1. Group 7
VarisaraPhonphaisan 5080259
SrisongrukProhmvitak 5180170
TanaroekThanaaphiwong 4980205
SalouaKettani 5380422
Corporate Self-Analysis
Corporate Self-Analysis is the task of examining your own company, its cultural
characteristics and practices, its financial and managerial strengths and weaknesses, and its
strategic direction, before developing plans for the possible use of alliances in pursuit of
company goals.
Many companies bypass this activity, which should be undertaken at the beginning of
the alliance-planning process, and then find later that mistakes can be traced back to
inadequate understanding of their own organizational motives and behaviors that are
rewarded or sanctioned within their organization.
I suggest use of a cross-functional team of people from various parts of the
organization to develop the self-analysis.
The Corporate Self-analysis process focuses on the elements of your company’s
profile.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
The Culture Cluster
The Financial Picture
The Business Definition and SWOT Analysis
The Possible Strategic Direction
The Senior Executive Input
Selection of Alliance Strategy
I. The Culture Cluster
A corporate or organizational culture is a set of coping mechanisms, or adaptation
skills, that members of the culture use both within and outside their corporate environment.
The Culture Cluster can be divided into ten separate areas that should be examined.
At the very least you should use the Culture Cluster to understand your own organization.
The Culture Cluster analysis is an acceptable exercise for most potential partners, especially
if it is placed in the context of understanding the implementation milestones that will be
acceptable within their culture and compatible with yours.

2. The ten factors that each company should look at as the first step of Corporate SelfAnalysis are the following:
1. Styles of decision making and problem solving
2. Authority, delegation and control; reporting methods
3. Work behavior
4. Compensation and incentives
5. Leadership and mentoring styles
6. Communication, oral; written; nonverbal
7. Levels of secrecy
8. Attitude toward time and milestones
9. Ethics and values
10. Personal versus corporate goals
Let’s look at each factor more closely.
1. Decisions Making and Problem Solving
This covers all the ways decisions are made in an organization, including those that
reflect management and board receptivity to new ideas, especially the alliance concept.
2. Authority---Delegation and control ; Reporting Methods
You must ask, “How is authority delegated and what management controls are in
place, including reporting responsibilities ”
3. Work Behavior
The topic of work behavior comprises dress, management of work space, arrival and
departure norms, and whether a company is task or process-oriented.
4. Compensation and Incentives
Most organizations have standard policies and procedures regarding compensation
and incentives. The details of the reward, compensation, and incentive systems had the power
to destroy a strategically important relationship.
5. Leadership and Mentoring Styles
Leadership styles are often related to stages in the corporate life cycle, and so become
a natural part of a cultural analysis.
6. Communication – Oral; Written; Nonverbal
Miscommunication can occur in many levels when you combine country’s culture,
beliefs, systems, values, protocol, and traditions. However, in the company, disagreement
and open discussion are encouraged or discouraged depending on each culture. Also,
leadership styles vary in close relationship depending on the degree of openness in
discussions. Mature and consolidating company does not encourage frank

3. discussions,problems might dissolve but would not go away. When doing an alliance, both
companies should understand each other’s communication style in order to work together
well.
7. Levels of Secrecy
Levels of secrecy is related to the life-cycle stages, with start-up companies generally
being most open and family or private companies are very secretive, no matter in what cycle
stage they are in. The law of secrecy applies to revealing corporation goals and knowing who
the decision makers are. In a company, often employees create and in-group, who knows the
answer, and an out-group, who does not know the answer. However, public companies
cannot be secretive about information that must be disclosed by law. First step, it is
important to understand the openness and secrecy issue in the company to develop a process
to be able to work with an alliance. Second step, is to share knowledge to the partner. Third
step, company should create a “fast-track” communication, mechanism, and environment that
effects micro-cultural change. Now, alliances communication are open and both companies
are able to work together easier.
8. Attitude Toward Time and Milestones
Time is a cultural norm. Individuals, companies, and countries have different
conception of time. Someone’s “on time” may mean “half an hour late”. Also, “now”,
“soon”, and “on time” have its own corporate cultural meaning. Start-up companies have a
sense of urgency, so “now” means “today” or “this minute.” Milestones have to do with the
time-related expectations in an alliance project. Some culture believes in the natural
progression of activities like “We cannot externally control them.” Members of an alliance
can experience frustrations from time-related cultural differences. Both alliances should
understand each other’s corporate norms.
9. Ethics and Values
In a corporate environment, ethical codes are mostly unwritten. Ethical attitudes
shapes up the entire culture like people with similar belief or interest are attracted to each
other. When doing an alliance, both companies should understand each other’s code. Ethics
are highly influenced by the culture the company operates.
10. Personal Versus Corporate Goals
In a family owned company, family goals may be well understood by family
members, because of historical issue and relationship matters. But to general business
community, they could appear illogical. Personal goal of a family are the corporate ones and
they may be unclear in the organization except the family members. Cultural analysis can be
done on a “need to know basis”, one-on-one discussions with key family members can clarify
corporate actions and direction.

4. II. The Financial Picture
In a corporate self-analysis, companies should have a clear financial picture of the
organization. The company should look at financial history and past plans, examine areas
which financial projections were not attained and performance fell short of goals. Financial
picture depends on corporate personality and the desire for detail, but many look at past two
years. Financial result of a particular division of the company is needed in planned alliance.
The purpose of clarifying the business definition is to define the existing business in
the light of today’s reality, and the second is to access your future potential in the same light.
The logical consequence of this Strength and Weakness analysis will be the understanding of
possible opportunities and threats. The approach is to list the major characteristics of a
company in a corporate profile on one page. For example, a description of the company, its
products and services, market, competition, human and financial resources. The purpose of
this process is to place the decision to develop an alliance in context- to know what kind of
organization you are, what you hope to be, and what the strengths are that will help you get
there and to uncover weaknesses that need either to be eliminated or compensated for.
Organization responsibility – your SWOT analysis should include a process of
pinpointing sources of strength for membership on the alliance team. When developing an
alliance plan, a team approach is best. Human resources issues should also be addressed in
the planning stage when the issue is addressed of who in the organization has responsibility
for the alliance. A final point must be made concerning the human side of the capital
investment associated with these relationships.
When it comes to the possible strategic direction, participants in this process will need
to discuss the preferred strategic direction into which the company will direct its alliance
activity. There are 5 levels in corporate life cycle, which are Start-up, Hockeystick,
Professional, Mature and Consolidating, Declining or sustaining. The company needs to
check themselves that which stage they are at and try to define the strength and weakness in
order to achieve the best interest.
As for the senior executive’s input, CEO input can sometimes manifest itself in a
phenomenon that I like to call the Golf Course alliance. Just like two executives meet on the
golf course and agree that they “really should do something together.” It all comes down to
how the alliance is formed. If there’s no clear analysis upon the problem each has, but it’s
rather a way of agreeing due to relationship at the very first agreement. A lot of problem is
going to be in store for such alliance.
Selection of Alliance Strategy is a very important step in corporate self-analysis.
Firstly, developing a mission statement helps your company to evaluate the success in the
alliance. Secondly, success is a moving target, because as the industry changes and the
partner’s goal, personality characteristics, and life-cycle stages change, the goals and success
criteria for the partnership will be affected. Thirdly, if you do not clearly state your success
criteria in the planning stages, it will be difficult to make strategically correct decisions
during the criteria development and partner-selection stages.

5. In summary, there are six steps of corporate self analysis, which are the culture
cluster, the financial picture, the business definition and SWOT, the possible strategic
direction, the senior executive input, selection of alliance strategy. If you decide to go
forward and seek an alliance, you will need a timetable. Few alliances that are well thought
through come together in less than six months, and most take a year; international alliances
take even longer to develop, sometimes as long as two years.