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Recommended Book
FastAlliancesThe hybrid title obviously fuses two very important words: fast and alliance. It is Segil's assertion … that "The e-commerce business world has turned many old rules on their heads… You have to be ahead of the [other] players in this game. FastAlliances can be the tool - the approach that helps you reinvent a small part of your organizational structure if you are a traditional (not new Internet) company. If you are a new Internet company, the challenge will be to apply some level of discipline while maintaining the velocity you have already created." So the emphasis for all organizations (regardless of size or nature, be it a traditional or new Internet organization) must be on forging and sustaining appropriate strategic alliances while conducting business at a high rate of speed. How? Segil offers a unique model that suggests a seven-step approach:
Actually, there is a Step 8: The Deals -- Making, Managing, Adding Value, and Terminating Them. She explains the nitty-gritty of creating and managing FastAlliances - metrics, ongoing change mechanisms, and knowledge transfer; tools, tools, tools! There is a separate chapter devoted to each Step, followed by a final chapter (Chapter 9) in which she discusses "Pitfalls and Opportunities -- Summing Up." This is an especially valuable chapter because Segil addresses a key issue: How to grow a company in e-space by using traditional alliances along with FastAlliances. In the Afterword, Segil provides her e-mail address, inviting readers to visit her website and thereby gain access to a suite of more than 25 software processes that comprise the Larraine Segil Partner Relationship Management (PRM) System. She also provides her e-mail address with the expressed hope for a continuing relationship with her readers. In other words, Segil continues to seek out FastAlliances of her own which perhaps (just perhaps) may include one with you. I also direct your attention to two appendices: FastAlliance Toolkit and Companies Supplying Weapons and Countermeasures in the War for Web Customers. I rate this book so highly because its material is substantial and logically organized, because it is very well-written, and because (as Segil herself would no doubt agree) the book enables, indeed encourages each reader to select a combination of concepts, strategies, and tactics which is most appropriate to her or his own organization. Yes, to some extent, this is a How to book but it is also a Why to book. The seven-step or, for some, eight-step process allows for all manner of modifications to accommodate
Of course, the value of this book will be determined by the nature and extent of needs to which its ideas are applied, and, the skill with which such application is made. Now more than ever before, organizations need all the friends they can make...and then keep. Segil suggests a practical and comprehensive process to achieve that objective. Now more than ever before organizations must also be able to maintain the velocity necessary to compete successfully. Segil also addresses that need. It's nice to know where to locate her if and when a FastAlliance with her would be appropriate to you both. You can find her at: Website: www.lsegil.com This book can be purchased from the following:
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