Code of Conduct for Alliance Professionals
The following principles are intended to guide our actions, attitudes, and behaviors in support of high performance alliances that deliver results meeting or exceeding expectations:
1. Clear Responsibilities and Expectations.
Our first priority in managing each alliance is the success of the partners in achieving the business goals of the alliance. To that end, we:
- strive to ensure that the partners jointly develop a true vision for the alliance.
- explicitly state business goals and confirm on a regular basis that these continue to be supported by all partners in the alliance.
- define the specific roles and responsibilities of the partner companies and their team members to achieve those goals.
- acknowledge our responsibility in compliance with the contractual obligations associated with the alliance.
2. Robust Communication.
We are committed to effective, constructive communications with our alliance partners. We endeavor to:
- both provide and gain the transparency needed in our interactions with our partners to achieve the business goals of each alliance.
- regularly solicit feedback from a range of individuals involved in each of our alliances to evaluate our progress.
- seek to understand the underlying cause(s) of any actual or potential partner conflict to allow early and effective resolution.
- communicate both successes and setbacks promptly to our partners and internally.
3. Senior Management Commitment.
We involve senior management of all alliance partners through:
- endorsement of the goals of their alliance(s).
- regular review of the progress of the alliance(s).
- identifying opportunities for building and maintaining relationships between senior management.
- providing a forum for senior managers to meet regularly with the alliance operations people to set expectations for alliance work and provide support and guidance.
4. Understanding Our Partner.
We strive to understand and support each partner’s needs and aspirations that are relevant to the alliance, and to respect the differences in organizational culture and style that are inherent in alliances.
5. Disciplined Improvement Approach.
We consider each of our alliances to be an opportunity for learning in a variety of ways that can help us achieve its goals broadly. We seek to identify and reinforce “best practices” through all of our alliance activities.
6. Effective, Efficient Process.
We are committed to developing, providing, and using alliance management tools, processes, and activities that clearly contribute to achieving the goals of the alliance, with a minimum of bureaucracy.
7. Broad-Based Alliance Capability.
We recognize that effective alliance management is the responsibility of all involved in alliance-facing roles. We are committed to helping to improve these capabilities internally and with our partners, by providing feedback, coaching, and training opportunities.
8. Conflicts of Interest.
We will avoid those situations which may put us in conflict with the interests of our company or with our alliance partners. When those issues are unavoidable, we will fully disclose those interests to the parties involved.
9. Professional and Ethical Behavior.
We will uphold a high standard of professional and ethical behavior at all times in our interactions with our colleagues and partners. We recognize that we may often have access to confidential information of our partners and are committed to keeping such information confidential, nor will we seek to personally or financially benefit from confidential information (such as by improper insider trading).
10. External Representation.
Through our adherence to the above principles, we believe that we will be the “first choice” for both existing and new partners to work with in achieving the business goals of current and future alliance opportunities.