The Power of Collaborative Partnerships

What to Consider Before Establishing a Partnership

In a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot solely rely on their own competencies to sustain a competitive market position. The paradigm of Open Innovation recognises this and provides a structure which encourages organisations to go outside the four walls of their team, department and company to find and access knowledge to fill internal competency gaps. Engaging in Open Innovation requires an organisation to develop a strategy, build a networking culture and create partnerships with external sources. In the context of Open Innovation, partnerships enable companies to establish relationships with universities, SMEs, research institutes, etc. to acquire or jointly develop a technology.

A Collaborative Partnership is where partners works together towards similar goals and share resources, risks and decision-making to achieve a win-win result. There are many different types of Collaborative Partnership, for instance Scientific Research Partnerships; Technology Acquisition Partnerships; Collaborative Development Partnerships; Supplier Collaborations and Strategic Alliances. The context of the Partnership Lifecycle will vary greatly depending on which partnership type is most relevant in order to achieve what both parties want from the relationship. However, before a partnership is established, a company should focus on making themselves attractive to external partners, as this will determine why they are chosen over their competitors. This can be achieved through three fundamental Open Innovation elements:

Trust is an essential component of establishing a partnership, and the skill set of those at the forefront of the relationship is one of the major factors which will determine it’s success. In addition to conducting a complete background check of potential partners, make sure the promises and projections you make are achievable.

Communication is vital to making potential partnerships work, since a balanced internal vs. external perspective is needed. An organisation must understand and view external partners with respect by keeping in regular contact and providing updates on the projects development. The efficiency of a company’s internal communication links with the efficiency in the management of their external partners. Relationship management is therefore key and organisations need to provide constant communication and respond promptly and positively.

Empathy plays an important role as organisation’s need to be able to understand where the potential partners are coming from. Learn about their business, their language and their pressures by putting yourself in their shoes. Being open-minded and accepting of external ideas and opinions is important in a partnership as you need to be able to listen, learn and embed outside knowledge. 

 A good partner will align on strategy, objectives and goals where a ‘true’ partner will go one stage further and innovate for you on an on-going basis. However, before an organisation even scopes potential partnerships, it needs to make sure it is clear on what the benefits and the constraints could be, know what it is it wants and why it is important to the future of the business.