This chapter explores Phase 1 (Internal Alignment). It considers the critical need for internal alignment within organizations before engaging in collaboration with your business partner. This chapter highlights challenges like incongruent motivations, conflicting targets, and differing expectations of what success looks like among functional groups. It emphasizes the common oversight of insufficiently understanding each functional group’s perspective and the importance of reaching a consensus on a unified viewpoint before engaging with clients or suppliers. This section also features two case studies, underlining the profound impact of internal structural complexities and emphasizing the challenges of hyper-centralized functions due to the hierarchy of decision-making rights. It concludes by proposing strategies, including a relationship health survey and a business model mapping exercise, to address these challenges and foster effective collaboration internally between functional groups.