Aristotle penned, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” That ancient phrase has never been more relevant than it is today in business. Behind every successful company is a network of partnerships that allows each entity to be better than it would be alone.
While collaboration is the key to success, creating long-term business relationships takes planning, research and ongoing effort. If you’re looking to bolster your network of partners it’s important to know the specific areas you’re looking to fill a gap, and what a new partner can bring to the table. Here are five common reasons businesses seek a partner rather than going it solo.
Training Time
When you partner with a company to provide services and software, it’s important to choose a company that offers turnkey service. It’s not enough to for a company to sell you something, install it and leave. You want a provider that will take the time to train your employees on how to use the new tools.
For example, in the cyber security field, people are often the weakest link in your security, so finding a company focused on training is imperative.
“An organization must spend as much time training their staff as it does to set up a new system,” said Ron Tosto, CEO of Servadus.
When you are seeking a partnership to bring in new tools for your team to use, you want to not only select the best-in-class solution, but also look at the training expertise of the team, their track record, their ability to customize their offering to your company and the level of ongoing support that will be offered
Breadth of Knowledge
Companies can save time, money, and develop better products by partnering with a supplier who has valuable experience and knowledge as opposed to only considering cost while selecting a supplier.
For example, in the Nutraceutical industry, partnering with an ingredient supplier that has a team of scientists, doctors and other specialists can allow a formulator company to defer to experts who can develop innovative ingredients and conduct human clinical trials. This would allow the formulator to shape the product according to its specific need. For eg., the formulator could suggest to its ingredient partner to measure certain end points in the clinical trial that would yield valuable claims that would be beneficial while marketing to consumers.
“When companies make a commitment to be collaborative rather than have transactional relationships, they inherently are able to reduce the number of partners they need to work with and can have deeper relationships with fewer partners,” said Krishna Rajendran, CEO, Karallief, Inc. “By focusing on the relationship, each company benefits from the brain trust of the other.”
When businesses have a long-term partnership the level of trust gained through the years allows each to feel confident in the other and leverage experience to create better products and services, reduce development time, and ultimately offer a better end product to the consumer.
Customization
Companies may partner with the same entity for a variety of different reasons and needs. It’s important that a future partner has the breadth and flexibility to create a tailored approach for your particular situation.
For example, an online training company like KnowledgeCity, which offers a course library of more than 18,000 training videos covering the latest topics within five main categories: business, computer, safety, compliance, and finance clearly needs to offer a bespoke approach for each of its clients. The KnowledgeCity team collaborates with its customers to determine what specific skills or training their employees require and develops a customized, branded portal for each organization through a targeted learning management system. Client administrators can even upload content, design and designate learning paths by individual, level, or department, monitor uptake and progress, and arrange anytime access for employees.
“With work environments in constant flux, online training and education has become an increasingly pivotal tool for businesses and organizations of all sizes,” said Raynie Andrewsen, Head of Quality Control at KnowledgeCity. “By working in direct cooperation with every client, we are able to craft targeted eLearning solutions that are flexible, user-friendly, economical, and specifically tailored to every employee’s level, learning needs, and career path.”
New Technology
Today, many companies create strategic partnerships focused on IT solutions. Nearly every business needs certain software and hardware technology to operate efficiently. As globalization and digitization continue to infiltrate all sectors, choosing the right tech and the right tech partner is imperative.
When looking for a tech solution you want to find a partner that continues to invest in innovation, and are focused on communication and driving growth in your business. A long-term tech partner will get to know the intricacies of your business and be able to craft new tech solutions to better meet your needs. Because tech is constantly changing and evolving a good partner will be able to pivot quickly when needed.
For example, during the COVID-19 crisis, supply chain logistics were a nightmare. But companies that had a strong relationship with their provider were able to weather the storm better because many of the issues were due to lack of transparency and communication with supply chain providers.
“Traditional software solutions deployed in most enterprises only provide the ability to interact one level upstream and one level downstream with trading partners,” said Mark Brady, CEO of “One Network EnterprisesTM (ONE). “By the time disruption occurs in this limited view of the problem, it is often too late or very expensive in terms of lost revenues and increased costs to solve for the problems.
Because One Network offers predictive and prescriptive analytics in real time to provide accurate and up-to-the-nanosecond information their customers benefited not only from the top tech available, but a partner that focused on communication and transparency during a crisis.
Product Development
Collaboration is the lifeblood of business in 2021. Businesses need to ensure that they are providing the most valuable product to their customers, and let their customers experience the product before the sale happens. In this sense, the product teams MUST have a strong, collaborative relationship with customers and prospects to ensure that they fully understand the value exchange. When customers and prospects are approached by members of a product team in the spirit of learning and collaboration, they are much more eager to participate.
When you’re looking for a partner to play an integral role in product development, seek out a company that conducts initial discovery interviews to understand what needs to be done, regularly meets with your team throughout the process, and works to earn customer feedback during the design stage.
“The communication loop at each of these stages provides invaluable feedback to ensure that the company is actually building with the customers need,” said Dr. Jacob Burdis, Co-Founder and Head of Product & Strategy, a tech company focused on AI-powered language solutions.
In the 21st century going at it alone is a fool’s errand. Successful companies in all industries leverage and rely on synergistic businesses to reap rewards, revenue and growth that could never be achieved alone.