Organizations worldwide are increasingly relying on cc to achieve their growth objectives and other strategic goals. However, most of the alliances end in partial or outright failure. External partnership management is a complex process. This article examines some simple managerial principles to be followed to successfully manage strategic alliances and makes some suggestions to companies so that they can develop a disciplined approach to alliance management.

Strategic alliances: A powerful tool for managing growth and competition Strategic alliances are widely used by organizations worldwide to not just make their businesses grow quickly, but with lower cost and risk. The business world of the 21^st century is a world of resource constraints and intense battles for customers. To counter these pressures, organizations increasingly resort to a range of cooperative relationships and partnership arrangements to achieve their strategic objectives. Strategic alliances are powerful tools to manage growth and competition, and attain globalization, but designing and maneuvering through alliances are very challenging activities.

Strategic alliances are basically arrangements between two or more firms in which each participant commits resources (which can be in the form of finance, assets, skills or competencies) to attain certain objectives; e.g., increased market share, entry to new markets, new product development, R&D collaboration, technological learning, sharing risks, attaining economies of scale, etc. Certain managerial principles listed below can aid organizations to manage their strategic alliances successfully and realize the desired strategic objectives.

Global CEO Magazine, Strategic Alliances, External Partnership Management, Alliance Management, Strategic Objectives, Customer Relationship Management, Operational Management, Managerial Principles, Mergers and Acquisitions, M&A.