Essay About Strategic Alliance Of Lenovo And Close Attention

Strategic Alliance of Lenovo and Ibm
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2.4.1The Necessity of Early Stage Alliance Management
Researchers as Yoshino and Rangan (1995), Child and Faulkner (1998), and Parkhe (1998a) (as
cited in Kelly et al., 2002) suggest that the real challenge of strategic alliance management is to
transform collaborative agreement into productive and effective relationships. It requires the
close attention to the people aspects of alliances especially in the early stage of the
collaboration. However, as Kelly et al. (2002) point out that there are few studies that have
examined how the process of cooperation between individuals and organizations actually takes
place in alliances, and how these problems could affect the sustaining of the collaboration. Doz
and Hamel (1998) note that the initial context of an alliance seldom encourages cooperation, as
the managers and staff will most likely find themselves under unfamiliar circumstances, in
which they may have different assumptions, attitudes and expectations about the alliances as
well as private fears about their role in it. As Kelly et al. (2002) note that this situation will
probably be further complicated due to cultural differences, communication barriers, lingering
suspicions about partner motives and latent opposition in the partner companies. If these early
uncertainties, conflicts and tensions are not handled carefully and deliberately, they can cause
mistrust and reinforce an “us versus them” mindset in the partners, thereby undermining the
foundation of the alliance (Doz and Hamel, 1998; Kelly et al., 2002).
Arino et al. (2001) indicate the importance of managing cultural conflicts from the very start of
the alliance, as they can be obstacles to keep partners from effective communication, especially
in cross-border alliances. As it is further explained that as employees at all levels are the ones
that make the alliance work on a day-to-day basis, management must ensure that they can work
harmoniously under diverse circumstances, which is the same to the senior management
personnel. Therefore, it is top of the priority at the initial stage to avoid the “us and them”