A strategic alliance is an agreement between two or more entities to follow mutually agreed goals. These entities remain independent, but work together towards a common good. There are a variety of types of strategic alliances, used for different purposes and established and maintained via differing mechanisms. In some instances, an individual or entity may choose to align one’s self with a more powerful other in order to reduce risk (such as political risk) or gain assurance and social capital.
The academic industry exhibits these types of alliance whereby doctoral students seek out a supervisor who can provide the social capital, political advice, and expert assurance that is necessary in order to complete one’s PhD. Other examples can be found stacked across the shelves of Walmart. Business organisations will align with Walmart to produce products at the specs and prices that it wishes in order to avoid being cut out of the market. In the United States, for example, for many producers it is a clear decision— either align with Walmart, who has the strongest consumer base in the country, or be run out of business by a competitor.
In these types of alliances, both parties win. Walmart and the doctoral advisor gain social capital if they are able to align themselves with premier product producers—award-winning appliances in the case of Walmart or highly productive students in the case of academics. The less powerful players gain from the assurance, experience and political prowess of their more dominant allies. These types of alliances are nothing new and it is perhaps one of the strongest female leaders in history, Cleopatra, who originally perfected the art.
Cleopatra VII Philopator (January, 69 B.C.E. – August 12, 30 B.C.E.), otherwise known as “Queen of the Nile”, came to the throne to rule Egypt at age 18. She faced two immediate obstacles. The first was the great power of Rome and the other came internally from her younger brother Ptolemy XIII. At age 12, he was made her co-ruler because Cleopatra was female. Cleopatra was expected to subordinate herself to Ptolemy XIII, as was tradition, but she was having none of that.
She dropped her brother’s name from official documents and coins at the time featured only Cleopatra. These moves did not sit well with the courtiers who, led by the eunuch, Pothinus, overthrew Cleopatra who was too weak militarily to stage a compelling fight. She was forced to flee Egypt.
However, opportunity emerged when her younger brother angered Rome, who then seized Egypt. Rather than give up, Cleopatra, who was known as a dedicated leader to her people, became Cesar’s lover. This allowed her to maintain the independence of her country while gaining much needed military support. Upon Cesar’s death, Cleopatra seduced Mark Anthony, who came into power in Rome. Again, she was able to safeguard the independence of her people and her military support.
The legend of Cleopatra has become woven into our collective knowledge of what it means to rule and to organise. Thus, she has had a direct impact on business thinking, and the art of alignment, as it is known today. She made friends with more powerful and potentially threatening others. She even taught us to get into bed with them, metaphorically, if necessary.
When confronted with a potential threat or more dominant other our egos often send messages of “fight or flight.” However Cleopatra chose to stay calm and strategise. Don’t run automatically and don’t pick up your arms in combat. Rather, think about what can be gained by joining forces.
This strategy, however, requires humility and an attitude of doing what is right for one’s followers (or customers) as opposed to one’s egotistical need to be “the biggest house on the block.” Among a number of things, what we can learn from Cleopatra is that when aligning ourselves strategically we must be masters of our own egos and servants to those we lead. If we adopt that mind-set, we actually gain, rather than lose, our power.
This post is part of a series managed by the Economist Intelligence Unit for HSBC Commercial Banking. Visit HSBC Global Connections for more insight on international business.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU) or any other member of The Economist Group. The Economist Group (including the EIU) cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this article or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in the article.
