Partnership is a voluntary collaborative
agreement between two or more parties in which all participants agree to
work together to achieve a common purpose or undertake a specific task and
to share risks, responsibilities, resources, competencies and benefits.
is the power behind business partnerships. In a business partnership, two
parties leverage their assets (resources,
expertise, client base etc.) for the mutual benefit of both...
Meaningful partnerships are the
foundation for success. Partnerships is what enables many companies to make
continuous improvements. By sharing with others, you can direct your
capabilities to projects you consider most important.
80/20 Principle asserts that 80% of
results come from 20% of effort. Thus, to achieve more with less, you must
be selective, not exhaustive. In every important sphere, work out where 20%
of effort can lead to 80% of returns. Strive for excellence in the few key
areas, rather than for good performance in many.
Focus your firm's resources on
what you do best and what creates
sustainable competitive advantage
and tap to the resources of others for the rest. To decide why, when and how
to partner with others for complementary resources, weight the small amount
of cost savings that doing non-core-competence tasks might bring against the
distraction and investment that will be required to stay up to date over
of Partnerships in the New Economy
new knowledge economy, the principles
business strategy are being
transformed. Instead of a focus on physical assets and economies of scale,
the drivers of success reside in
connectivity and intangibles. Businesses increasingly need to develop
and manage complex ecologies or organizations around themselves so as to
succeed. The selection of strategic partners with whom to collaborate is now
becoming a life or death issue for most firms.7
Barriers between companies, which
used to be solid and absolute, are now permeable. "Iconoclasm and
are now the keys to success", writes Mark Stevens.1
"For generations companies built moats between themselves and their
competitors. Today the most successful companies build bridges. And that's
only the beginning".
Building Trust Between
both between individuals and organizations – is at
the core of today's complex and rapidly changing
knowledge economy. With trust as a foundation, the companies – or
within a company
– can share their know-how to achieve
– results that exceed the sum or the parts. "Unlike formal contracts or
rigid hierarchies, trust frees partners to respond together to the
unexpected, which is essential for mutual creativity. Trust also fosters
enthusiasm, ensuring the
performance from everyone."5...
Negotiation is the game of life and
business, the lifeblood of
relationships, and a
positive way of structuring the communication process. Whenever you
attempt to reconcile differences, resolve disputes,
establish or improve relationships you are negotiating...
strategic alliances enable business to gain competitive advantage through
access to a partner's resources, including markets, technologies, capital
Teaming up with other adds
enabling participants to grow and expand more quickly and efficiently.
fast-growing companies rely heavily on alliances to extend their
technical and operational resources. In the process, they save time and
boost productivity by not having to develop their own, from scratch. They
are thus freed to concentrate on innovation and their core business...
Toshiba’s approach is to develop strategic alliances with different partners
technologies because a single company cannot dominate any technology or
business by itself...
Joint ventures involve sharing the
risks and rewards in an enterprise or project co-owned and operated for
mutual benefit by two or more business partners. There are good business and
accounting reasons to create joint venture with a company that has
complementary resources, skills or assets, such as distribution channels,
technology, or finance...
New Employer-Employee Partnership
people are your firm's most precious and underutilized resource. They
are your firm's repository of
knowledge and they are central to
your company's competitive advantage.
people are critical to the development and execution of strategies,
especially in today's
faster-paced, more perplexing world, where top management alone can no
longer assure your firm's competitiveness. A successful people partnership
is a coherent set of people systems and processes that reflect the
business environment, the
enterprise strategy, and
organizational values. Each one will be unique to an organization and
its employees, but there are some key principles
that are common to all the companies that are exploring the New People
"Customer partnership is a shared journey to
create a future for both parties that is better than either could have
The customer is the foundation of your organization's success. In
today's turbulent times of rapid and chaotic change, "no force is more
grounding and stabilizing than a partnership with customers."3
Creating a partnership with customers will help your organizations maintain
the focus you need to make good decisions and harness the power and
commitment you need to weather volatile times. Customer partnership is more
than "putting customers first", or finding mutually satisfactory
solutions to shared problems, or a dedication to excellence in every
sale or service encounter. It also requires commitment to forging long-term
relationships that create synergies of knowledge, security, and adaptability
for both parties...
Extended Enterprise: Virtual Integration
Through virtual integration, the walls
between enterprises crumble. Companies stop being self-contained
business units that produce products or services, and become
integral elements in a larger system. In the new world of virtual
integration, no matter who signs the check, all the people are
working together for a common cause. Vertical integration performs,
virtual integration innovates...
Although the quest for cost
savings inspired initial forays into offshore outsourcing, companies are now
using offshore delivery to achieve significant improvements in business
performance - transforming outsourcing from a tactical and technical point
solution to a long-term business strategy for creating and defending
competitive advantage. The
decision makers are looking to leverage global sourcing to gain long-term
process optimization, business-oriented measurements, and enhanced control
over IT assets and activities.8...
Strategies for Business Partnerships...
Two Primary Approaches to Cooperative
Extended Enterprise: Virtual Integration...
Defining Your Core Competencies...
Joint Venture with
Eight Conditions for Trust
from Successful Partnerships...
Mergers and Acquisitions...
Strategies for Building Trust Between Partners...
Case in Point
Joint Development by British Petroleum and Schlumberger
Case in Point
Partnering for Auxiliary Capabilities
in Silicon Valley
Case in Point
Cross-Sector Partnership Postgraduate
Case in Point
Progroup's Various Sources of Knowledge...
Case in Point
Joint Engineering Design by Ford and ABB...