Stronger Together: Making The Most Of Partnerships For Long-Term GrowthScratch beneath the surface of any of today's prominent companies and you are likely to find a handful of partnerships helping fuel that success.

Back in the day, one could say that business success could be achieved solely through entrepreneurship, acquisition, and the harnessing of capital to fuel growth. While these strategies can still help keep a company in the black, my personal experiences have taught me that today's enterprises are more likely to find success in the long-term byestablishing partnershipsand alliances with complementary innovators and suppliers, rather than attempting to forge ahead alone.

As global economies shift, and we face world changing events like Brexit, war on trade, and conflicts that impact resources, companies are expected to do more with less. Rather than reinvent the wheel each time a new technology or service is needed, more companies are looking to partner with like-minded businesses to help improve and drive efficiency in their own business processes and operations. Such an approach is easily said, yet not so easily done, as it requires creating partnerships that go beyond paper contracts and fixed deals. This is about building relationships that form the foundations of smart business.

For example, the partnership between Middle East's leading e-commerce retailer Souq.com and innovative solutions conglomerate 3M, which will avail a large variety of 3M products to customers on the e-commerce platform. This increases the ease of accessibility for 3M products and widens its reach, without having to build their own e-commerce operations from scratch. But if one is to follow these enterprises' lead and get the most out of partnerships, there are several areas to consider- from finding your partner, to signing on the dotted line, and beyond.

Choosing the right partner for business

The success (or failure) of any business relationship depends heavily on how well the partnership works. Particular effort should be directed towards ensuring the right relationships are formed. Businesses need to establish precisely what they are seeking to achieve from these relationships, whether it be, expanding into new territories, providing new services, or discover a new route to market. Amazon Web Services is a good example where businesses don't have to build their own hosting infrastructure. Instead of buying, owning and maintaining their own data centers and servers, organizations can now have access to these resources and other services on an as-needed basis. As a result, businesses are freed to focus their time on other activities that can drive growth and influence customer satisfaction.

Building on the foundations

Once you have a partnership in place with defined and shared goals, it is important to foster growth and set up a rhythm ofchecking-in on the status of the partnershipat regular intervals. While a contract might be signed and sealed, a partnership has a lot more scope to grow if all parties involved provide feedback and share what aspects of the partnership are doing well, and where there are areas for improvement.

Emphasis on flexibility

With this in mind, it is also worth considering partnerships built around flexible contracts. This gives both sides the opportunity for adjustment of parameters set, enabling innovation, and a crosspollination of ideas, which ultimately delivers more value out of a partnership in the long term. The benefits of such a partnership usually outweigh any disadvantages. For example, sharing of contacts, supply chains, or the experience of how to break into new markets or arenas, you may not have considered before. This could then be further expandedto develop small one-to-one partnerships, into group ventures, or even establish a community of companies, suppliers and customers working together. Such a community could flourish into an ecosystem, leading to the sharing of products, services, and infrastructure, thereby creating a situation where everyone involved can benefit and support each other.

Gaining buy-in at the highest level

Whatever the size of business, and however lofty the ambition, partnerships can be strengthened and boosted by gaining executive sponsorship, as having the right support can bring experience, knowledge and authority to the forging of long-lasting partnerships. Equally, having a clear line of leadership and ownership on both sides of a partnership can help spearhead its early success, with people taking responsibility to ensure a partnership expands beyond a contract and into a strong working relationship that promises to bloom over time.

Scratch beneath the surface of any of today's prominent companies and you are likely to find a handful of partnerships helping fuel that success. Companies can no longer afford to work in silos– taking influence, technology, and resources and applying them to a successful business model not only makes good commercial sense, it's a great way to meet customers changing needs. And in the ever more competitive business world, successful long-term partnerships are likely to be the difference between a company blazing a trail, or fading into obscurity.

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