To make your strategic alliance, collaboration or partnering relationship successful, watch out for the pitfalls and roadblocks.

In looking at the issue of values, frequently partners of an alliance will have core values that are conflicting. This is especially a problem with issues like trust and integrity. Corporate culture clashes; employee turf protection, and resistance of certain employees to new ideas can wreak havoc on your efforts to maintain a prosperous alliance.

When one of the alliances partners does not completely embrace the principles of Partnering, big challenges occur. This can include top-level executives or even supervisory and functional employees in departments, divisions or regions within a Partnering organization. As an example, DuPont believes that if a contractor is looking just to maximize his profits, on just one job, then Partnering with that contractor is not for DuPont because they know there will be problems in the relationship.

Because the dynamics of alliance relationships are constantly changing, inflexibility of partners can kill an alliance quickly. Each member must be willing to give a little, especially in times of change for a Partnering agreement to work. Just as devastating is a partner making a Partnering commitment, and having a hidden agenda that would be destructive to the alliance. Not quite as bad is a partner deciding they don’t want to follow through, or one that does not have the capability to fulfill their commitment.

Supplier relationships can become challenging, especially when business is great. Suppliers can make the relationship mistake of conveniently forgetting about the loyalty of smaller long-term customers, and snubbing them for the larger orders. This is short-term profitability and long-term disaster. When those large order companies go out of business or are consolidated, the supplier could be left without any customers.

Complacency of either partner is an insidious relationship-killer. Continuously ask your alliance partner questions in a way that encourages them to relate performance problems and shortcomings. Ask, “What haven’t we done lately?” And ask, “What is it you really need from us?”

Dependency on your alliance partner can put your business at a similar risk. If you become the weak link in the alliance and your alliance relationship no longer delivers value to your partner, more than not, they will discontinue the alliance.

If you or your alliance partner is not relationship oriented little problems can easily escalate. Then anger comes and the blaming others for your current situation. The not invented here, mentality often exhibited by senior management is a result of low relationship tolerance. Also the lack of commitment to the alliance or innovations developed by alliance partners can easily slay your relationship.

There is the situation where you might lose control of a technology or best practice to an alliance partner who later becomes a competitor. Staples and Office Depot were going to merge but it did not work out. A problem for Office Depot was that Staples learned of an Office Depot best practice during the merger talks. Office Depot was delivering COD to small businesses in the northeast and getting most of the business. After the failed merger, Stapled duplicated Office Depot’s practice and took away Office Depot’s competitive advantage in the area.

To access helpful additional information from Ed Rigsbee at no charge, please visit this site.

Article adapted from PartnerShift-How to Profit from the Partnering Trend by Ed Rigsbee, CSP, published by John Wiley & Sons, New York, October 2000. All of Rigsbee’s books are available from Amazon.

Ed Rigsbee, CSP is the author of PartnerShift, Developing Strategic Alliances and The Art of Partnering. Rigsbee has over 1,000 published articles to his credit and is a regular keynote presenter at corporate and trade association conferences across North America. For a treasure trove of additional information and ideas, visit his Partnering University Web Site at here.

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Tags: success, values, collaboration, behaviour, conduct

It seems that some things never change. As adults, we hear through the media, about the lack of ethics and the consequences of ethical lapses. They capture attention in almost every venue – from broadcast to internet to print. Whether we hear about Enron, HP, or Martha Stewart – one thing we know is that the choices we make can have a profound impact on the consequences we live.

Not only are adults aware of the ethical issues in our country, but youth are also bombarded with choices and ethical issues. Recently a “Teen Ethics Poll” was released by JA Worldwide™ (Junior Achievement) and Deloitte & Touche USA LLP (Deloitte). The results, featured on the Junior Achievement web site and reported in an article in USA Today web site dated December 6, 2006, support the concept that unethical decisions start at an early age. “The notion that large numbers of students feel somewhat unprepared to make ethical decisions, coupled with the fact that they feel pressure to succeed at all costs, is a troubling combination,” said David Miller Ph.D., Executive Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and Assistant Professor (Adjunct) of Business Ethics.

Published survey results showed that 69% of teens admitted to lying, 34% to illegally downloading music, and 22% to cheating on tests. The most interesting statistic in the survey and perhaps the most telling is that 81% of the students who feel significant pressure to succeed believe that the pressure will either remain the same or increase as they enter the workforce. With statistics like this, it’s no wonder that ethical issues and ethics conferences abound.

In presentations I made over ten years ago to students in the same age group as the Junior Achievement study, the students reported extreme pressure to achieve and a willingness to compromise their integrity and ethical choices. Many said, in their own unique way, that they would take their chances on negative consequences from unethical choices. Their reality was – immediate gratification – outweighed the potential consequences of their choices.

Two of the students reported to me in the 1996 presentation series that look, stature, and the illusion of success was critical in the eyes of their peers. In fact, one stated that, “You do what ever it takes to get ahead. If I can get ahead now, then I’ll have a greater chance in the business world later.” When asked if that meant compromising his integrity, his response was “Success trumps all – What ever it takes.” How well we adults have taught our children!

The challenge for our young people today is once you take that first bite, once you engage in unethical behavior, it’s hard to undo the consequences. It takes courage to admit to your unethical behavior. There are few models for moving beyond negative consequences. If we expect our future leaders of tomorrow to function in a more ethical manner than the current business leaders of today, then we must take the initiative to train decision making in an environment of integrity and ethics.

Ethical behavior, like most behavior, is learned. If you refer back to the survey and the comments from the youth in my seminar, it is very clear that they are learning these perceptions of ethics everywhere. Young people are bombarded through the different media outlets. Television shows and movies constantly revere the one who gets ahead regardless of who he/she offends in the process.

Everywhere they turn, they are observing people, real or fictional, moving to the top by choices they make. Unfortunately, they do not observe that there are negative consequences to those choices. What happens in the home? Some cheat on their taxes. Others behave in ways that demonstrate success is measured by looks, money. Many parents live on credit to impress the external world and then are unable to pay the debt. Yes, the youth are surrounded by many different messages regarding ethical choices.

Over the years, through many speaking engagements, I have found that young people thirst for reasons to do the right thing. Yet, society places a premium on success at all costs, which fosters an environment for inevitable ethical dilemmas. It’s time we take responsibility as adults to reverse the trends supported by this current study.

The Choices Foundation provides a forum through which ethical behavior is taught to high school and college students during their formative years. Perhaps, if a young person is exposed to real life effects of unethical behavior, he or she will have a frame of reference as to the real negative consequences that can follow.

For information on the Choices Foundation (a non-profit organization) and the presentations on ethics given by Chuck Gallagher, visit this site

On a crisp October day in 1995, Chuck Gallagher took 23 physical steps… opened a door… and began a new experience that was life-changing. This series of articles explores that experience and the success that followed… while involving the reader in ways that could be life-altering for them. Gallagher captures the heart of the audience in an honest way that deals with human emotion. For information on Chuck’s keynotes and workshops go to this site

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Tags: ethics, behaviour, business, success, media

I was reading through a magazine and read an interesting article on how the SBA organization praises how it is out to help smaller businesses and entrepreneurs finance their start ups. They talked about what they say they do and what they really do. Also at the end they ask the question about do they still matter? Like do they still matter to the small business men and women who need help or are they just out for themselves.

Well let me give you the rundown of some of the points they touched on in the article. First off if you remember the post I wrote about the SBA on micro loans and the later one on free help with your business plans. Mostly that is what the SBA does according to the article. They hire retired professionals who volunteer their time and services to entrepreneurs starting out in the business world and offer loans that are guaranteed up to a certain percentage. Now where everything gets fuzzy is how they are suppose to be a substitute for new or start up businesses who can not receive traditional financing from a bank (Due to credit or lack of experience), but they got rid of the LowDoc loan that most start up businesses applied for and were approved. Main reason for the termination of the loan is because they say they were losing too much money with the program (Not profiting maybe?). The lowdoc loan was pretty much a fast application (Low Documents) to get money to fund your business, which was backed by the SBA up to a certain percent to make the bank feel safer with the transaction. Once they terminated the loan package they replaced it with the SBA Express loan, which was suppose to be the new alternative to financing small businesses.

Only thing wrong with that picture is that the requirements for the loan were stricter and really worked for companies that could demonstrate cash flow, but lacked in collateral department (Not for riskier borrowers). In order to show proof they expect two years of business operation and if your business is a start-up…how can you demonstrate cash flow and most likely it is your first year in business…maybe even your first month! The article stated that after research how most of the Express loans were going out to businesses that should already have sufficient cash flow. I know I experienced similar problems when I applied for a loan while I was still in college and had no real credit, plus no longstanding business. Everywhere I turned they pointed me in the direction of the SBA offices for financing…so I went and was declined, Mostly because my lack of a sustainable business (Plus no credit, but that is what they are suppose to be there for!) that demonstrated a path to success. I was less than a few months in at the time.

So what is your out take on this situation? Is the SBA really there to help or the publicity of helping out and making our government look good in the process?

I am the creator and author of How to start a clothing line from scratch. An entrepreneur weblog for fashion industry professionals who want to start and run a successful clothing line here.

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Do you still believe in magic? Do you think you can pay $24.95 for a mail order program and make $5,000 within 30 days? Do you think you can open a business today and quit your job in 2 weeks? Do you think you can advertise a 1″ ad to 1,000 and expect 800 orders?

It’s sad that our push-button, do-everything-for-you-society has taken away our ability to climb to the top of the hill. Those of us who do have the stamina have to try twice as hard to “prove” we are not those other types of people.

Let’s all stop pretending we’re in business and start learning how to make it grow into a thriving, honest and reputable company. It is sometimes hard to be completely honest in everything we do. We could tell a “little white lie” and get that $120 bucks we so desperately need right now. Oh, what we have to give up to be honest.

I never lived in the 1800′s but I have studied their life-styles quiet extensively. Back then – people were not afraid of hard work. In fact, it never entered their minds to be lazy. If someone in the community was lazy, they were considered abnormal and were given a bad name. Even as late as the 1940′s, a man that didn’t work to support his family was considered to be piece of “trash.”

But in the 1990′s it seems that the man who doesn’t work, lives on welfare and sponges off his wife who works two jobs to make ends meet is considered “cool.” The State agencies spent millions of dollars trying to motive him to go out and find a job and work like he is supposed to.

Employers sometimes contribute to the madness also. Since hard working people are considered “strange” and “indifferent” in today’s society, an employer will take a hard worker and pile all the work on them that other people should be sharing in doing. It sometimes feels like hard working people are fighting a losing battle.

But getting something for nothing is NEVER rewarding. Sure – you can cheat the welfare system and get free benefits for awhile, but pretty soon they will track you down. Sure – you can sit on the couch and watch television while your spouse goes out and works 2 jobs, but you’ll never have any true financial rewards in life. Sure – you can work 8 hours and spend 6 hours on coffee breaks just to get a paycheck every Friday, but you’ll be the first to go when a lay-off is administered. Sure – you can forge credit cards, set up scams, write bad checks and steal innocent people’s money, but you won’t get anywhere. You only are taking care of your needs at the present time – never building security, pride and respect for yourself.

But hard work pays off. The rewards are not immediate like they would be if you robbed a bank tonight, but you WILL make lots more money and benefit yourself in the long-haul. Money is NOT everything. Money cannot buy respect and love. A poor person running a business, who is honest has peace of mind. A person who works hard and long hours to give their customers high-quality receives repeat orders.

And when word gets around that you’re honest and trustworthy – people start noticing you and telling others about you. Respect is much more important than money because of the repeat rewards it brings you. For instance – when you think of Howard Hughes you don’t think of him with respect. Even though he had billions of dollars, does anybody really care now? But think about Martin Luther King or Thomas Edison. Think about some heroes you know. Does it matter to you how much money they had? Don’t you remember them for the hard work and great things they accomplished? Isn’t contributing to society and the betterment of mankind much more valuable than the money you have in your bank account?

Take pride in yourself. Hold your head up and do an honest day’s work. Yes – being honest has great rewards.

Honest Work Pays Off
by J. Anne Shoemaker

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Tags: person, ethics, Success, business, result

Have you ever had one of those “ah-ha” moments when you quickly gained a greater awareness than you ever had before? I must say, that as bad as I felt in this place, prison was an intense learning lab. I didn’t know that going in, but in retrospect I am glad I took notes, because the lessons and opportunities for growth were coming at me quickly. How easy it would have been to miss those lessons.

Often folks grow weary when they hear people talk of learning through adversity. All too often we prefer life to be a smooth ride with few bumps in the road. Fortunately, I’ve experienced both and while there is joy in a calm pleasant ride, more times than not my greatest learning has been during turbulent times. The next section that follows is an excerpt from my Memoirs from Prison. In each of these one can capture a learning pearl – something that can be applied in everyday life, if only we let it.

October 5, 1995.

Buck, my roommate, and I talked for a long while last night. He is a spiritual person, doing his time, the best he can. He has five children in been in federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m surprised, but I like this guy, he seems to shoot straight.

Last night, Buck asked me a question. I don’t recall today what it was, but I remember his response. He looked to me with a puzzled look, and said, “word?”" I didn’t understand, and repeated his statement with, “word?”" He said, “Yeah — word?” I must admit I didn’t have a clue what he meant. Then he looked at me and said, “You just don’t understand a brother do you?”" And with that he walked out of the room.

I just stood there. I had no clue what just happened. Three days in prison, and we just hit a communications stumbling block. Moments later, Buck returned to the room and said,” I’ll make you an offer. I’ll teach you how to communicate in the hood, if you’ll teach me how to talk, so I can get a job when I get out of here.” “Deal?”

At that moment, I began to understand the term — success — in a whole new light. I had always defined success in terms of one’s possessions. But in here, we have no possessions. Success can be defined as being safe while in prison and getting out of prison safely. Buck recognized that I am a fish out of water. This is not my environment. But he is willing to help me achieve success here, if I could help him achieve success outside of prison. What an amazing opportunity that is placed before me.

Now, it’s over ten years later and that lesson still rings clear. Success in one’s life is not really measured by the “trappings” of success. Sure a big house, nice watch, expensive car, fine jewelry all are indications of abundance of resources – money. But none of them truly define success. I was, by all accounts, successful – at least that’s what everyone thought. Yet, by making unethical choices I gained a clear understanding of true success in one of the most unexpected places – prison.

Thankfully – Success – is a journey and at times, even when we don’t like it, we’re given the opportunity to find success in small ways and odd places. This gift that was given has opened many doors for me to share with others. For information on how that can benefit you or your organization or to receive my Choices ezine visit here. And remember you can live success – the choice is yours!

On a crisp October day in 1995, Chuck Gallagher took 23 physical steps… opened a door… and began a new experience that was life-changing. This series of articles explores that experience and the success that followed… while involving the reader in ways that could be life-altering for them. Gallagher captures the heart of the audience and defines Consequences from Ethical Choices in an honest way that deals with human emotion.

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Tags: ethical, situations, ethics, defining, success

If you’ve got breaking news to share or a compelling story to pitch, knowing who to call is as important as the story you want to tell.

When you are your own boss you know it’s hard to be off duty. New ideas and thoughts pop into your mind at the most inconvenient of times. This is something we should always remember as you are always an ambassador for your business.

1. Whenever you meet new people, spend your time listening to them. People will more readily talk about themselves. Remember that everyone you meet is a potential customer, lead to a potential customer, or recommend you to a potential customer.

2. Always ask new contacts for their business card, it’s so much better than offering them to take yours, and only offer your card if invited to do so. Human nature dictates that’s they will happily give you their card, however they might lose yours or only accept it to be polite. Remember your business cards cost YOU money, whereas theirs cost you nothing.

3. Make sure you enter their email address as a friend in your spam filter so you don’t block their return email.

4. Look at their website. Having made the new contact, reinforce it, with a brief “nice to meet you” email, and refer to some point that they raised in the conversation or some point of interest on their website.

5. Make sure you enter their details into your contact manager, such as Outlook, whilst their details are fresh in your mind, recording any other personal information, such as birthdays.

6. Having exchanged emails, quickly follow on with a phone call, (This is Jack Sparrow , from The Black Pearl etc, ie full name and importantly your business name) confirming they had received your email. Check back to your only prior conversation. Remember they will probably have a spam filter too. Let them know if your email to them bounced back as they could also be losing valuable leads? Your goal is to cement yourself in their memory

7. Leave things for two weeks or so then if you have a free product such as a newsletter or a useful resource on your website or even a blog which they may be interested in, or contributing to, send them a link.

8. Never be afraid of asking people for advice or a contribution. How you use it is up to you, and it flatters them in being asked.

9. Categorise your contacts in a useable fashion, to which way your business might target them. It could be by demographics, or by number of dependants, or on turnover/income.

10. Forward on any contacts that you may already have could prove beneficial, or ones who they would enjoy meeting.

Your goal is to make yourself invaluable and unforgettable. The art of PR is to follow up both immediately and continually in order to cement a lasting business relationships.

Editor of Castril Web Solutions Newsletter providing useful IT news and resources to rural developing areas of Andaulcia, Spain

The Art Of Successful PR

Author: Rachel Titheridge
visit her site

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Tags: pr, success, business, campaign, publicity

Here’s a quick description of such a passport: a high-impact, public relations action plan which does something meaningful about the behaviors of those important audiences that most affect your business,non-profit, government agency or association.

It does so by creating the kind of external stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives; then persuades those key outside folks to your way of thinking by helping move them to take actions that allow your department, group, division or subsidiary to succeed.

When you need to move a message from here to there, communications tactics can do the job. But that’s pretty much all they can do. Caution: a preoccupation with tactics will certainly deny managers the best that public relations has to offer by diverting their primary attention from the very PR end-products discussed above.

The PR passport relies heavily on this underlying premise: people act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public
relations mission is usually accomplished.

Actually, the premise promises that good public relations planning really CAN alter individual
perception and result in changed behaviors among key outside audiences. But the fact is, you’ll only get there when your PR demands more than news releases, special events and broadcast plugs. Only then will you receive the quality public relations results you deserve.

Let’s take a closer look at the sort of PR end-products you can expect. Capital givers or pecifying sources begin to look your way; new prospects actually start to do business with you; politicians and legislators begin looking at you as a key member of the business, non-profit, government or association communities; welcome bounces in show room visits occur; community leaders begin to seek you out; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures start showing up; customers begin to make repeat purchases; and membership applications start to rise.

A good first step is to work closely with your public relations professionals on your new opinion monitoring project since they’re already in the perception and behavior business. However, insure that the PR staff actually accepts why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Essentially, be certain they believe that perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.

Reserve the time you need to review plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Try out questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Be advised that the use of professional survey firms for the opinion gathering chore, probably will be more expensive than using your PR people in that monitoring capacity. But whether it’s your folks or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

Your number one responsibility now is to establish a clearcut and realistic PR goal that calls for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. You may decide to stop that potentially painful rumor cold. Or straighten out that dangerous misconception? Or correct that gross inaccuracy?

Goal-setting, obviously, requires an equally action-oriented strategy that shows you the path
to your new goal. Here, you have just three strategic options available to you when it comes to doing something about perception and opinion. Change existing perception, create perception
where there may be none, or reinforce it. Needless to say, the wrong strategy pick will taste like peach Jello in your lentil soup. So be sure your new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. You certainly don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a strategy of reinforcement.

Good writing, always at the core of any public relations activity, requires that the best writer on
your team prepare a persuasive message that will help move your key audience to your way of
thinking. It has to be a carefully-written message targeted directly at your key external audience. Your writer must develop really corrective language that is not merely compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if it is to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Now you must identify the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. There are many available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be sure the tactics you select are known to reach folks just likeyour audience members.

Because the WAY in which you communicate makes the credibility of your message suspect, you may wish to unveil your corrective language through smaller meeting presentations rather than using higher-profile news releases.

To demonstrate results, you may elect to use periodic progress reports. Which will alert you to begin a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You can use many of the same questions used in the benchmark session. But now, you will be on strict alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

Because in any human activity, things can always slow down, you can always increase momentum by adding more communications tactics and/or increasing their frequencies.

Thus, any passport to public relations success will require that you move beyond tactics, and be free to use the right PR to alter the perceptions of your most important outside audiences, leading directly to achieving your managerial objectives.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.
Word count is 1145 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has published over 200 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations. Visit this website

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Tags: public, relations, success, training, planning