Throughout history, we have seen great generals follow paths of acquisition in their conquering ventures. By absorbing the best of fallen armies into their own, they grew more powerful and capable of extending their territorial reach and economic benefit. These generals all possessed certain strengths. Hannibal combined strategic thinking and new 'technologies' - elephants to cross the Pyrenees, Julius Caesar blended extraordinary versatility with his political mastery to face new challenges, and Alexander the Great was a consummate strategist and leader of men.

The commercial equivalent in the modern world is pursuing growth through business strategic alliances, mergers or acquisitions. Business leaders, from small family owned enterprises through to multi-nationals, have the same goal: create wealth. At some point, they might face the same question. Whether growth, or even survival is possible under their existing business model and service/product mix. It might mean they should investigate a form of alliance with the 'foe'.

If so, the leader needs to carefully assess organizational growth targets. A first step might include approaching a firm well known to them, which on the surface could present a good fit for a strategic alliance, or to seek less familiar alliance targets.

A merger is a more enduring option, and typically combines two equals with complementary and supplementary skills, services, or products aiming to capitalize on business synergies. Here, the two CEO's must determine how the balance of power will be handled, among a myriad of other issues.

Lastly, a leader might consider buying out a competitor a logical course. As with a merger, clear economic and market benefits must exist to warrant pursuing this option.

As with the leaders of old, the Novus experience indicates modern leaders must possess a desire to look beyond their own horizons, to thoroughly learn the strengths and weaknesses of their target, to assess strategic options carefully, and to effectively combine forces into an effective, culturally cohesive whole with a common goal: - expansion through victory in the market place.

* Bob counsels clients in developing growth strategies.

Nicom's David Nicholson and Pat d'Entremont of DDA, initially opened friendly discussions about their firm's services and customer bases. They saw a small subset of competition between the two, but not so for most of the services offered. This initial interest grew to a series of in-depth exploratory sessions over the past several months. The conclusion: the two owners recognised a natural fit and synergistic strength in each of their firm's services and that merging the two practices made eminent sense in order to capitalize on new market opportunities. Nicom IT Solutions is now the largest independent IT consulting firm in the province, with Pat leading the business development activities and David serving as the delivery partner.