When does your business need strategic partners? It’s simple, when there are opportunities, when you’re limited by your own resources, and when you’re thinking about the future. In short, you always need strategic partnerships.
Connections are key
The 21st century business environment is an ecosystem, not an arena. The smartest companies know that connecting with good partners is key to resilience and growth. Most often a strategic partnership sees two groups come together to combine services and offerings in a way that changes the game for both.
Xero is built on these relationships and here are three principles we follow:
Focus on customers
Successful companies are built around the experience of their customers. The best strategic partnerships add something positive to that experience. This can take many forms – new services or products, better delivery times, sharper help-desk response – but it must be there. “How will this benefit our customers?” should be the first question on the whiteboard – in large bold letters – when you’re considering a partnership.
Apple and IBM are both global leaders in their fields. They are combining Apple’s mobile devices with IBM’s big data capabilities to create the MobileFirst platform. The vision is to put powerful knowledge and analytics into the hands of business professionals with iPhones and iPads. IBM and Apple get to play to their respective strengths, and customers get enterprise-level data right in their hands.
Look for scale
A strategic partnership with the right company can help your business play on a different field. Scaling up usually requires capital, skills and brand exposure. Two companies working together can open doors like new sales channels, which in turn opens up markets that may not have been reachable before. This kind of step-change is incredibly powerful, and is where many of the true benefits of strategic partnerships appear.
Scale is something to look for at all sizes. If I ride a bicycle and you bake cookies, let’s deliver chocolate chip specials to everyone in town. If a volume reseller needs 10,000 units to make their channel worthwhile, let’s combine our factory outputs and go in together on marketing. Transformation, not just iteration, is the goal.
Choose the right partner
At Xero we put a lot of energy into finding the right running mates. The “strategic” aspect of a strategic partnership means you’re thinking about more than a one-off deal. The “partnership” side means you have to work together, communicate, and build something that goes beyond the words on a contract page. Clear objectives and alignment of resources are crucial, but beyond that you need trust and honesty. A good connection is hard to define, but you sure miss it when it’s not there.
A customer experience focus, seeking out game-changers, and building great relationships – three simple things that have helped Xero on our growth journey, and will drive your success too.
Colin Crowley is the Strategic Partnerships Manager at Xero, based in Auckland. Before coming to New Zealand he worked in sales and marketing roles with companies in the European Union, focusing on commercial account management and Software as a Service offerings.
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