This study, based on a survey of 330 senior management executives by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and the Business Performance Innovation (BPI) Network, finds 42 percent of companies are not satisfied with how well they leverage their partnership and alliance potential.

Areas of exploration and discovery in the Grow From the Right Intro study include:

• Role and value of strategic partnerships and alliances in contributing to corporate growth and development
• Capacity to identify, qualify and secure the right introductions to relevant and valued partners and business opportunities
• Challenges and complexities associated with selecting, closing and nurturing the right partnerships
• Reasons for partnership failure and how to manage and maintain relationships
• Types of strategic partnerships that benefit companies the most, including customer, channel, distribution, technology, strategic, financial, supply chain, outsourced manufacturing, etc.
• Incidence of formal partnering strategies and how these are implemented, staffed and funded
• Intentions and plans to improve networking, partnering and sourcing of growth opportunities worldwide
• Channels, networks or resources that are being evaluated or used to advance business networking and relationship building
• Variations in business partnering capability across industry sectors, cultures and company sizes
• Internal systems or outsourced services that are helping to automate and optimize business partnering and customer acquisition