GUIDELINES ON STRATEGIC COOPERATION IN THE FURNITURE SECTOR

• Interest & usefulness for the manufacturer


The importance of strategic cooperation is particularly relevant in a context where traditional furniture manufacturing business models are being reconsidered. The revision of the way firms do business at present must take into account not only a clear definition of the customer value generation and the skills and capabilities that the firm must develop for addressing markets, but also an honest revision of the scope of internal resources in the new strategy.

This is related to the size trouble that characterizes the furniture industry in Europe. Most of furniture manufacturers are Small and Medium Enterprises, which causes a clear limit to growth and maintenance of sustainable competitive advantages. Either in an efficiency strategy or in a differentiation strategy (or in a combined one) the problem of size may be a tough hurdle for furniture firms.

At this point is where cooperation possibilities play an essential role for the industry: through an adequate alliances policy the firm may strength its weaknesses or lack of resources. Particularly in the furniture industry, where atomization of companies is crucial in many countries, cooperation is the suitable option for not renouncing to adopt innovating strategies.

But cooperation cannot be a goal per se, it is a consequence of the firm’s strategy indeed. Once strategy is defined, then reflection about it most suitable form and the best cooperator must be carried out.

The guidelines on cooperation is a document specially developed for the furniture industry. Written under the experience of AIDIMA in promoting cooperation between companies of the furniture industry in last years, it shows the critical aspects that a firm should consider before starting an alliance with a partner. The definition of expected goals, the selection of resources that will be deployed, the alternative forms of cooperation that the firm may adopt according to its needs and other practical recommendations for negotiating with potential cooperators, are just some of the main key points that the manufacturer will find in the guidelines.