Win-win partnering

People often talk about partnerships in business, but if you can’t articulate exactly how you are investing in the relationship in special ways, you are talking partnership, acting transactionally and negatively impacting both parties.  

Follow these 5 tips to ensure your partnerships are set up for mutual success.     

1. Ensure the core belief is satisfied.   The core belief is that “overinvesting in a small number of strategic relationships will provide stronger returns than acting opportunistically”.  This generally means that you seek privileged access to limited resources, e.g. the innovation engine or other core competency of the partner(s) in question in order to create competitive advantage. The quid pro quo is that you offer privileged access to the partner, e.g. you expose them to more growth opportunities.

2. Segment.  My experience is that the best partnering frameworks have 3 levels: strategic partners, niche/ potential partners and transactional.  The middle tier is unstable; these are organizations you are trying to move up or down one level.  I’ve seen frameworks with more than 3 levels, but my general observation is that the extra levels can be tools to avoid hard decisions.  

3. Make sure your partners fit across 3 dimensions. 

a. Business fit: can we create financial value together?

b. Strategy fit: do we have complementary capabilities focused on solving the same problems?

c. Culture fit:  do we have common principles that will help us collaborate and resolve challenges constructively?

4. Be transparent.  Tell people where they stand and be clear on what it would take to climb the segmentation.  This is just like personal development where candid, constructive feedback delivered kindly tends to get the response you seek.   

5. Accountability matters.  Hold everyone, including yourself, accountable for commitments.  The right to become and retain partnership is something that must be constantly earned.