A strategic alliance can last for many years, but markets, company leadership and each partner's priorities change much sooner. In this episode of Entre Directores Comerciales (in Spanish), Óscar Burgueño, Business Development Director at Transitions Optical (EssilorLuxottica group), explains how he manages alliances with manufacturers around the world and which signals tell him something is wrong.
What it takes to manage strategic alliances
Burgueño has spent 20 years in the eye care industry, the last seven working on alliances between manufacturers: deals in which one company brings technology and the other brings access to a market or a channel, with partners in Japan, Thailand and elsewhere in Europe. Seen this way, strategic alliance management has little to do with policing a contract and a lot to do with understanding the other side, year after year.
In his view, an alliance manager needs experience that provides confidence without dictating decisions, an open mind, the calm to avoid emotional reactions and a high tolerance for frustration. But he highlights two things: listening, so you can firmly defend your own interests while understanding your partner's, and credibility, which is earned through honesty, transparency and keeping your commitments.
The why, the what and the how of an alliance
Burgueño looks at every alliance on three levels. The why is its ultimate purpose: sharing a technology, entering a market or reaching certain distribution channels. The what covers specific business goals, such as market share, growth or profit. And the how is the plans and strategies to get there.
When an alliance gets stuck, the decisive question is the why: is the partner still delivering the strategic value you were after? If the answer is no, the alliance is no longer relevant. If the blockage lies in the what or the how (plans, goals, timelines), it can be adjusted, and in his opinion, fixing it is the job of the people managing the alliance.
The KPI that reveals an alliance's health
Some warning signs are obvious, like missing activity targets. Others are subtler: too few resources, unproductive meetings, plans that are agreed but never executed or delivered late. But the clearest indicator, according to Burgueño, sits with your partner.
Every year, your partner sets the KPIs for its own business. If the purpose of the alliance isn't among them, tied to part of its team's bonuses or incentives, that's a red flag. Without that goal on the other side, an alliance can easily end up existing only on paper.
The clearest indicator of an alliance's health is this: the purpose of the alliance should be reflected in the KPIs your partner sets for its own business, linked to part of the bonuses or incentives of its own team.
How to revive a stalled alliance
His first step is to go back to the principle that, for him, underpins any alliance: the consultative approach. It means listening to and deeply understanding your partner (its organization, vision, goals, strengths and weaknesses) so that the value you bring is built into its priorities. In relationships that last seven years or more, those priorities may well have changed without anyone checking.
Next, review plans that may have worked years ago but are now outdated, and hand over to the teams at both companies. An alliance spans production, quality, finance and sales, and nobody has all the answers. Working with task forces and by project, and resisting the urge to step in personally, leaves room for the experts.
Integration: when your value is part of your partner's plans
Revenue KPIs can miss in a given year without the alliance going wrong. To defend it, Burgueño looks beyond the partner's incentives at a concept that changed the way he manages alliances: integration. Your partner has its own sales and marketing plans; if the technology you bring is part of its loyalty program, its events or its training, and helps drive its own business, the alliance is healthy.
That long-term view also helped him deal with the US tariffs that hit his global alliances: being agile enough to adjust terms without losing sight of the purpose.
When we talk about alliances, we're not talking about buildings or offices: we're talking about people. And the credibility you've managed to build and develop is, in my view, the foundation for sustaining and growing alliances.
