SPEAKING TASK 3

Reading Time: 45 seconds

Strategic Alliances

In a global economy, collaboration and strategic alliances may be essential to success. Although there are a number of ways to cooperate, including mergers in which two companies form a legal union, or a joint venture where several companies pool resources to create a separate entity, a strategic alliance is much less involved than either one. Quite simply, a strategic alliance is a mutual agreement between two or more companies in order to work more effectively toward their goals. This usually involves a plan to share resources for mutual benefit. The major advantages of strategic alliances are that each company retains its separate identity and that the alliances may be easily formed and easily dissolved, which makes them a perfect vehicle in a rapidly changing business environment.

Now that you have read the explanation of strategic business alliances in the reading, listen to part of a lecture on a similar topic.

[audio|src:'\listening\toefl_advanced\SynthesizingDisscussEachPointActivity3.mp3']

Question

Explain how the example that the professor provides demonstrates the concept of strategic alliances defined in the reading passage.