Summary Module 9 - Mergers, acquisitions and alliances: strategic options for strategy implementation include organic development, merger or acquisition, strategic alliance which are split between internal and external operations, but there are many considerations to think about when choosing between them. These include urgency: acquisitions and mergers faster than organic growth, uncertainty: alliance is most flexible (doors open), acquisition allows slight flexibility (can be resold), organic growth least flexible, modularity and interlinkage: alliance allows right people to coordinate, natural growth preferable, if wanting to acquire one unit of other company it might be needed to buy entire company if there are strong interlinkages between units and Type of capability needed: organic growth allows cultural fit. There are two types of strategic alliances which are: equity alliance: joint ventures, minority investment, consortium and non-equity alliance: development partnership, licensing and franchising, distribution partnership.