When you don’t know that you don’t know!
“At times when we put our ideas forward, we meet a 'not invented here' attitude and are dismissed/not taken seriously. They do not work outside of their box.” CEO, Confectionery Manufacturer
Self-interest and ignorance seem to result in promising relationships just bumping along on the bottom until they die. The golden opportunity was all about doing something with someone that you could not do on your own and making 1 +1 = 8. A leap of innovation would make possible new market-beating manufacturing processes or products and services. So often we see companies ‘miss the boat’.
“They only innovate when it is a necessary for their own operation.” Account Manager, Confectionery Customer
It may come as a bit of a shock but you must learn to recognise that your relationships need to be jointly managed as a discrete enterprise with its own organisation structure, that draws on the skills of the personnel in the partner companies. Without this you will never be able to create the conditions that stimulate the essential level of innovation necessary to make that leap.
“I’ve been on this project for two years and I only realised today that I must be the Relationship Manager!” Chief Engineer, Global Construction Company
As Relationship Managers, senior leaders, you are responsible for the success of the enterprise. You not only co-ordinate the parts of your organisations that feed into the partnership but you also manage a joint way of working that identifies and delivers innovation. Many good ideas for doing things better come from the ‘shop floor’ so, you must encourage staff to think wider across the boundaries. Usually these are picked up by formal or informal improvement systems such as suggestion boxes or quality systems. You must use these ideas to generate joint value and track the benefits. This will keep your Boards happy that the relationship aims are being achieved and their investment is justified.
“A pilot project to up-skill some security guards to also act as handy-men has been led by our region and gone very well with the Service Delivery Managers managing customer expectations.” Regional Manager, UK Government Department
If you jointly manage performance and operations, continuous improvement and innovation become engrained in working together. As a result, the quality of the relationship and the capability to achieve more value out of new opportunities increases. This is a virtuous cycle and guarantees that you never ‘miss the boat’.