An excellent perspective on the role of alliances in strategy execution and ecosystem development. Gomes-Casseress three fundamental rules are the basis for a pragmatic set of management tools, structures, and guidelines that equip leaders for a future in which collaboration between businesses is essential for survival.
CEES BIJL , Head of Emerging Business Areas and Head of Group Alliances, Philips International BV
A terrific book with lots of insights and management tools, valuable to business leaders everywhere. Because Ive been involved in several joint ventures, so much in Remix Strategy resonates with me, particularly the lessons on where joint benefits come from, on governing alliance strategy, and on dealing with uncertainty and change.
ASHOK KRISHNA , Vice President, Downstream & Chemicals Technology, Chevron Corporation
Remix Strategy provides a clear framework focused on value creation that will support managers working with business combinations at all stagesfrom inception through deal negotiation and implementation to termination. The tools in the book address the day-to-day challenges of identifying, delivering, and sharing value in combinations. An entertaining read that will benefit everyone working with business partnerships.
NIGEL SHEAIL , Head of Business Development & Licensing, Bayer Healthcare AG
The ideas in Remix Strategy are creative, unique, and perhaps transformative. Todays dynamic, shape-shifting business environment requires companies to acquire, divest, merge, ally, and partner, whether to innovate or just survive. This useful book reveals the fundamental laws of collaboration that lead to success.
ROSABETH MOSS KANTER, Professor, Harvard Business School; author, MOVE, Supercorp, and Confidence
A fascinating roadmap to creating and capturing value through business combinations. Gomes-Casseres provides the tools you need to identify, govern, and share joint value and illustrates through numerous case studies how to make critical choices in designing and executing business combinations.
MARTIN FLEMING, Chief Economist and Vice President, Business Performance Services, IBM Corporation
A powerful paradigm for prospering in a rapidly changing environment, rooted in three critical tools to evaluate and develop strategic business options. Gomes-Casseres shows how these tools can be applied in different scenarios with practical, real-world examples.
STEVE STEINHILBER, Vice President, Industry Solutions Partner Ecosystems, Cisco Systems, Inc.; author, Strategic Alliances
The first book to explain the critical concepts behind successful business combinationsand provide immediately actionable insights. Remix Strategy is a must-read for managers in business strategy, corporate development, and corporate alliances.
RUSS BUCHANAN, Vice President, Worldwide Alliances, Xerox Corporation; Chairman Emeritus, Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals
Whether you are an investor assessing the value of a business combination, a director reviewing the firms alliance strategy, or an executive considering a partnership, Remix Strategy gives you the tools to understand and unlock value. Gomes-Casseres (re)mixes case studies with practical tools that you can use right out of the box. Its modern business thinking for modern business times.
MIKE BELLISSIMO , Enterprise Vice President, Humana Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gomes-Casseres, Benjamin.
Remix strategy: the three laws of business combinations / Benjamin
Gomes-Casseres.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-4221-6308-5 (hardback)
1. Strategic alliances (Business). 2. Business networks. 3. Strategic planning. I. Title.
HD69.S8G663 2015
658'.046dc23 2015004987
First eBook Edition: September 2015
eISBN: 978-1-6252-7057-3
For Susan and Rachel
I N CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ART, A REMIX IS A PIECE OF media that is created by combining bits and pieces from other media. A collage is a remix of pictures. New songs can come from remixing the sound tracks from other songs. Even text created by cutting and pasting is a remix.
In this book, I use the word to describe the mixing of resources, assets, and capabilities of one organization with those of another to create value. It happens through business combinations of various sorts. An alliance between Apple and IBM. A joint venture of Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline. A merger of Walgreens and Boots. A partnership of Oxfam and Marks & Spencer. A consortium of General Electric and internet-of-things players Verizon, Intel, and Cisco. Joint development by NASA and SpaceX. In todays fast-paced, interconnected business environment, this remixing of assets is fundamental to competitive advantage. It brings in new ideas, provides access to new capabilities and markets, and lets companies leverage what they do best.
Most likely, you have considered acquisitions, alliances, joint ventures, and other kinds of business combinations. The key strategic questions you face are not whether combinations such as these are necessary but, rather, how will these business combinations create value, and how are you going to capture that value?
As executives look to external partners for acquiring resources and capabilities, what they need most is a practical roadmap to key questions: What combinations do we need? How do we manage them over time? What profits will we earn? Will they justify our investment? Part one introduces a simple but powerful framework to help you make these critical decisions. This roadmapand the practical tools that follow in subsequent chapterswill show you how to profit from your own business remix.
B USINESS IS BEING TURNED OUTSIDE-IN. ACQUISITIONS , mergers, joint ventures, alliances, partnerships, and other business combinations are bringing in resources from outside the firm. And they are no longer exceptions in most businessesthey have become central to gaining competitive advantage.
This is not surprising. At the most basic level, new value often comes from combining ideas and effort from disparate sources. Labor and capital. Technology and brand. Hardware and software. Global and local. In todays world of fleeting advantage, combining assets, capabilities, markets, and talent pools is even more important than ever. This combining of resources to create new value is what I call the business remix.