January 25, 2012

• Developing partnerships

  Developing partnerships

  #Tips and ideas

  Today, I fostered a new #partnership. Not an uncommon one. A usual business partnership where there is mutual benefit. Little is accomplished when we try to do things on our own. Partnerships of this nature might not be life long friendships but rather temporary reciprocal benefit extraction. I am always looking for #opportunity and a partnership always come with new opportunities. When you enter into a partnership with another person you open yourself up for new influences. Through creating new partnerships with common objectives we learn to be more flexible and we expand ourselves beyong rigid ideas. A partnership contains risk because it is easy for a partnership to break down when either party begins to draw more from the partnership than what is put into that partnership.

  To prevent disaster it is usually good to find common ground in terms of objectives and how that objectives can be met. In a partnership all partners must know their contribution to the partnership. A partnership also must be founded on insight into the strenghts and weaknesses of the partner. So often a partnership is based on what the partner has to offer that the weaknesses and the deficiencies of the partner is not taken into consideration. I recall a wise man that said if you want to marry, then first discuss the divorce. There is an element of truth to this saying. When we enter into a partnership we need to have contingencies in place that consider the #possibility of disappointment. Once the commonality is established the best way to smooth a partnership is still through a contract. A contract might seem to be a bit of an overkill in a friendly partnership but a contract is needed in the presence of credible witnesses even if it is a verbal one.

   A contract sets out the common objectives and all the partner's responsibilities and the benefits they will get from working together. Within that scope the partnership must be clear about the conditions under which the partnership becomes threatened. A partnership does not always break down due to a failure of the partners but simply because environmental conditions changed. So a partnership must consider what are the drivers that keeps the partnership strong and that which counter the partnership. The consequences of the partnership's failure must be considered. For example one will have to consider if either of the partner's will be penalised of compensated if the partnership fails to deliver on the promise. What are the recource that a partner can take should the partner feel that another is not delivering the initial promise.

  In essence...remember partnerships are important for survival and growth, however it is dangerous and must be well thought through to avoid disaster.

  • 10:13 am
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