Would you get married after only one date?
It’s quite easy to go out and buy a box of printer: paper, quality, weight, size, colour and price. But, would you get married after only one date? Most alliances take many years to develop. You work in the same industry, so you’ve done business together and you meet at conferences. Eventually you may realise your relationship is strategically important and you need to manage it.
Pick one of your close relationships. How did it all start? Were you both clear about what you wanted to achieve? Did you put in place all the things you needed to make it work? Are you happy with how it’s running and the payback?
Whether you are trying to start something new or take an existing relationship to a new level there is a five-step process for getting collaboration up and running successfully.
1 The collaborative opportunity – An opportunity has opened in the market and you need to get in there quickly but don’t have everything you need to do it. You could ‘buy-in’ help but the opportunity needs more than this. You need a partner who could work with you to make 1+1=3 or more.
2 Identify potential partners – Most collaborative relationships emerge over time from simpler business arrangements. You are most likely to identify potential partners from your existing network and therefore will know their capabilities and whether you can work comfortably with them. You will need to be more alert with someone you haven’t worked with before as these aspects will be untried.
“We met at a conference and realised we were handling the same product in the same ways. We agreed to set up a very small trial on the QT; if it worked great, if it didn’t, we could quietly dump it. In fact, it was hugely successful.”
Supply Chain Directors, Global Confectionery Companies
3 Explore the objectives – You need to sit down with your new partner and work out if this opportunity will bring each enough benefits to be viable. Are we both happy that we have a good idea of what investment, resources and timescale will be needed to achieve the objectives?
4 Viable business case? –Here you get at the ‘nuts and bolts’ of ‘if and how’ the operation will work including who will be in the joint management team. The ‘picture’ will not be complete without mention of potential endings because it is better to plan for exit now rather fall into it later. You both need to be happy with this outline plan.
“We only do it because it makes good business sense. We gradually built the business case and the momentum. This overcame resistance.”
Logistics Director, Global Confectionery Company
5 Collaborative management – Because you are working closely with another company, management is going to be more complicated. The joint organisation could be quite large, dispersed and involve several interfaces. Therefore, you will need a plan of how it will work so everyone knows where they fit and what they have to do. This, we call it an enterprise relationship management plan, should include: agreed plans and policies, organisation structure, management arrangements and progress information resources. By exploring this together the partners will get a better understanding of what it means to work together including the additional costs.
If you can tick these five ‘boxes’ then you have a good chance of running a successful joint operation. Having read all of this is there anything you need to do improve the way your alliance is working?