One way is to ask Larraine Segil. She is cofounder of the Lared Group, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm with offices from Chile to China that develops strategic alliances. She lectures on the topic to thousands of executives around the world each year, and she teaches a course on the subject at the California Institute of Technology. The reasons for partnering and the capabilities needed to execute those deals are very different from the motivations and skills behind traditional alliances. They want to understand their problem better and find a solution.
Traditional companies tend to provide information only as it relates to what they are selling.
So the need for alliances is greater than ever before. Your company alone cannot fulfill the needs of a customer in the e-business environment. In an interview, Larraine Segil explained the art of the dotcom deal. Internet alliances are any partnerships formed around e-business strategy. The life span of the agreement is not the central criterion anymore, whereas in traditional alliances, that's always a big negotiating point.