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Form follows function applies to the structure of the Strategic Relationship you choose to enter into, ranging from a Partnership or Alliance to a Merger, Acquisition, or Joint Venture. The same principle applies to the roles people fulfill in making the relationship work. Roles follow function. Consider two of the most important roles in a Strategic Relationship: the Executive Sponsor and the Strategic Relationship Manager. An Executive Sponsor is not defined by a job title.

You said yes. Your company is now committed to a Strategic Relationship, and you are the Executive Sponsor. So what exactly are you supposed to do now? The first part of the Executive Sponsor role happened before the relationship began. You were the person with the authority to commit your organization to the relationship, to say “yes” to its existence. But once the Strategic Relationship exists, being the person who said yes is no longer enough. Once the relationship exists,

Why Most Strategic Relationships Don't Fail the Way You Think They Do When a strategic relationship fails, executives naturally look for the event that caused it. A missed product launch. A disagreement over finances. A customer complaint. A leadership change. A contract dispute. Those events certainly end relationships. But they are rarely the underlying cause of the relationship ending. After spending more than three decades helping organizations build strategic partnership

Knowing when to exit a relationship matters How long is enough before you press the button to exit on a failed strategic partnership, alliance, merger or acquisition? The best answer is “as soon as possible”. However, most executives wait until the pain of trying to make it work is just too much to bear. That is always too late and the results can be disastrous. Failed partnerships and alliances typically take 18 months to reach this point. Failed mergers and acquisitions,

The journey of a startup is often described as a space odyssey often ending in disaster and sometimes in exultant triumph. Ten percent of all startups fail within the first year, with a cumulative twenty percent by end of year two and ninety percent failing by end of year five. For those who make it into year six and beyond, only a third of those with VC backing that have made it through a Series C reach a successful exit. Startups who reach an exit are five to ten times

No, this post is not about ancient dragons nor is this a about preventing nuclear war. However, when there is a five-year gap between blog posts, it begs an explanation. Allow me one paragraph as segue and then my explanation follows. Back in the day, I taught networking technology at Kennedy Space Center. I was introducing what was then cutting-edge digital tech to people who had landed men on the moon using mostly analog tech and slide rules. That led me to an adventure i

Alice and Vint never dated and do not have a marriage certificate. Yet, they are inexorably linked to each other in a confused cloud created by the Supreme Court that has negatively impacted the ability to obtain an enforceable patent for a computer program or software. The implications to FinTech, Saas, and IoT are far reaching. This 3-part article takes a look at the impact of the Supreme Court on IP over the last 5 years and how your company’s intellectual property can b

Culture is the foundation on which Mission is executed and Vision is realized. However, “culture” is not a noun. Culture is a verb. Three John’s, John Nordstrom, John Morgridge and John Chambers, CEO/Chairman rock stars in their industries, taught this lesson the same way. They lived it out in front of their people. Two showed me how. John Nordstrom is legendary for instilling the culture of customer service. Books have literally been written on such while countless stori

What made this a spectacular PR event, which @apexmarketing indicates was worth $7.2M in free promotion for Bud Light, was not the power of an Astros home run hitting the stomach of a Bud Light and Nationals fan. It was the power of social media being harnessed by an empowered employee at the edge of the Bud Light organization. See the full clip here: https://loom.bz/BudLight_Empowered_Employee Such heads up play by a PR savvy social media hawk at Bud Light really turned thi

There are so many stories of great losses and great heroes from 9/11/2001. Living in DC and being the VP of Global Govt. Solutions for Cisco Systems at that time, I lost neighbors, co-workers, and valued friends and associates both at the Pentagon and in New York on 9/11. As for my team the call received that fateful morning was from Richard Clarke, then the National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism reporting to the President of th

There are times when we reset and refresh in order to be prepared for the challenges and opportunities ahead. I have found the week between the Christmas and New Year's holidays are a good time, as well as, the morning of the 4th of July. These bi-annual way points allow for resetting the desk, the desktop, and those things that tend to creep into the way of what is important. This year, Loom Enterprises has refreshed its web site with the traditional end of summer and sta