Remix Strategy: The Three Laws of Business Combinations

by Benjamin Gomes-Casseres

Overview

Create and capture value, no matter what path you've chosen.

How to Create Joint Value

Alliances, partnerships, acquisitions, mergers, and joint ventures are no longer the exception in most businesses—they are part of the core strategy. As managers look to external partners for resources and capabilities, they need a practical roadmap to ensure that these relationships will create value for their firm. They must answer questions like these: Which business combinations do we need? How should we govern them? Will their results justify our investments?

Benjamin Gomes-Casseres explains how companies create value by “remixing” resources with other companies. Based on decades of consulting and academic research, Remix Strategy shows how three laws shape the success of any business combination:

• First Law: The combination must have the potential to create more value than the parties could create on their own. Which elements from each business need to be combined to create joint value?
• Second Law: The combination must be designed and managed to realize the joint value. Which partners best fit our strategic goals? How should we manage the integration?
• Third Law: The value earned by the parties must motivate them to contribute to the collaboration. How will we share the joint value created? Will the returns shift over time?

Supported by examples from a wide range of industries and companies, and filled with practical tools for applying the three laws, this book helps managers design and lead a coherent strategy for creating joint value with outside partners.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625270573
Publisher:	Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date:	08/11/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Benjamin Gomes-Casseres is an expert in alliance strategy and a professor at the International Business School, Brandeis University. He has been studying, teaching, and consulting on business combinations for thirty years. He is the author of two books, The Alliance Revolution and Mastering Alliance Strategy, and of articles, cases, and videos on how companies create value from external resources. To learn more about the ideas and tools in this book, visit remixstrategy.com.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Creating Value by Combining Resources 1

1 The Three Laws of Business Combinations 5

2 Assessing Your Portfolio of Relationships 31

Part 2 Using the Three Laws to Shape Combinations 51

3 First Law: Identify Potential Joint Value 55

4 Second Law: Govern the Collaboration 85

5 Third Law: Share the Value Created 117

Part 3 How Remix Strategy Changes the Way You Compete 149

6 The Three Laws in Multipartner Groups 153

7 Rethinking Strategy 187

Complete Collection of Remix Strategy Tools 219

Further Reading 243

Index 263

Acknowledgments 277

About the Author 279

Editorial Reviews

2016 Axiom Business Book Silver Award in ECONOMICS

“…a practical, up-to-date guide for business managers trying to keep pace or stay ahead” — Strategic Alliance Magazine

“Gomes-Casseres, a Brandeis professor, deconstructs both successful alliances… and unsuccessful ones… with the goal of helping any business leader increase the chances of making a partnership work.”— BizEd magazine

“Remix Strategy provides an important set of tools for firms looking to build and manage new combinations of capabilities through new partnerships.” — Andrew Hargadon, Strategy + Leadership

Advance Praise for Remix Strategy:

Nigel Sheail, Head of Business Development & Licensing, Bayer Healthcare AG—
“Remix Strategy provides a clear framework focused on value creation that will support managers working with business combinations at all stages. An entertaining read that will benefit everyone working in business partnerships.”

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor, Harvard Business School; author, MOVE, Supercorp, and Confidence—
“The ideas in Remix Strategy are creative, unique, and perhaps transformative. Today’s 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.”

Martin Fleming, Chief Economist and Vice President, Business Performance Services, IBM Corporation—
“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.”

Steve Steinhilber, Vice President, Industry Solutions Partner Ecosystems, Cisco Systems, Inc.; author, Strategic Alliances—
“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 with practical, real-world examples.”

Russ Buchanan, Vice President, Worldwide Alliances, Xerox Corporation; Chairman Emeritus, Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals—
“The first book to explain the critical concepts behind successful business combinations—and provide immediately actionable insights.”

Mike Bellissimo, Enterprise Vice President, Humana Inc.—
“Whether you are an investor assessing the value of a business combination, a director reviewing the firm’s alliance strategy, or an executive considering a partnership, Remix Strategy gives you the tools to understand and unlock value.”

Ashok Krishna, Vice President of Downstream and Chemicals Technology, Chevron Corporation—
"A terrific book with lots of insights and management tools, valuable to business leaders everywhere."

Cees Bijl, Head of Emerging Business Areas and Head of Group Strategy and Alliances, Philips International BV—
“An excellent perspective on the role of alliances in strategy execution and ecosystem development. Gomes-Casseres’ three fundamental rules equip leaders for a future in which collaboration between businesses is essential for survival.”

From the Publisher