Why Big Business Firms Form Joint Ventures?

Nestle SA and Colgate-Palmolive formed a joint venture to develop and sell candy that can produce plague and clean teeth. IBM and Lenovo Group also formed a joint venture. IBM sold its PC Division to the China-based company that would make the latter the third world’s largest PC maker. Skype Software of Denmark and Tom Online of China developed a joint venture to distribute a simplified version of Skype's VOIP. Is joint ventures business hype or a way to achieve business strategies? Here are the reasons why many big business firms form joint ventures:

1. To develop new products - Examples of functional confectionary products are gum and candy that have health and beauty benefits. Sales of these products are growing for about 6 percent each year which is twice the growth rate of standard gum and candy. Nestle SA had no functional confectionary products prior to its joint venture with Colgate-Palmolive. Cadbury Schweppes, PLC's Adams, and Wm. Wrigley Jr. dominate the functional confectionery segment.

2. Allow companies to improve communications and networking - Kathryn Rudie Harrigan of Columbia University says that in today's business environment joint ventures are most appropriate to topple scarce resources, rapid rates of technological change, and rising capital requirements.

3. Effective way to enhance corporate growth - Strategic partnering like joint ventures are very important to enhance corporate growth. Eli Lilly host partnership training classes for their managers and partners. Starbucks recently joint venture with China's President Coffee and opened hundreds of new branches in China. Eli Lilly and Starbucks are just two of the 10,000 joint ventures formed annually.

4. Globalization - A major reason why firms are using joint ventures as a means to achieve business strategies is globalization. International joint ventures are very common today; one good example is Walmart's successful joint venture with Mexico's Cifra. Such alliance indicates how a domestic firm can benefit immensely by partnering with a foreign company to gain a global presence.

5. Technology - The Internet paved the way and legitimized the need for partnership and alliances. Corporate growth cannot happen without the help of state-of-the-art technologies.

How can a company determine if a joint venture is the best business strategy to pursue? Here are six guidelines:

1. When synergistically combining unique advantages like closed ownership of a privately owned company and access to stock issuances as a source of capital of a publicly owned company results to enhanced corporate growth, access to new technologies, greater market feedback and more long-term positive consequences.

2. When a joint venture provides the opportunity to reduce risk.

3. When the distinct competencies of participants complement with each other well.

4. When projects are profitable.

5. When two or more firms have difficulty in competing with larger firm.

6. When there exist needs to introduce a new technology quickly.

Other recent joint ventures not mentioned previously include Wachovia Brokerage and Prudential Brokerage. In the U.S. today, firms are acquiring foreign companies and forming joint ventures with foreign firms, and foreign firms are also acquiring U.S. companies and forming joint ventures with U.S. firms.

Making The Most Out Of A Joint Venture

A joint venture is a popular way for most companies to raise their profit margins and to lessen the risks involved in going into business. Most likely you've tallied up the pros and cons and have decided to go into one to develop your business. However, now that you've got yourself a partner and are going into business with him, what should you be aiming for? Most people hit a dead end when this comes up. This article hopes to help them get over that hump.

Being a part of a joint venture is a great way for a business to develop a healthy profit margin but you have to know how to maximize the relationship between you and your partner. It can be a rocky road ahead but these few pieces of advice should help out a bit.

First of all, look out for your interests. Yes, you maybe partners but this doesn't mean that you should just merely cooperate like sheep. Take note of what can benefit you in your business dealings – try to build your company's strength while also shoring up your partnership.

This usually comes in the form of developing know-how and experience – remember that mosty joint ventures are a limited and you may eventually have to break off your relationship with your partner. It would be good to have people in your ranks that knows about some of the things that are usually out of your hands. Building up contacts in the market are also a good idea – cultivating your own stable of business pointment can help a lot when you've finally gone on your own.

Secondly, look at what you're putting into your partnership. Always remember that a joint venture is a partnership. Like a marriage, there should be an equal division of work; having your partner doing the easy part of the operation or not putting in the same amount of effort or resources into the business as you are will be detrimental to your company's future financial health. Take notice of such disparities and make your partner pay attention to it. Having your partner carry his own weight is a essential for success in a joint venture and its up to you to keep him honest.

Thirdly, pay attention to the venture itself. A joint venture is like an independent business. You should take a look at its profit margins and losses. Make sure that you're in the black and are well aware of the market forces that may affect your partnership. You should also pay attention to the “joint” part of a joint venture: make sure your relationship with your JV partner is both cordial and stable; this can make or break the partnership.

Remember that your partner is also looking at the bottomline and it would be best to work together to achieve that. You should also know when your partner's not being the best he could be – if he's being more of a hindrance than an assistance, it's best to just make a clean cut and end the partnership.

There you go – a few tips on helping you get the most out of your joint venture. Remember to always keep them in mind and you'll have a success on your hands in no time.

What To Consider When Starting A Joint Venture

Taken loosely, the term “joint venture” can mean a helluva of things. It is even use as a synonym for partnership especially for first-time entrepreneurs who are seeking financial or industrial partners. To those who are not familiar with the business lingo, the financial partner is one who provides the money for the company while the industrial partner is one who provides the expertise for the company.

Although the term can also be used for this, in the real sense though, a joint venture is more than just a partnership. It refers to the partnership of two or more entities who seek alliance in order to make a new product or start a project. It differs from the ordinary kind of partnership in the sense that it can also be short-term, only for the duration of the project or the product undertaken.

You see, a joint venture can be undertaken temporarily until a project is finished. Most of the time, this is done by companies, even well-established ones, because they lack the resources that they need to make a project or a product a success. The partners that are sought will be able to find additional financial backing, a service or expertise.

One example is when two companies form an alliance because one can provide the money while the other can provide the expertise. Another is when a partner has the access to the market or to the resources that another company needs in order for its plans to push through. The same goes with companies who need the additional backing of a local company in order to establish their operations in the country.

There are many reasons why a company or a person for that matter will seek a joint venture. It is one of the most viable ways to make a business a success. But this does not mean that the joint venture will be a success. Often, the failure of a joint venture is not because of the idea of a partnership but how the partnership is undertaken. What makes a joint venture fail is discord between or among the partners, incompatible partnership and betrayal in the partnership.

The secret to making it a success is in choosing the right partner as well as doing the right paperwork for the business. Every detail should be discussed if you want everything to become smooth-sailing. When you have everything in paper form, it is harder for any of the partners to slack off or to turn against their word. They may renege from their commitment but with a document that binds them to the work, they can be held liable for it.

Otherwise, the joint venture can only lead to discord and problems. Many joint ventures have dissolved even before it can launch the product or enterprise that they partnered for in the first place. In fact, although many have tried to start a venture, only a few manage to survive and become a big conglomerate. Some fizzle out while others merge together.

Five Things You Have To Consider When Opting For A Joint Venture

Joint ventures are great ideas for business but it is not without its disadvantages. Some fail while others crumble against the weight of the discord. So before you opt to go into a joint venture, here are some things that you have to consider in order to make sure that you will have a successful one.

1. Your partner

Your partner must be somebody or a company who you trust and believe in. If you are thinking of partnering with a company, research also on the owner as well as the man who is running the business. You will need to deal with these guys if you ever push through with the joint venture. The potential partner should also be able to go with the vision that you have for your company.

2. Their contribution

Another important aspect that you need to look into when starting a joint venture is the contribution that each partner will have for the project. The contributions should be made clear at the start of the project and should be written on paper if need be and signed by each of the partners. That way, everybody is made aware of their roles, thus minimizing the potential to slack off from their duties. It is also good to include in the document that if you ever slack off, any of the partners can be kicked out of the partnership or their shares can be lessened.

3. Exit strategy

There should also be something in writing until when the partnership will run. Remember that joint ventures are temporary but they can be in long term. It is good to have a specific date or period of run and then an option to extend for all parties. This will be a good way to ensure that everybody who is staying in the joint venture is still happy and is not just staying because the clause said so.

4. What the companies offer

Before you go around making an offer for a joint venture, make sure that you have thoroughly researched the company or the person that you want to be partners with. Check what they have to offer and make sure that they are the best in the field or that they can offer the product, technology or service that you need. Remember that you are only seeking the partnership because of that missing element and it is vital that you make sure that the missing element is really there.

5. Properties

When two companies go into a joint venture, they will be combining some of their assets. Make sure that the properties that each of you will be bringing to the table is equitable. It is not only in the number of properties but also the value attached to each one. If the contributions are not the equal among the partners, make sure that you talk about it and put them into writing. The sharing of profits may depend on the contributions of properties. The bigger the contribution, the larger the percentage of your profits.

Drawbacks of Joint Ventures

Joint ventures are a form of strategic alliance that can be described as a collaborative effort in the form of legal entity like a corporation, partnership or limited liability company. The elements common to joint ventures include community interest in the subject of the undertaking, sharing profits and losses, equal right to direct and control the decision of each other and of the joint venture, and fiduciary relation between or among the parties if participants are more than two persons. Entering into joint ventures can cause additional burdens and risks, the following are the drawbacks of this strategic alliance:

1. Loss of competitive advantage - Joint ventures, acquisitions, and alliances with an actual or potential competitor may jeopardize the cooperative advantage that a business might otherwise have developed in the absence of the relationship. As a participant, it is important for you to evaluate whether your goals and business opportunities can be achieved even without assistance of competitors or whether the price of such opportunities and goals is excessive in light of the overall business objectives of the entity.

2. Lack of control – Two or three heads is better than one, they say. But no matter how the alliance is structured, participants inevitably will lose some aspect of control over the project. In order for participants to gain, they must also give something up. If you want your business to work-out, you need to simultaneously structure the management in such a manner as to retain as much control as possible without affecting the project and carry out due diligence on the participants to ensure a level of trust amongst them. Each partner must contribute complimentary skills and resources in an ongoing relationship offering mutual benefits.

3. Governmental relations – Some joint ventures involve alliances formed with foreign entities. This kind of relationship can lead to substantial opportunities for a growing business but must also be mindful of local regulations and governmental review procedures that may affect the activities of the participants.

4. Time consuming – For some people, entering to new venture is time-consuming. Getting to know another participant also entails difficulties. If you think, adjusting to new business participant/s is tough, better drop the idea of entering a joint venture.

5. Increased managerial burden – Shared control on a business may increase management time and a risk of deadlock looms among co-venturers. Managerial burdens are heightened as the number of co-venturers increase. To avoid this kind of scenario, a business has to have a carefully drafted joint venture agreement that can minimize and even eliminate the problems twisted by shared control.

6. Loss of management autonomy – Choosing a joint venture structure entails some loss of autonomy for the co-venturers with respect to the project.

7. Co-venturers are jointly liable for each other’s negligence – Perhaps the most difficult part of a joint venture is that the law does not generally recognize joint ventures as general partnerships. This means, the selection of the joint venture business form involves exposure to liability for the wrongdoing of the other co-venturer.

Three Important Tips when Entering a Joint Venture

Your decision to take part in a lucrative joint venture could truly help bolster your business. Such an initiative is normal and strategic especially these days when competition is just so intense and resources of companies get very limited. If you aim for your business to attain success, you have to approach entry into a joint venture positively and in the appropriate way. If not, your business endeavor would end in a disaster. Not all joint ventures succeed. That is why before you get into one, you should consider the following important guidelines.

First, be sure to select or pursue the right business project. As a manager or business owner, you should be able to look at the big picture. You should be strategic and logical at the same time. Before entering any joint venture agreement or effort, be sure to choose the right projects or endeavors to take. The cardinal rule is to choose a specific project that would undoubtedly and surely succeed in the long run. Your prudence and good business sense would help you assess proposed projects. Your management skills and analytical expertise should help you assess whether a project you are eyeing would take you to success or to failure.

Second, choose the right companies or people to stick with. Before joining a joint venture, it is wise to first know who or which firms are into the endeavor. It is always advisable to properly choose the right venture partners. You should not get into a joint project with just about anyone. As a guide, the right joint venture partners are those that uphold similar goals as yours. Such firms or people should be reliable and trustworthy enough. Finally, be sure to choose partners that would obviously be able to do things that you practically could not do. Joint ventures consisting of two partners are logically much easier to manage, although ventures with more participants could be more massive and capital-rich.

Lastly, be sure the terms of the joint venture you are joining are very clear and specific. Be sure you and all your partners know precisely what should be expected from each other with regards to the endeavor. You should all share the same goals at least for the joint venture. Every business in the project could take individual and different corporate goals but at least for the joint venture, you should agree to stick to common project goals.

Be sure there would be clear division of labor and of revenues. You should think not just of the advantages of entering into a joint venture but also of the efforts you should provide to help make the efforts work. Your joint venture should not be the sole focus of your business. As you get excited with the project taken, be sure not to neglect your own company’s basic goals and requirements. Your joint venture could have its own managers so that its owners need not spend time fully on the initiative.

Should You Start a Joint Venture?

If you are a manager or a business owner who aims to boost the revenues or profitability of your company, you would not stop to explore options to earn more. There are several practical and logical strategies you could take. Do you think every important company is getting into a joint venture? Is the competition getting more and more intense? Perhaps you just do not want to jump into the bandwagon; you might want to bolster the profitability and growth of your business. Thus, a joint venture could be a viable and significant option for you.

You should start a joint venture with another company or with other businesses if you humbly admit the fact that your business is lacking specific resources, expertise, and scale to get into more areas you could not possibly reach with your current status. You could form a joint venture with other companies within your industry or in other industries. You could also form such a venture with a foreign firm or a much larger/smaller one. In a joint venture, you would form another entity or a project.

Is your business competitor too strong and too huge to be beaten by your company? Raising more capital may not be the sole solution to your problem. A joint venture with another huge business would do. The deal could give you the necessary resources, technical capability, reach, and scale to equal or challenge a current industry or market leader. The joint venture could also take a broader or wider coverage than your business’ current reach.

Another reason to get into a joint venture is your lack of know-how and technical expertise or capability. Your company’s marketing, operational scale, production, and R&D component may not be enough to compete head on with other giants in the industry or in the market. Other companies may have the resources, capital, and technical expertise to complement your own. You should persuade such companies to get into a joint venture agreement with your business.

If you are comfortable about combining or sharing your resources with other businesses, you are ready for a joint venture. Modern firms could not possibly function in solitary these days. At one point, every business should consider forming joint ventures with other companies. Competitors and market stalwarts could act together to share a significant market pie. You could opt to own 25% of a $200 million joint venture. It could be more ideal than fully owning a $1 million small business that may eventually collapse due to scale and capital issues.

Lastly, if you are aiming to further please your company’s shareholders, you could use any joint venture proposal involving other companies to do so. Share owners definitely prefer it if a company would be able to establish a new source of lucrative income without spending huge resources. Cooperating and forming alliances with other businesses is now very crucial. You and your firm definitely would take pride being a part of a joint venture that tops and dominates an industry.

It could be a way to boost shareholders’ morale and confidence in the management.

Joining A Joint Venture: What To Look For In A Partner

Joint ventures are a regular occurrence in the business world. This mostly because they provide a wide array of benefits for any prospective company, both large and small. First is that the sharing of resources between two companies can highly lessen the usual amount of risk that one of them would usually face if they did it on their own. Another benefit is that the cross-pollination of information between two companies can lead to accelerated product development and new breakthroughs.

Financial support is also a great benefit; entering a market or a introducing/producing a new product can cost quite a bit of money and spreading out the cost between two or more sponsors can make sure that the losses aren't catastrophic if it falls through.

As can be seen, forming a joint venture can be very profitable for a company. The thing is, for a partnership like this to prosper, you need to have a good partner. Having a partner that doesn't pick up his part of the burden is even more of a liability than going it alone and a partner that is actively sabotaging your business relationship, whether intentionally or unintentionally, can be a tremendous problem for a company.

This is why it's important to screen your prospective partners. So what should you be looking for in a potential partner?

First of all, the company needs to have strong leadership. A solid hand on the keel can help integration between two companies be a lot easier. Indecisive leadership or an unclear chain of command can cause problems like conflicting orders or lax discipline that can spell disaster for your partnership. Always do a background check of the head of the company for possible problems personality conflicts.

Secondly, take a long look at the other company's corporate culture. A lot of potential problems can crop up when your company's laid-back style clashes with a the fast-paced one of your partner's. Your employees will be interacting and mingling with each other and creating a good rapport between them will be important. Envy and jealousy can throw a monkeywrench into this – not to mention expectations may not be met on both sides. Try to adjust or choose a more appropriate partner for your company.

Thirdly, the business side comes into play – draw up a list of what you need your partner to do. If you're looking for a distribution arm, check your prospective partner's market penetration and capabilities on delivering the product. If you're looking for R&D, look at the company's track record on developing technology. Always have a set idea of what you want, that way you won't be disappointed when you're looking for your partner to deliver the goods.

A company's track record is usually public record for the shareholders' benefit and if not, it's child's play to have a background check done on a company.

When you think about it, all of these can be summarized into one sentece: know who you're going into business with. Knowledge is power and that's the key to becoming successful in a joint venture.