Chief of Staff: Turnaround and secure critical joint venture agreement
A senior business development executive at a global technology company identified a strategic opportunity to expand their channel by partnering with a leading telecom company. He developed the vision to launch a services distribution and co-marketing agreement and sold the idea internally, but he lacked the resources to advance the deal while he continued to focus on business development activities.
The leader needed a trusted “right hand” to work with the telecom company to drive a go-to-market strategy with key activities outlined to support it. Without an agreed-upon execution plan, the joint venture agreement would not close.
Solution
To support the business development executive, we took on the role of chief of staff, navigating risk on behalf of our client and developing a detailed go-to-market strategy with the telecom company. We worked with leaders of both companies to determine the business goals of the joint venture and then identified and brought in the right members of industry and segment marketing teams across both organizations to establish key parameters of the agreement.
Aiming to create a win-win outcome, we helped both sides understand the value proposition and business benefits, and then negotiated customer segments, products, channels, and pricing. We were able to drive alignment across strategy, activities and timeline, culminating in an offsite to finalize plan details and reach agreement.
Impact
Serving as chief of staff on behalf of the client accelerated the timeline for negotiating the deal, enabling the joint venture agreement to be signed in just four weeks, a third of the time originally allotted for project completion. Securing the joint venture agreement enabled the customer to launch a new channel for its products and services.
Insight
This is a great example of how a leader can leverage a senior chief of staff capable of owning and executing significant strategic projects that require navigating risk and other challenges. The joint venture was strategically important to the leader, yet also at risk. The chief of staff allowed the leader to focus on “Tier 1” priorities (partner executive approval) while relying confidently on the chief of staff to handle critical but “Tier 2” aspects of the agreement (closing on go-to-market strategy and execution plan) that required time consuming coordination among multiple teams across both organizations.