व्यवसाय और वित्तीय मामलों का जर्नल

Strategic Alliances

Abstract

Azhar MGAAA

Strategic thinking and applications to the business sector started in the 1960s as a result of the escalation of competition and conflict between large companies, especially companies that are called ballistic or multiple nationalities. This competition called the different companies to develop their potential and strengthen and stabilize their positions in local and international markets. Thus, companies have adopted effective productive and marketing policies to ensure their survival continual growth in line with consumers’ demands and market development and competition.
Moreover, the need for strategic alliances and partnerships was prompted by the increase the scarcity of resources and the difficulties companies faced in securing and maintaining access to those resources’ whether in raw materials and production requirements, or in qualified human resources and the combining of expertise and technical and managerial capacity, or any other financial resources or information.
Thus, competition and limited resources available made it necessary for companies, especially big ones, to think of adopting comprehensive strategies that enable them to deal with different variables of the environment based on determining the strategic direction of those companies in the long future. Moreover, companies started to concentrate widely on the environmental variables, outside the companies’ domains, on the grounds that variables can make it difficult for companies to influence. Thus, companies find themselves struggling to adapt to work with the variables they can’t alone control, due their limited ability to influence them.
In 1980s companies suffered greatly as a consequence of competition and conflict, market expansion, maintaining the local market, or securing continual core resources that they needed, especially those target markets, and those resources of interest to all companies alike. Moreover, the scientific and technological development which happened near the turn of the millennium, coupled with the huge turbulence in the field of innovation and creativity, made companies move from focusing on strategies of “selling what could be produced” to adopt strategies such as “producing what can be sold”. Consequently, companies started harsh wars among themselves. This made companies spy on each other (industrial espionage) so that they can find out the innovations and development of their competitors, in order to keep up with competition.
Alternatively, the end of the last century and the first decade of this millennium, economists and strategists adopted a different approach and started to, instead of focusing solely on competition, reduce the frequency of conflict amongst them and advocate the development of cooperation between companies, rather than competition. Thus, strategic alliances and partnership, particularly amongst large companies, emerged and became the norm. Additionally, it should be taken into account that innovation is becoming at the forefront of the management policies and alliances to improve their competitiveness and standing worldwide.