Strategic Alliance Magazine Q2 2021 - 18

Cover Story
new technology is viable. They start jointly financing, and
then eventually the big finance companies come in and do it
on their own.
" But it's that type of partnership where government realizes its
correct role in a journey to helping scale up a new technology.
They have a goal, they have finance available, and they have a
lot of other programs to encourage and support those entrepreneurs
starting up new things. "
The Mission and the Message:
How the New Ecosystem Rolls
These partnerships-or this relatively new ecosystem-require
orchestrators to connect the various entities involved. I asked
Steven Moelk at IKEA whether he found himself taking on
that role.
" Yes. That's essentially my role, to try to bring all these folks
together, " he acknowledged. " Internally, our finance folks
have to understand the costs of this kind of thing, facilities
folks have to understand when we're doing facilities upgrades
to our infrastructure, construction folks, electrical engineers-there's
a lot of people who go into this just on our
side. Then you've got all those other vendors: you've got Fluid
Truck, the vehicle OEMs that we deal with, all of our logistics
companies that we're partnering with, even the financing
partners-it requires a lot of different people to be involved.
That's what it's all about-trying to get all those people rowing
in the same direction. "
Meanwhile, Moelk has been actively promoting IKEA's EV
mission to other companies, from Walmart to Target to Nike
and Pepsi. He and IKEA are doing this for several very good
reasons-not just because they're nice guys (or make excellent
cinnamon rolls).
" I'm talking to as many companies
as I can. We need an even wider
ecosystem if [we] really want to
make this work. Wherever there's
an ability to work with like-minded
companies, we want to do that
and evangelize this message. "
" We have to kind of push this agenda out there, and the more
people that are involved in it, the better it is, " Moelk said. " If
18
Strategic Alliance QUARTERLY | Q2 2021
you look at this a little bit more skeptically, you could say,
'IKEA's just doing this to make themselves look good, to get
their green bona fides for their customers.' Our biggest benefit
is to be the leader in that space and to stay ahead of our competitors,
if you look at this from just a competitive standpoint-which
I don't.
" Ultimately, we're doing this because we need to make the
planet a better place to live, but an IKEA-only solution doesn't
necessarily do that. What you're really trying to achieve is
getting more and more customers to be on board with this.
From a practical standpoint, the IKEA-only solution is unbelievably
expensive in this early stage, [so] I'm talking to as
many companies as I can. We need an even wider ecosystem if
[we] really want to make this work. Wherever there's an ability
to work with like-minded companies, then we want to do that,
we want to evangelize this message. Maybe we learn some
things from them as well along the way. Maybe the rental
model isn't the best way-that's OK. We'll learn what is. "
What Does This Mean for the
Alliance Profession?
As the response to climate change transforms energy, transportation,
agriculture, manufacturing, insurance, and many
other industries, all of us will be affected. Alliance professionals
in particular will be called upon to help their companies
find ways to transition to greener, net-zero-emissions
operations by connecting them with the networks of partners
they'll need.
So what can you do now? Here's some thoughts and questions
to consider:
n Explore your company's current efforts, plans, and goals
around climate action.
n How can you and the alliances you manage be more
innovative, more energy-efficient, and better contribute to
achieving these goals?
n What are the particular environmental/climate challenges
in your industry? How are they being mitigated?
n Understand the ecosystem around climate change and
how applying partnering practices and principles can help
it achieve its objectives.
n Finally, consider what kinds of new potential partners-
perhaps beyond your industry-might be needed to
further your company's climate-related actions and bring
them to fruition.
After all, climate change-like our planet itself-is everyone's
business. n
Strategic Alliance Magazine Q2 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Strategic Alliance Magazine Q2 2021
