Book excerpt: As pressure continues to build on organisations to achieve more with less, partnering offers tremendous promise as a strategic solution. However, up to 70% of such initiatives fail to meet their objectives. In this book, alliance expert Mark Darby argues that, in the age of the extended enterprise, firms must display a positive reputation and hard results from their alliances in order to attract the best partners and stand out from the growing crowd of potential allies. Building on this, he introduces the Alliance Brand concept, explores its critical success factors, and shows in detail how to apply it in your organisation. Darby's straightforward advice and comprehensive maps and tools will guide you on the journey to fulfilling the promise of partnering. The results are higher revenues and reduced alliance failure rates, along with lower costs and fewer risks. Alliance brands also have more satisfied staff and partners, and a transparent, audit-friendly process to satisfy increasing governance concerns. This leads to sustainable alliance success, and ultimately 'partner of choice' status in your chosen industries and markets. That's a compelling return on investment. That's an Alliance Brand.