Working Effectively with Business Partners

Overview/Description
 You have three options when you want to extend your base of business resources: Expand your company, acquire another company, or partner with a complimentary company. In many instances, partnering is the most advantageous choice. Creating an alliance confers the same kind of benefits as an acquisition--but with fewer risks and better definition. The key to creating a successful partnership lies in the ways in which you define the relationship with your partner. The more explicit the definitions, the more productive the alliance. Recent research indicates that the most successful business partnerships are built on openness, trust, and mutual goals. This course outlines the key elements that make up a good partnership and shows you how to combine and apply them to build an effective relationship with your business partners. The lessons will prepare you to set up and manage an ongoing business alliance that satisfies you and your partner and meets both your separate and shared objectives.

Target Audience
 Executive-level personnel with responsibility for setting up and managing business partnerships

Expected Duration
3.0 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Preparing for an Alliance

  • recognize advantages of preparing for an alliance.
  • identify characteristics of an alliance.
  • identify questions that should be asked to determine alliance readiness.
  • identify ethical principles of an alliance.

    • Building the Alliance

  • recognize the importance of building the alliance correctly.
  • identify characteristics of a good partnership.
  • choose a potential alliance partner based on the criteria for success in a given scenario.
  • identify characteristics of appropriate leaders for an alliance.
  • choose the appropriate leaders for an alliance in a given scenario.
  • choose team members based on the characteristics of effective team members in a given scenario.

    • Aligning the Companies

  • recognize benefits of aligning companies.
  • identify positive and negative indicators of parallel goals.
  • determine whether companies have appropriately related goals in a given scenario.
  • determine whether the alliance has an appropriate risk and reward balance in a given scenario.

    • Ensuring Success

  • recognize benefits of ensuring a successful alliance.
  • identify rules for negotiation.
  • apply the rules for negotiating successfully with a partner in a business scenario.

    • Course Number: COMM0195