Analyses and
end-products

Water Street Partners helps companies maximize the performance of their most material joint ventures and alliances. We do this by offering support in 1) setting up and launching joint ventures that are designed to succeed; 2) conducting “health checks” of existing JVs to identify potential issues and areas for improvement – before they become serious problems; and 3) supporting clients in gaining alignment and implementing desired changes in strategy and scope, governance, organization, and/or financial arrangements between the JV and parent companies.

Our core product is a diagnostic of a joint venture’s performance and health that looks at how well the JV is adopting a set of practices that drive good performance, identifies key shortcomings, analyses their impact on JV performance and value, and suggests remedial actions. The analyses from individual diagnostics are fed into a proprietary database, which helps us draw cross-JV insights.

For an existing JV, example analyses and end-products include:

• Overall health score and summary diagnostic
  (see Exhibit 1)
• Data-driven benchmarks on specific areas of practice and performance
  (see Exhibit 2)
• Illustration of key managerial practices, choices and deal terms among
  largest JVs in the world (see Exhibit 3)
• Sizing of improvement opportunity / value at stake
  (see Exhibit 4)

In addition, Water Street Partners provides clients with Board-level recommendations and implementation support, "on call" support for any issue that comes up, and access to a peer network of other JV CEO and Directors.

Publications

Your Alliances are Too Stable Launching a Worldclass Joint Venture Is Your Alliance Really a Sale? The Way to Win in Cross-Border Alliances Strategic Choices for Newly Opened Markets	Harvard Business Review Harvard Business Review Harvard Business Review Harvard Business Review Harvard Business Review
Mastering Alliance Strategy (book) Collaborating to Compete (book)	Jossey Bass / John Wiley John Wiley
Governing Joint Ventures Not by M&A Alone Managing an Alliance Portfolio When to Think Alliance Petroleum: After the Megamergers Alliances in Upstream Oil and Gas Emerging Market Alliances Service Alliances: Coffee and One Way to Boston	McKinsey Quarterly McKinsey Quarterly McKinsey Quarterly McKinsey Quarterly McKinsey Quarterly McKinsey Quarterly McKinsey Quarterly McKinsey Quarterly
Managing Alliances: Skills for the Modern Era Negotiating Alliances and JVs The Death of Business Development? Alliances to Learn	The Alliance Analyst The Alliance Analyst The Alliance Analyst The Alliance Analyst
Getting a Grip on Your Alliances Measuring Alliance Performance Getting Alliances Right: Joint Venture Governance Guidelines	Corporate Deal Maker McKinsey on Finance Partnerships, JVs and Strategic Alliances (edited volume)

Research
(including research done prior to founding Water Street Partners)

Personally led more than 20 major research initiatives on joint ventures and alliances over past 20 years, including work on:
• Cross-Border JVs
• JV Governance
• JV Launch Processes and Practices
• Alliance Performance Assessment
• JV Restructuring
• Emerging Market Alliances
• Alliances in High Tech
• Benchmarking of Billion-Dollar JVs Governance Structures and Performance
• Using Alliances for Innovation
• Alliance Stock Market Announcement Effects
• JVs in the Petroleum Industry
• Building Corporate-Level Alliance Management Capabilities

Proprietary Tools

• Database of 2000 largest joint ventures in the world, including deal scope, investments and financial attributes, equity ownership, and list of Board members and management team
• List of 100+ specific best practices in JV strategy and scope, governance, organization/talent, and financial arrangements - based on meta analysis of research
• Independent Venture Assessment tool – to evaluate and benchmark joint venture performance and health
• Library of JV legal agreements and cases