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10. Smart Power

Assessment Statement

“The business unit understands and exercises Smart Power — melding soft Ideational Power (shared strategic vision and values) with hard Bargaining Power (domain knowledge and experience) and Material Power (resources) — to create and sustain strategic alliances.”

Scoring Guide

Score
Description
5
Strongly Agree: The business effectively utilizes a combination of Ideational, Bargaining and Material Power to manage alliances.  
4
Agree
3
Neutral:The business utilizes a combination of Bargaining and Material Power to manage alliances.
2
Disagree
1
Strongly Disagree: The business utilizes only Bargaining or Material Power to manage alliances.

Interpretation

This diagnostic evaluates whether the business unit uses Smart Power — a strategic blend of Ideational Power (shared vision and values), Bargaining Power (expertise and negotiation skill), and Material Power (resources and capital) — to create and sustain strategic alliances within its value network.

This focuses on:

  1. Strategic Relationship Building: Are alliances built on shared purpose, not just transactions?

  2. Power Balance: Are multiple types of influence applied effectively and ethically?

  3. Sustainability of Alliances: Do partnerships endure and evolve through trust and alignment?

Example: Sony & Panasonic OLED Alliance, Score: 5 – Strongly Agree

In mid-2012, Sony and Panasonic formed a strategic alliance to co-develop large‑screen OLED technology: Ideational Power: Both firms shared a unified vision — to lead the next generation of TV display technology via OLED — and clearly aligned their strategic and technological goals. Bargaining Power: Sony contributed early OLED R&D and IP expertise, while Panasonic brought inkjet-printing know-how for scalable manufacturing. Material Power: They jointly invested in production lines and labs, pooling capital to accelerate market readiness and innovation. This Smart Power blend enabled a coordinated and well-resourced partnership with shared objectives, competencies, and financial backing, showcasing how alliances can leverage multiple forms of influence to sustain strategic innovation.

Reference: EETimes. (2012, June 26). Panasonic, Sony in OLED pact. EETimes. Retrieved from https://www.eetimes.com/panasonic-sony-in-oled-pact/

Learn more here: These are Gramscian ideas, insightfully integrated into a framework of “Smart Power” by Joseph Nye, described in: Filippo Menga, Power and Water in Central Asia, Routledge, (2018).

C. U. Ciborra, The Platform Organization: Recombining, Strategies, Structures, and Surprises, Organization Science, Vol. 7 No. 2, (1996)