Customers, vendors, and allies

An organization's major customers, vendors or contractors, and strategic allies can often present major and highly frustrating challenges. Even when solid, well-written legal agreements and contracts might be expected to form a reliable basis for what will happen in the relationship, problems arise-sometimes repeatedly. The reasons for this are partially "cultural." Each organization has a different history, a different set of values, a subtly different language, a different reward structure, and different needs. Furthermore, there are covert agendas that cannot be discussed openly and that get in the way, such as promises made to other parties, revenue needs, and a variety of other factors. As a consequence, people across organizational boundaries do not understand one another well enough. Often people in each organization devalue or fail to respect people in the other organization. This can, of course, easily escalate. The estimated rate of failure in strategic partnerships is around 80%!

Acquisitions and mergers suffer from similar difficulties; the problems don't end after the preliminaries and the formal legal work are completed.