Strategic Alliance of Lenovo and Ibm

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

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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"