Making strategic alliances work: how royal Philips tries to build alliance capability

Abstract

Alliances are essential part of the strategy of many companies. Companies that have a well developed, organization-wide alliance capability could have more favourable alliance success rates. Yet, not so many companies have developed such world-class alliance capabilities. In this paper, we highlight some of the most critical elements of the strategy, structure, systems, people and culture of building alliance capabilities. We will use Royal Philips as a case to demonstrate what this company has done to develop their alliance capabilities.