Business and Marketing

AT&T provides equity, access to operating systems technology, low cost manufacturing capabilities, and credibility. Kyocera, a Japanese manufacturer of ceramic packaging for the semiconductor industry and other high technology products, also provides equity as well as access to the Asian market, sophisticated packaging technology and manufacturing capability. And British & Commonwealth, a London-based shipping conglomerate, provides equity and access to the European markets. The chairman of Kyocera and the president of AT&T Information Systems are active participants on Counterpoint’s board of directors. According to Pauline, “These relationships are just the beginning.”

Of course, simply establishing the new relationships is not enough. Companies also must know how to capitalize on the links after they are formed. ZyMos is one company that has failed to do that. As a small company manufacturing custommade semiconductor chips, ZyMos needs to convince customers of its reliability. The marketplace is fearful of a small company in today’s environment. All companies are growing so quickly that they need a reliable supplier.

They can’t afford to have their lines shut down.

Strategic relationships are an ideal way to ease these customer fears, and ZyMos has an impressive list of partners. It has technological agreements with many top-notch companies, including Intel and Apple. But ZyMos is still going out and presenting its product on the basis of technical data. ZyMos’s managers came to us and talked for an hour about line widths. That makes no sense. Pitching technology doesn’t work in this environment. ZyMos should be stressing its relationships with Intel and Apple. They have the right relationships, but they’re not using them.

The idea of strategic relationships is not limited to the electronics and computer businesses. It applies to all fast-changing industries. Strategic alliances can be critical in the biotechnology industry. As in the electronics industry, most of the innovation in the biotechnology industry comes from small firms. But bringing products to market is particularly difficult for small companies in biotechnology. Many biotechnology products must gain government regulatory approval. That is a long and expensive process. Few small companies have the resources to wait out the entire process. Teaming up with large companies solves this problem, while also giving the startups much-needed marketing muscle and credibility.

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* See the first posting about this at:
The important of Strategic Relationships