The Power of Partnerships
The following presentation slides were part of a presentation by Anand Verma, Founder & CEO and Ben Ingram, Innovation Lead at Brilliant Basics, delivered at the Barclays Tech Forum. Asked to speak on the power of partnerships, they unpacked what it means in an increasingly digital world and how to build successful foundation for cooperation.
Brilliant Basics and Infosys are nearly 3 years into what quickly proved to be a incredibly valuable partnership founded on brand values, collaboration and shared ambitions. Both parties have brought their unique identities to the table and nurtured relationships between people, clients and partners.


Partnership, by definition, doesn’t stipulate value generation or assume equal effort/gain by both parties. This is perhaps why the practice has assumed so many guises throughout the years.

One could argue that, for a long time, association would have been a better term. Brands often leaning on the power of celebrity to boost sales of products they had little hand in developing. Sometimes resulting in a loss or being divisive to one or more parties.
Recent years has delivered the age of the ‘collab’. Parties with strongly aligned values coming together to create long-lasting relationships. The best of these create value not just for the businesses involved, but also the customer.
Unfortunately, whilst these may be entered with the best intentions, not every partnership is as strong as we may initially have been led to believe.

Range Rover’s designers recently brought Victoria Beckham’s involvement in the Evoque design process of in to question.

In it’s most basic form, a partnership should bring together positive elements of each party involved to produce value for the end consumer/user. Whether that is always the case is sometimes open to debate.

True value is created when parties combine efforts to produce something not achievable alone. Coming together with the best of their own work to deliver ideas which can shape the future for the better.
Bringing together, if you will, a group of extraordinary people and organisations, each with their own superpowers. Amplifying one another to a state in which they create something far more powerful than the sum of their parts!
Multiplicity is, after all, more productive than addition.

These super-partnerships are, by nature or design, already starting to emerge. In keeping with the theme, we find ourselves in a world where FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google) and co are ‘frenemies’ who find themselves working in ‘collaboratition’ to define the very foundations of future societies.

We see, for example, a finance company who fortunately make cars. Capable of being autonomously ordered and driven by Uber. Catering to your every entertainment and communication need with Apple CarPlay. Arriving stocked with all your Amazon shopping.

But it’s not just a case of privately pursued innovation and product/service development. Open Banking is a prime example whereby the environment necessitates partnership. Customers and countries are demanding more collaboration from their favourite brands/platforms.
In an open-source world, walls are more likely to shut people out than keep them in.

Working at both speed and scale requires partnership across a number of fronts. Your internal teams, customers and often competitors can each help in delivering against your objectives. Monzo, for example, publishes their backlog for customers to vote for which feature is included in upcoming sprints.
Actions need not all be large but should be frequent. Respond to the world around you, particularly when actively engaged by customers. Be an active member of the community from which you wish to benefit and they will reward you in kind.

When it comes to choosing your partners we suggest following these 3 key principles (in this order!):
- Whatever you are bringing together must create value for the customer above and beyond what you are capable of delivering alone.
- The core values of all involved should be aligned. Change is the only certainty and will create pressure if not handled as a team.
- Be clear of the value you contribute, what it is worth and how you are rewarded for it.

From a design and delivery perspective, we think about 2 things when it comes to partnership.
- Set yourself up for technical success. Whether building or buying new platforms, look for solutions with strong APIs and customisable front-ends.
- Think about how your experience matches up to those of your partners. Start with the basics, is your interface language the same, does ‘swipe left’ mean the same thing in both environments?

At Brilliant Basics, our approach to this always starts with the user. Where the classic approach was business-led, we are always people first. We help our clients evolve in order to deliver products and services designed around their employees and customers.
With all this in mind, we have redefined partnership to something we feel more fitting to the pursuit of exponential value creation:

Authors:
Anand Verma is CEO and Founder at Brilliant Basics — Infosys’ design and innovation studio.
Ben Ingram is Innovation Lead at Brilliant Basics — Infosys’ design and innovation studio.
