic enabler for the rest of the corporation.

Connect … Communicate … Collaborate
by Stephen M. Dent
Gone are the days when businesses could dominate competition and control markets, technology, or information. The world has changed. As businesses become increasingly global, connection, communication, and collaboration are critical to success in an information-abundant world.

Collaborate to Succeed - But Only With the Right Attitude
by Amanda Crouch
Collaboration is the way forward in the global competitive economy. It requires a different business model and mindset.

Feedback is Professional Development
by Stephen M. Dent
The ability to hear what others are saying and determine the accuracy and relevancy of their feedback is a significant source of professional and partnership development and a critical leadership competency.

Attract and Delight More Customers While Spending Less - by Forging Smart Partnerships
by Kare Anderson
What could be better than reaching prospective customers through organizations they already know and trust?

Look Beyond Value Creation When Considering Potential of Success in a Merger
by Stephen M. Dent
The importance of doing up-front assessments of cultural fit, trust and other relationship elements to uncover risks that could cause a merger to fail cannot be overstated.

Business Acquisition, Integration & Operation … and Communication 101: A Primer
by Larry Fox and Rob Hilliard
The three factors that have the greatest impact on the success or failure of a business acquisition are: (1) having a thorough understanding of the acquisition target; (2) developing a post-closing plan; and (3) executing that post-closing plan effectively. But what one key ingredient determines the level of success of all three factors?

The Conundrum of Collaboration
by Steven C. Coats
In a world where headcount constantly decreases yet objectives continue to rise, people must form new relationships and build alliances with others outside their own department in order to be successful.

Why Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions Fail
by Larraine Segil
While every organization is different and faces multiple challenges, Vantage Partners have identified a number of recurring patterns that often are precursors to M&A and alliance failure.

Why Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions Fail - Part 2
by Larraine Segil
While every organization is different and faces multiple challenges, Vantage Partners have identified a number of recurring patterns that often are precursors to M&A and alliance failure.

Powerhouse Partners - Building an Organization Culture for Breakaway Results
by Stephen M. Dent and James H. Krefft, Ph.D.
Connectivity is critical for any business to be a true 'Powerhouse Partner.' As customer's needs swirl, as markets migrate, as technologies erupt, companies must have a superabundance of connections to withstand the shockwaves of these massive movements.

Relationships: The Art of Business
by Ronald C. Lazof
Always follow the "golden rule", exceed expectations, be proactive, act in your stakeholders best perceived long term interests and most importantly, see the world through their eyes and 'walk the walk" in their shoes.

Building Trust Starts at the Top
by Stephen M. Dent
The most powerful way to build trust is by talking about trust. When confronted with a tough decision, here are some steps that you can take to make your employees and customers feel like partners instead of victims.

Relationship Management as a Corporate Capability
by Larraine Segil
Many companies are finding that their alliance results are wholly disappointing or inconsistent. They recognize that they need to become better at building and managing their alliances, but few know what "better" would look like, or where to start.

Executives Must Acknowledge the Importance of Trust
by Stephen M. Dent
Many executives give lip service to the importance of trust, but fail to see a connection between their own behavior and the amount of trust people have in their organization.

How Well Are You Managing Your Current Partnerships?
by Stephen M. Dent
A quick checklist to see how well your organization is managing its current partnerships, from the author of Partnering Intelligence.

Introducing Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
by Stephen M. Dent
Partner Relationship Management is about relationships. It's about understanding the needs of your business partners and satisfying those needs to the best of your ability -- while building trust between you.

Past/Future Orientation Environment: An Assessment
by Stephen M. Dent
How do you view your own work environment -- your company's culture? Is it oriented toward the past or the future?

The Price of Poor Partnerships
by Stephen M. Dent
Smart partnerships -- those that thrive and reward both partners -- require smart planning. They also require a specific set of partnering skills -- ones that anyone can learn with the right training.

Creating an Information-Sharing Culture
by Stephen M. Dent
How do you create a healthy information-sharing culture within your organization, one that will give your company a competitive edge? By developing a better understanding of why information-sharing is so important to businesses today; of what causes internal information-sharing to shut down; and of how a systems approach is crucial to getting the information flowing again.

What's Your Conflict Resolution Style?
by Stephen M. Dent
Developing an effective Strategic Framework -- and having a successful partnership -- takes strong conflict resolution skills. At each step along the way, problems and differences of opinions may arise. Will you be able to resolve your disagreements?

The Importance of a Win/Win Orientation
by Stephen M. Dent
Having a Win/Win Orientation is much more than creating solutions that satisfy people's needs, though it does that too. Using a Win/Win Orientation is a trust-building mechanism and, without trust, no partnership, alliance or team can thrive.

Introducing The CRO - Chief Relationship Officer
by Tom Richardson and Gus Vidaurreta
The company that establishes the position of Chief Relationship Officer takes the first giant step toward ending those losses and turning them into profits or assets. The move acknowledges that individual and collective stakeholder relationships in a company are important enough to warrant full-time attention and systematic, conscious management.

Partnering as a Business Model
by Stephen M. Dent
The question becomes not whether to develop a strong partnership capability, but how strong and how quickly!

Partnering Intelligence - The New Economy and Partnering
by Stephen M. Dent
As the world becomes increasingly wired together, people and the relationships they forge will become a new source of competitive advantage.

Creating Alliances That Work
by Larraine Segil
Applying the 'Mindshift' approach to examine corporate compatibility.

Related Topics: Creative Leadership I | II | III | Leading Change

Return to top