Speaker Feature

The number of partnerships continues to rise as organizations try to maintain a competitive advantage.  Partnerships allow organizations to share resources and leverage strengths to achieve greater results.  Successful partnerships allow organizations to reach new markets, provide innovative products or programs, and serve more customers. 

The potential for greater return through partnership does not come without effort or risk.  Partnerships can fail due to insufficient leadership, inadequate communication, inability to overcome differences, and a lack of shared vision.  To reduce the risk of failure an organization needs to understand what drives them to partner and how to select their partner and establish the rules of engagement.

Once a partner is selected the partnership begins.  Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”   Partnerships are formed among organizations but success happens because of the individuals involved.  Business partnerships are in several ways similar to personal relationships.  They require trust and depend upon mutual respect and accountability.  Not only success but longevity is the result of collaboration toward a shared vision and ongoing assessments. 

If you are at the beginning phase and considering who to partner with there are several characteristics to consider.  You may look for an organization who is serving a similar customer or a customer base which is different from your own.  Additionally, you want to look for an organization that provides a complimentary but distinct product or service than what you provide.  Once you think you have a potential partner you will want to do your research and understand their organizational values and culture to ensure that they mirror your own.   

If you are further along in the partnership life cycle but not yet achieving the success you envisioned communication and evaluation strategies can get you back on track toward reaching your goals.  Resources and staff skills can be adjusted from a business development to a relationship management focus to match the needs of a maturing partnership.

Regardless of where you are with partnering, join me to explore the benefits of partnership for your organization.  Bring your initial thoughts on potential partners or your challenges with current partners and we will review the partnership paradigm, the degrees of a partnership, characteristics of a good partner, how to assess a partnership and more.