[!front cover!]Strategic Alliances and Marketing PartnershipsGaining Competitive Advantage through Collaboration and PartneringRichard Gibbs and Andrew Humphries[!KP logo!][!spine!]Strategic Alliances and Marketing PartnershipsRichard Gibbs and Andrew Humphries[!KP logo!][!front flap!]The pressures to compete in a globaleconomy force businesses to workcollaboratively. While the rewards forpartnering can be greater in value than those which a firm could accomplishindependently, many alliances fail, which suggests a lack of the necessary knowledge and skills to establish a successfulpartnership.Strategic Alliances and MarketingPartnerships will help you to understand how partnerships function and how you can manage them more effectively andefficiently. Based on solid research anddealing with key topics such as supply chain management, marketing channels andrelationship management, it identifies the factors that determine partneringexcellence. Whatever the nature of therelationship outsourcing, strategicalliances or co-manufacturing there are eight distinctive relationship types identified by the authors to help managers optimize business-to-business partnerships.With case studies from prominent globalorganizations such as Wal-Mart, Toyota, General Motors and Dell, Strategic Alliances and Marketing Partnerships will help you to understand the problems that affectpartnering and make effective decisions to improve both the relationship andproductivity.[!back flap!]Richard Gibbs is a recognized expert inmarketing channels and has held seniorpositions in major companies including Xerox and Novell Inc. His PhD from the University of Gloucestershire followed an MBA fromHenley Management College, and hecontinues to conduct research into how firms gain competitive advantage throughmarketing partnerships.

Andrew Humphries is currently CEO ofSCCI Ltd which specializes in measuringcommercial relationship performance.Following a career in the UK Royal Air Force as Head of Defence Aviation Logistics, he gained a PhD from Cranfield School ofManagement and an MBA from the Open University.[!back cover!]"'Partner or perish' has been a recognized mantra at Xerox for many years, reflected in ourpartnerships with Fuji-Xerox, at PARC and many others; in today's economic climate partnering is ever more relevant and important. This book provides vital and practical understanding of how firms can optimize the quality of their collaboration with suppliers, channels, alliances and customers to achieve productive and effective partnerships. The Gibbs and Humphries Partnering Types represent an innovative perspective in the challenging environment of corporate organizational development where it provides a powerful step forward in both management theory and technique."Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO, Xerox"As the trend to outsourcing continues to grow, so too does the complexity of the supply/demand network. The difference between success and failure in today's marketplace is increasinglydetermined by t.