Partnering For Success

In a former role, I witnessed many successful partnerships, both for-profit and non-profit. You can find stories of entrepreneurs making it big because of partnering like David Steward of World Wide Technology based in St. Louis, MO or even Bill Gates of Microsoft stating "Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning." The right partnership will provide great returns for each participating company and support quick ways to grow in capacity, experience, and revenue.



Partnerships come in many forms including strategic alliances, joint ventures, and mergers. Even as a supplier, a firm is a partner with its client for the success of both companies. Please note the table above for a summarized view of these relationships.

With all of this said, caution is urged when considering taking on these relationships. Trust is a major key to success and that is hard to strengthen if its a new relationship.And so enters non-disclosure agreements, non-compete agreements, and other legalities to ensure everyone is walking on the straight and narrow.

A great article that summarizes partnering very well (and succinct) is Establishing a Strategic Partnering Relationship by BNET. Another good resource is the book Strategic Partnerships: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Joint Ventures and Alliances by Robert Wallace, a Dartmouth educated MBA who is also a successful entrepreneur.

In 2008, I coordinated a partnership between five non-profit groups to host a networking symposium. Our collaboration:

• brought more attention to our individual groups
  
• increased each of our average event attendance
• supported the interest and formation of additional partnerships that otherwise may not have happened

This story is to demonstrate this concept is not limited to building a multi-million dollar business on the outset. It can be used to simply increase awareness to a cause, or help build the business capacity of a sole proprietorship. Successful strategic partnerships present win-win situations for all involved.