Latest news with #strategicalliances
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Self-Awareness Unlocks The Best Business Partnerships
The best business partnerships start with self-awareness. Strategic business partnerships empower companies to unlock greater value than they could alone. Yet, forming a successful alliance can be difficult – it requires alignment on goals, values, and vision. Whether uniting companies for a chapter or a long journey, here's why having self-awareness creates the best business partnerships. Before embarking on a potential business partnership, it is important to recognize and clarify your organization's key strengths and long-term goals. A successful partnership develops a shared vision. This can only occur if both parties clearly delineate their skills and goals of their business. Sal Frisella, CEO of 1st Phorm, shared to me via email on his company's recent partnership with Anheuser-Busch for Phorm Energy, 'We need to believe in each other and have a common drive to build something that really matters. It's important that both sides bring their own strengths, but what really makes it work is a shared vision.' Home in and streamline your expertise. Companies that dabble in too many products or services may lose their long-term vision and value proposition. Subject matter expertise requires diligent focus and precise cultivation of specific skills. Being a strong player in your market will naturally attract equally successful potential collaborators. Being self-aware means not only identifying the strengths of your organization, but also being able to pinpoint company weaknesses. 'Weaknesses' should be viewed as a future area to develop or a cognizant choice to not allocate resources for a specific domain. Successful organizations are transparent. They understand that naming development areas opens up opportunities to collaborate with a partner that fills the gaps. Revealing your company's weaknesses sets the stage for a continued open and collaborative dialogue. Vulnerability generates reciprocal honesty and trust – the foundation of a successful partnership. Globally, trust is at an all-time low; 68% of people believe business leaders purposefully mislead people, an increase of 12 percentage points since 2021, according to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report. It's important to lead with authenticity in potential partnership conversations. A business partnership is a merging of two ecosystems. Each company has their own unique culture, represented in communication styles and how they work. Frisella elaborates on this, recognizing 'Any real partnership is going to come with challenges, especially when you're building something from the ground up. You've got different teams, different cultures, and different ways of doing things. The key is being flexible without ever compromising who you are.' Embrace flexibility and choice while maintaining the big picture view. Being open to new ideas and approaches will help smooth the transition of multiple teams joining together. Frisella noted that he and Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth connected on a personal level, stemming from mutual respect and a shared vision. Continuously recognize and fulfill the unique needs of your company, the partnering organization, and the collective partnership for a successful collaboration. Knowing and demonstrating your company's values is imperative to finding an equal business that shares similar beliefs. Company values should be more than a catalog of corporate buzzwords. It must be felt in every interaction, email, and decision. An organization's values must be embedded in how you communicate, collaborate, and perform for your philosophies to be meaningful. When asked about advice for businesses looking to secure their first partnership, Frisella replied: 'My advice is simple: be willing to do the work, stay resilient, and only move forward with partners who share your values.' Understanding and expressing your own company values makes finding a business partner with similar values attainable. Building a successful business partnership begins with strong self-awareness. Knowing and communicating your company's strengths, weakness, work styles, and values enables solid business partnerships. Effective collaborations embrace authenticity, flexibility, and a shared vision. Taking this approach will create partnerships that are not only strategic, but also meaningful and resilient.
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Strategic Alliances In Nonprofits: Complementing Efforts For Impact
Randy Wong is President & CEO of Hawaii Youth Symphony and its summer intensive the Pacific Music Institute. In the nonprofit sector, strategic alliances are crucial for amplifying impact, sharing resources and enhancing service delivery. In this article, I'll explore three types of strategic alliances—defined for the purpose of this piece as a relationship between two or more organizations, codified by a formal agreement such as a Memorandum of Understanding. Before joining forces to form a new alliance, take a closer look at the benefits, challenges and unique opportunities that these specific alliances can offer, as well as ways to seek and vet potential partners for meaningful collaborations. A sector-specific alliance brings together organizations within the same sector (e.g., after-school care, youth development) to increase the impact they can make beyond their own stakeholders. Consider, for example, two after-school care organizations, serving youth from different communities. Or a region-wide or nationwide alliance of museums, each with a different focus, but all serving their respective communities through the arts and arts education. Benefits: These alliances can amplify their passion for the sector and connect stakeholders from disparate communities or neighborhoods. They can present a unified front when faced with industry-specific or sector-wide challenges, collectively pushing for policy changes that benefit the entire sector. Challenges: Competition for funding within the same sector can strain these alliances. Coordination among diverse organizations is also challenging, given the varying levels of capacity and strategic priorities. Opportunities: Sector-specific alliances are uniquely positioned to influence policy and public opinion. They can undertake large-scale projects or research initiatives that no single nonprofit could manage alone, leading to groundbreaking innovations and reforms. Alliances of this type typically focus on developing efficiencies through sharing infrastructure, technology and/or specialized staff. Take, for example, a co-op of multiple nonprofits that are sharing office space, a fractional CFO or even copiers. Benefits: By sharing facilities, office space, tech or team members, nonprofits can negotiate lower costs and reduce overhead. As a result, they can obtain bulk pricing, build vendor relationships and improve service quality. These alliances are particularly beneficial for smaller organizations that stand to gain from pooled resources or those in regions where talent is scarce but demand for specialized staff is high. Challenges: These alliances require high levels of trust and continuous communication, as misalignments can lead to service disruptions or staff burnout. There's also the potential for dependency on partners, which can be risky if the alliance becomes strained. Opportunities: Service delivery alliances can significantly enhance the scope and scale of services offered. They also open doors to facilities, technological solutions and other resources that small organizations might otherwise be unable to access. Collaborative, cross-sector alliances inspire creative approaches to problems faced by nonprofits in different sectors. Imagine, for example, an alliance between an arts education organization and an elder care facility, integrating therapeutic art programs into patient care. Mental and physical wellness is enhanced for both residents and youth alike. Benefits: By collaborating, organizations can tackle larger projects and access new donor bases. These partnerships often lead to innovative solutions and stronger advocacy efforts, as combined voices are louder and more persuasive. They build bridges between each organization's stakeholders, develop new projects or services and extend their mutual reach. Challenges: The main challenge is aligning the missions, values and cultures of different organizations, which can be complex and time-consuming. There's also the risk of resource misallocation or dilution of brand identity, which can confuse stakeholders and donors. Mission drift is another concern—where an alliance leans so strongly into the collaboration that it pulls one or more orgs away from their mission. Opportunities: When successful, these partnerships can lead to sustained change in communities by addressing systemic issues through united efforts. They also offer a chance to learn from experts in other sectors, which can lead to improved organizational practices and efficiency and provide an opportunity for out-of-the-box thinking. When vetting potential partners, nonprofits should prioritize finding organizations with cultures, core values and/or mission statements that resonate with their own. This alignment is crucial for fostering a collaborative environment where mutual trust and shared objectives pave the way for effective partnership. It's also essential to assess how the alliance might offer opportunities for growth or stability, ensuring that the collaboration will strengthen each organization's ability to serve its community and fulfill its mission over the long term. Questions to guide this process include: • What resources does each organization have at its fingertips? • To what extent are there stakeholders with shared interests who can facilitate smooth interactions and integrated efforts and who will be passionate champions for these common endeavors? • What risks will your respective organizations undertake—and does the risk match the potential reward? • How will participants and stakeholders feel as the alliance builds and grows? • How will the success of the alliance be measured, documented and disseminated? Evaluating these factors carefully will help nonprofits establish alliances that are both strategic and sustainable, maximizing the benefits for all involved parties. Happy and healthy alliances require careful planning, strong governance and robust communication channels to overcome challenges and fully capitalize on the opportunities they present. For nonprofits looking to extend their impact, strategic alliances represent a pathway not just for growth but for transformational change. Forbes Nonprofit Council is an invitation-only organization for chief executives in successful nonprofit organizations. Do I qualify?
CNA
06-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Chinese fighter jets soar over Egypt in first joint exercises
BEIJING: The sound of Chinese fighter jets roared over the Egyptian pyramids and could echo across the Middle East, as Beijing wrapped up military drills with Cairo aimed at chipping away at the United States' strategic influence in the volatile region. China's military on Monday (May 5) released videos of its fast jets, helicopters and transport planes flying high above the Sahara and hailing inaugural joint air force exercises with Egypt as "a signal of deepening military ties and shifting alliances". The joint exercises with one of the US' biggest security partners come as Washington increasingly turns inward under President Donald Trump, allowing China to deepen ties across North Africa and invest billions in security projects. "As Egypt looks beyond its traditional US partnership, a new era of cooperation is taking flight over Cairo's skies," said a video released by the international division of state broadcaster CCTV, as a jet plane takes off into the night. Global Times, a tabloid owned by the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, People's Daily, said the "Eagles of Civilisation 2025" drills had established a foundation for various potential cooperation between the two countries' militaries at a time when Egypt is trying to upgrade its combat equipment, citing experts. Analysts say the 18-day drills also help Egypt assert itself as a major regional power among the Arab nations and North Africa amid growing regional turbulence. "It's great public diplomacy for (China), particularly in the Middle East," said Eric Orlander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project. "It's what brings people in the door for them to sell drones, SAMs, light arms, transports, et cetera." "A major regional power needs an Air Force, right?" he added. Orlander cautioned that switching jet fighter systems is very expensive, and Washington could choose to withhold financial military support from Cairo if it upped its purchases of Chinese technologies. But the US - the primary security partner to Egypt, neighbouring Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states since the late seventies - has made large foreign cuts under Trump that have been keenly felt across the region. And with the Gaza crisis unfolding to its north-east, ethnic violence in Sudan to the south, and political instability in Libya to its west, Egypt finds itself squeezed on three fronts. China has since pledged billions in fresh investment for projects such as satellite manufacturing facilities in Egypt capable of producing military-grade surveillance equipment.
