Effective Partnering – Building Bridges between Businesses

There is significant potential for mutual gain when small and large businesses collaborate, but unfortunately there is also a high mortality rate.  Frequently, otherwise synergistic organizations, don’t connect, simply because of perceived risk – on both sides.  On occasion, opportunities are avoided entirely because someone got burnt in the past.

“Frequently, otherwise synergistic organizations, of radically different sizes, don’t connect, simply because of perceived risk – on both sides.”

We know that small and large companies can work together, can both thrive, benefit and grow from the experience. These challenging relationships often require both parties to develop a “buffer” zone that protects the strengths of each partner while maximizing the benefits of partnering.

Objective Assessments of You 

What do you look like from the outside ?

We conduct a combination of internal and external interviews and news searches, leading to an objective outsider’s view of your organization.  With your concurrence, we interview contacts within your customer base, suppliers, and management team.  We look into:

  • Your overall reputation
  • Perceived responsiveness and agility
  • External assessments of your strengths and weaknesses
  • Financial security – not always an objective measure
  • Processes maturity and efficiency

It is vitally important for this dispassionate perspective to be fully understood, as it will tell you a great deal about how your prospective partner views you.

Facilitated evaluation plus external assessment.

  • Why them ? How gives them value, and how do they keep it?  What makes them tick ?  How might your impact their key value for better or worse ?
  • Other options – who else would fit ?
  • Degree of alignment between you, including; Business systems, processes, Executive skills and outlook.
  • What options do they have ?
  • Evaluation of their long term strategy and exit strategy:  Sell out to you; Learn and leave; One night stand; or Compete – protect yourself.

Development of scenarios

  • You don’t partner
  • You partner and it doesn’t work
  • They go with a competitor
  • They become a competitor thru partnering with you
  • You partner, and then they start to fail financially
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