Strategic Alliances
By Stacy M. Menz, PT, DPT
As I reviewed this issue and sat to write this letter, I revisited Wikipedia and read the definition of a strategic alliance as “an agreement between two or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon objectives needed while remaining independent organizations.” With this in mind, I decided to look at the strategic alliances my practice has created over the years and evaluate how they have helped us better serve our patients and meet our practice goals.
Last year in this letter I told the story of our relationship with a local clinic that we are not in competition with. We share space and synergy to allow us to grow our respective businesses. This arrangement benefits us by cross marketing and increasing awareness of our services to a wider population. This year, a colleague who owns a local occupational therapy clinic and I decided to take our relationship one step further. As such, we decided to meet monthly to work on strategic planning together. Though our business models are very different, we are able to bounce ideas off of each other and see potential opportunities or pitfalls that alone we may have missed. It’s like having the benefit of an additional business partner but without the formalities!
Our practice has also continued to grow our relationships with local nonprofits and businesses that have similar or intersecting goals. Not only has this allowed us to be more active in the community, but it has also shown us where there are needs in the community that we may be able to address.
As a result of this time of reflection, I have decided to keep a list of all our strategic alliances and how we are being mutually beneficial to each other. This allows us to see where else we may be able to create relationships within our field and our community.
I would recommend you all consider joining the Peer2Peer Network through the Private Practice Section if you haven’t already. What a great resource for tapping into the knowledge of other business owners who have similar responsibilities and goals. Why re-create the wheel when you can learn from someone else’s experiences and potentially together come up with even better ideas?
What is your most impactful strategic alliance you have created?
